Microsoft announced the new Spring release to their Zune Marketplace website and Zune software application. Finally, Zune owners will be able to purchase television shows playable on both PCs and the Zune media player. Users will be able to choose from over 800 episodes of popular television shows ranging from South Park to The Hills, to Heroes, to my personal favorite - Battlestar Galactica. Each television show has a price of 160 Microsoft Points which is roughly 1.99 an episode.
Zune also expanded the feature set of the Zune online music community with several new features. Leveraging the Zune Pass subscription program, Zune owners will be able to follow what their friends are listening to and have the new music automatically downloaded and sync’d to their respective Zune players. This lets you follow what your friends are listening to without necessarily committing to purchasing a track or album ahead of time.
Here’s a list of the new features from the press release:
- Syncing Zune Cards to a device. Consumers simply drag and drop Zune Cards from friends to a Zune device and get updates on what friends are listening to every time they sync. If the song is available with Zune Pass, subscribers automatically have the full tracks on their Zune while nonsubscribers have full album information and artwork. If consumers hear something they like, they can add it to their collection with one click. Next time the user syncs his or her Zune, he or she will be asked to confirm the purchase.
- Enhanced friends search. Consumers now have the ability to add their name, location and bio to their Zune music community profile, making it easier than ever to find their friends.
- Instant friends. The true power of the Zune online music community is unlocked when friends are added and consumers can follow the music they’re listening to. Now, when new Zune owners join the Zune online music community, they’ll find the top music editors from the Zune Marketplace team already added to their friends list, giving them a head start in finding new music.
- Artist and album reviews. Inside the Zune music community, members have the ability to write and post their own reviews for artists and albums, providing another community-driven feature to support the exploration and discovery of music. The music community helps to find and recommend the best music.
- Reputation badges. Now members of the Zune community can earn badges that are displayed on their Zune Card showing they’re passionate fans or active members.
- Windows Live connections. Windows Live Messenger contacts will now be able to see what users are listening to via the Zune software. Clicking on the tracks displayed in the “Now Playing” feature will connect the Windows Live Messenger friend directly to that artist’s page on the Zune Social.
Finally, Microsoft added several new features to the Zune software application including:
- Auto playlists. Users can create an auto playlist that updates itself automatically as new music is added.
- Browsing videos. Consumers can browse their video collection by genre and series, plus they can preview videos before they play them on full screen.
- Editing album and track information. Users are able to edit track or album information (metadata) quickly via multi-select and drag-and-drop. The advanced metadata editing features make it easy to edit multiple tracks or survey albums and artist information.
- Organizing collections. In addition to sorting by artist or album, consumers can now sort by genre. While browsing by genre they can further sort music by artist, album or release year.
- Gapless playback. Consumers will now be able to listen to an album without the brief gap between tracks, both on their Zune and in the Zune software. This is a must-have for live-concert recordings and compilation albums.
- Syncing groups. Zune software now syncs to multiple Zune players simultaneously. Users can prepare which content on their computer to sync even when their Zune isn’t connected. Consumers can create custom sync groups for music, pictures and videos.
- Zune reminders. Experience is improved when a Zune player’s memory is nearing capacity, via an easy-to-use tool.
While this release is definitely a step in the right direction, it’s still a bit disappointing that not all of the content found on the Xbox Live Marketplace is available on the Zune Marketplace - notably movie rentals. Yet despite this glaring hole, the new updates should bring the Zune somewhat closer to some of the capabilities found on the iPod and iTunes.
[Check it out via ZuneSphere]
Technorati Tags: Zune software, Zune Marketplace, TV shows
