Microsoft has recently announced a new music subscription plan for owners of its Zune player, which would allow them to keep 10 tracks per month and add them to their permanent collection. Currently, the Zune Pass subscription service gives consumers on-demand access to millions of tracks for $14.99 per month. Microsoft said that it has signed agreements with the big four music labels – EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group – and also with a few independent distributors.

A Zune Pass would allow the user to download music and the downloaded content can be shared among up to three PCs and three Zune devices, Microsoft also said. Zune Pass subscribers can retain digital rights management (DRM)-free MP3 tracks from Sony BMG and UMG. The tracks can be burned to a CD or moved to other devices even if the subscription ends, the company said. Folding permanent music downloads into a subscription music service also helps chip away at consumer fears of watching their music collection brick upon missing a monthly payment. Therefore, if a user pays $5 each month for his subscription and $10 for 10 permanent song downloads, the proposition sounds less risky.

Online music retailers, such as eMusic, may feel some pressure from Microsoft’s infringement on its monthly MP3 download subscription model. eMusic offers substantially better prices, as low as $0.33 per track, for its monthly download allotments, but it does not have the major label content and full song streams of Napster, Rhapsody and Zune. If Zune Pass finds traction, it may force MP3 retailers such as eMusic to retool their plans.