Zune Pass expanding to U.K. and Europe, more nations get movie rentals and purchases

Microsoft has announced a new expansion for Zune services. The news is a touch bittersweet for me, since it didn't involve the arrival of Zune Pass in Canada. Maybe next time...

Those of you who live in the U.K., France, Italy, and Spain, however, can now enjoy the Zune Pass music subscription service for £8.99 or 9.99 Euros per month. That's only a tad pricier than the $14.99 U.S. residents pay for all-you-can-eat music via Zune. The "keep 10 MP3s per month" option remains U.S. only, unfortunately.

Those four countries -- along with Germany -- can also now buy music via Zune, and movie rentals and purchases have been extended to even more countries. Here's how the video expansion breaks down:

• Rentals: U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
  
  
• Purchase: U.K., France, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand

This is great news for anyone who owns an Xbox 360 or plans on purchasing a Windows Phone 7 device -- but it's also good news for Windows users in general. There's plenty of good content to be had on Zune, and it never hurts to have one more option for purchasing downloadable music and video content.

Hit up the official Microsoft press release for full details.

Tags: europe, expansion, itunes, marketplace, u.k., zune