Next Generation of Zune Players and Online Community Announced- Part 2
Connecting People Through Music
Launching first in beta, Zune Social, a beta online community Web site, gives people a place to share their music tastes, knowledge and experiences with others. Anyone can create a free, customizable Zune Card that automatically updates to reflect the music they are listening to on their Zune or with Zune software on their computer. The Zune Card shows most recently played tracks and highlights that person's all-time music favorites. Other members of Zune Social can play samples of the songs a user has been playing directly from a friend's Zune Card or link to Zune Marketplace, where they can buy or download the music. In a nod to the inherently social nature of music, Zune Social will eventually enable its members to place the Zune Card on today's most popular social networking sites, where it will continue to update automatically and show off what its owners are listening to.
In addition to creating a friends list, members of Zune Social can send song links and messages to each other, post comments on a friend’s profile page or on their favorite artist pages. They can discover new music by seeing what their friends are listening to, receiving recommendations from others in the community or by seeing what the top fans of artists they’re interested in are listening to. Each artist page will list the Zune Cards of the people who listen to that artist the most, making it easy for other Zune Social members to browse their recent playlists and discover new content they can sample, purchase or download with a Zune Pass.
Zune Marketplace and Software: Easier Than Ever to Discover New Music
The Zune Marketplace online store has been restocked and redesigned to make it even easier for people to find what they are looking for. The Zune software has also been completely redesigned with a new look and feel and lots of helpful new features. In addition to offering more than 3 million songs, the updated version of Zune Marketplace will launch with thousands of music videos for sale and over 1,000 of the top audio and video podcasts available for free. Consumers will also be able to choose from a selection of more than 1 million digital rights management (DRM)-free MP3s, which can be played with Zune or any other digital media player. A new, streamlined and highly visual layout makes it fun and easy to browse through the store, and a new integrated search feature gives consumers one view across the music, music videos and podcasts categories. By typing in an artist’s name or genre, users will see all relevant content that is either already in their collection or available in Zune Marketplace.
To let music fans try new music, Zune Marketplace continues to offer Zune Pass, which lets consumers download as much music as they want for a flat monthly rate of $14.99. To inspire Zune Pass subscribers, Zune Marketplace genre editors offer a range of playlists and promote new albums each week. Consumers can also choose to purchase music and music videos individually using Microsoft Points.
New Accessories Work Across the Product Line
Zune will also be offering a new line of accessories to help consumers get the most from their Zune content wherever they are — at home, in the car or on the go. To make it easy and affordable for existing Zune customers, original Zune accessories will work on new Zune devices and new accessories will also work with the Zune 30GB device. In addition to a selection of accessories from partners, eight new accessory options are available from Zune this fall:
— Zune Home AV Pack. Home Dock with three faceplates to accommodate each
Zune device, wireless remote, AC adaptor and composite AV output cable
(ERP $99.99)
— Zune Dock Pack. Home Dock with three faceplates to accommodate each
Zune device and AC adapter (ERP $49.99)
— Zune Car Pack. Redesigned FM transmitter/charger and dashboard grip pad
(ERP $79.99)
— Zune Cable Pack. Sync cable, composite AV output cable and audio cable
(ERP $39.99)
— Zune Premium Headphones (ERP $39.99)
— Zune Leather Case (ERP $49.99)
— Zune Sync Cable (ERP $19.99)
— Zune AC Adapter (ERP $29.99)
Check out part 1 of this article here
home computing, mp3 players, Zune, microsoft, online community
October 6th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
[...] MundoTech.net - El futuro a tu alcance |Todo en Computadoras,celulares,perifericos y muchas mas! wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt Connecting People Through Music Launching first in beta, Zune Social, a beta online community Web site, gives people a place to share their music tastes, knowledge and experiences with others. Anyone can create a free, customizable Zune Card that automatically updates to reflect the music they are listening to on their Zune or with Zune software [...]