Microsoft scouting exclusive video content for Zune

Now that the Zune's most vocal (and deranged) proponent has apparently jumped ship, Microsoft is looking for some other method of gaining market share. The most recent report on reinvigorating the portable media player has Redmond execs looking low and high at talent agencies and production companies in hopes of "licensing exclusive original video programming." According to Richard Winn, director of entertainment development at Zune, the company is searching for "non-conventional programming that can capitalize on the device's social networking platform." Details are unsurprisingly scant at the moment, but Winn also noted that the outfit was looking for something that "iTunes or any competing service" couldn't provide. We hear Vongo's going for a song... just sayin'.

[Homeboy @ Aug 13th 2008 7:05AM]

Don't care for overpriced exclusive video content since I use t0rrentz! A good way for the old geezers at MS to gain market share is by adding a clock, calender, some proper games, RSS reader and other nice little applications so that the Zune isn't just a plain music player.

[Daza @ Aug 13th 2008 7:53AM]

I own and love my Zune, but you raise some pretty valid points. The only missed feature from my iPod is the use of a clock and alarm. I'd use the timer to play music for 30 min then turn off (before I slept) then use the alarm to play a custom playlist when I wake up. Worked well!

Calendar is less useful, but it wouldn't hurt. Games, never played them, but I like how Microsoft are embracing the developer community and allowing them to make games for it if they wish. And why not add an RSS reader, I doubt I'd use it that much, but it's another "why not?".

Microsoft, I really appreciated the Zune 2.0 upgrade -- really, but please consider adding a freaking clock with a sleep/awake timer.

[Jonathan @ Aug 13th 2008 9:27AM]

I was reading some Zune forums a while ago about the clock debate (seriously, there's a debate). Some people were just so *against* a clock saying things like "if you want a clock, go buy the other music player."

I couldn't believe it. Who can be *against* clocks?

I've got a Zune and I love it. I would like a clock for the same reason Daza wants one.

[and I think MS would be in a better position with the Zune if they just opened it up to drag-and-drop divx loading]

[Ste4mpunk @ Aug 13th 2008 11:01AM]

I completely agree. I enjoy my Zune very much,
but forgive me if i'm missing something crucial, but why cant i fast forward through a song? That is a fundamental piece that upsets me.
If they could be "inventive" and figure out more ways to use the wifi rather than the stupid social bit, I'd be more than happy to use it that much more often.

[Radiation @ Aug 13th 2008 12:55PM]

The funniest part of the Zune clock debate is the fact that it is such a miniscule little thing that Microsoft can't get right. Now compare Zune to the powerhouse features of iPhone or Touch and not having a clock seems down right ridiculous. Zune is and always will be an utter failure, content be damned.

[Ellianth @ Aug 13th 2008 12:40PM]

Some of you should read manuals when you buy a device... I've had a zune for 7 days now and I instantly knew how to fast forward. Try pressing AND HOLDING the -> button. This also works for videos...
(that was for you Ste4mpunk)

As for the wifi, you are aware that the zune can sync wirelessly, that's more than the social social thing.?

While i do agree that there should be a clock, i don't miss it very much. I just think some of you who say you have zunes really don't (Ste4mpunk). You love your zune so much and didn't bother to read the small 5 page manual? Come on, the pages were small and consisted mostly of large images. And then all 5 pages weren't even used by the English manual... How could you not know how to fast forward?

As for adding too much functionality, do you want them to put a million buttons on the device? 7 buttons can only go so far.

[Mark @ Aug 13th 2008 4:48PM]

wow, a nice big argument about a currently defunct point. The zune has a clock, a calendar and games along with several other useful things including an IM client. Here, see for yourself: http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/applications-180/
http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/download-completed-games-174/
So what exactly are you talking about?

[Mark @ Aug 13th 2008 4:49PM]

wow, a nice big argument about a currently defunct point. The zune has a clock, a calendar and games along with several other useful things including an IM client. Here, see for yourself: http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/applications-180/
http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/download-completed-games-174/
So what exactly are you talking about?

[Alex @ Aug 13th 2008 7:10AM]

Yeah, great idea...put the failing and desperate Microsoft with an already bank ridden company which had a business plan to steal and run with no remorse and uphold to their supposed 2-week trial bullcrap.

Vongo took my 10 bucks gosh darnit, and Microsoft aint grilling me any time soon either. Not after that $249 they already took over a randomly restarting piece of plastic.

[bob @ Aug 13th 2008 7:14AM]

but what company wants its exclusive material seen by a million odd people when they could have 100million potential customers?

[fred @ Aug 13th 2008 7:41AM]

Why write programs for a platform of less than 30 million when you can write for one of over a billion?

[Paul Dullford @ Aug 13th 2008 7:23AM]

"Zune: A Guided Tour"!
"Before you start using your Zune, please note the irregular squircle below the screen. Please be assured that the irregularity of the squircle is merely an element to enhance your listening experience."
"Before you share your media via Wi-Fi, please note that Microsoft is not liable for any legal action taken against you by the RIAA or the MPAA."

[neofolklore @ Aug 13th 2008 7:28AM]

turning the Zune sideways! now THATS innovative :)

[iEye @ Aug 13th 2008 7:30AM]

I just installed Ubuntu on a female friend's broken Laptop...

[David @ Aug 13th 2008 10:40AM]

She will always be just a Friend....

[BobTurbo @ Aug 13th 2008 7:39AM]

All of these features are more useful in a phone. The best selling mp3 player is the simple one that does nothing else other than play music. All of these competitors trying to beat Apple by adding features are clueless.

[Jay @ Aug 13th 2008 8:28AM]

Like the iPod Touch? Oh wait, that's not a phone either

[BobTurbo @ Aug 13th 2008 10:12AM]

And isn't that successful either.

[Iain @ Aug 14th 2008 5:28PM]

It's strange, because with almost every generation of iPod released, there are people like yourself who basically (metaphorically) sit there with their fingers in their ears, singing 'La la la' at the top of their voices.

It was the same with colour screens, then video - these were features that were unnecessary according to the majority of 'Pod owners back when Apple only offered monochrome screens, or colour screens but only photo support.
Yet, as soon as Cupertino decides it's necessary, these nay-sayers melt into the background, no longer adamantly insisting that the features now fanfared by Apple are surplus to requirements.
Funny that.

Anyway, yeah, forgive my cynicism if I choose not to believe you to be anything more than just another fanboy but whilst the words you're singing may be different, the tune is basically the same.

[fred @ Aug 13th 2008 7:39AM]

4 trolls and a guy who psted somthing completely off-topic.

Banner day for the people simply cant stand the idea that a choice in mp3 players of all things actually exist.

[bob @ Aug 13th 2008 10:12AM]

i wasnt trolling i was stating a fact that only an idiot would give exclusive content to such a low selling player (and doesnt the smaller zune not play back video either? - might be wrong no zunes here in uk) if you owned a production company wouldnt you want your content available in as many places as possible? not 1 company that has already locked out its own drm video and audio ironically named playforsure?

[coffee @ Aug 13th 2008 11:05AM]

"the smaller zune not play video?"

really, at least have a slight bit of knowledge about what you're commenting on. Might save us all some time.

[WixosTrix @ Aug 13th 2008 10:02PM]

well i think the point of offer exclusives is to bring in more users as well as benefit the early adopters. so a production company would understand that and would know how to create a deal that they could profit from even if it doesnt go as well as planned. plus they'd know the risk. thats what business is about, risk. theres no guarantee anything will fail. and i dont understand why ppl say zune is a failure, when it has a constant user base. it takes time to grow when u enter and already competitive market.

[Julian Bond @ Aug 13th 2008 7:42AM]

How about just making a better portable music player and forgetting about all this iTunes nonsense. Appeal to those of us who bought a 160Gb Classic iPod because there isn't any alternative and who never go anywhere near iTunes if we can possibly help it.

[Adderz @ Aug 13th 2008 8:15AM]

So they want content that no one is likely to have seen or heard of before or even care about..and want everyone with a zune to buy it?

That plan is flawless

[Nick @ Aug 13th 2008 8:37AM]

Big thumbs up to Microsoft for a great product. I gladly sold off my ipod that was given to me for a 80gb Zune.

The Zune Marketplace are superior and I've not found anything missing.

Sound quality hands down is better on the Zune.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Aug 13th 2008 12:18PM]

Problem is, content needs to be used to make a popular device 'sticky' with its users.

Content alone is not going to massively increase Zune sales, unless they somehow get exclusives with several networks/studios/record labels/whatever.

Also, I guarantee that you cannot tell the sound difference between and iPod and a Zune.

[Jonathan @ Aug 13th 2008 8:43AM]

What about Dimitri Martin? I know he was doing shorts for Vista for a while and his Clearification series was great.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Clearification

[Biomech @ Aug 13th 2008 8:48AM]

I really like the Zune's look and UI, more so than any iPod, it's the DRM stuff that keeps me away from it.

(as far as I know they still limiting the number of times you can listen to a shared song, right?)

[coffee @ Aug 13th 2008 11:14AM]

good point, that's why I just use Amazon's DRM free downloads, throw them all in my music folders and sync them to my Zune or a few other players we have. My son puts them on his computer to sync up to his iPod.

Zune software got a lot better since the first version, so I have no problem with it. I would prefer to use WMP, but they want to integrate the social and all that, so that's their prerogative.

The player itself is excellent, as most who actually use it will confirm. The interface is great. I don't really care for "exclusive content", I just want to be able to access any song/video/album I want.

If Microsoft wants to sell more Zunes, maybe they should advertise it like Apple does the iPod/iPhone.

[Joshua Walters @ Aug 13th 2008 4:15PM]

But how many times can you share a song on an iPod?

I hate when people use that as an excuse. Dont you understand, they HAVE to restrict the number of plays on shared content, otherwise everyone would share content and no one would buy things. It would be a P2P music player, and Im sure the record companies wouldnt be happy with that.

DRM isnt all bad. A vast majority of content in the marketplace is DRM free. Just try to keep in mind that you shouldnt be complaining about how a feature is limited, when that same feature isnt in any competing products.

Its not like the iPod allows you to share unlimited music.

Personally, I love my Zune. I just filled my 30gb, and I didnt even have to think twice about whether I wanted a Zune80, or an 160gb iPod. I knew right away that I wanted a Zune.

[Mark @ Aug 13th 2008 4:54PM]

to expand on the last guy's comment: you can also share music with friends if you have a zune by connecting it to their computer and doing a reverse sync(built into the software) whereas on the ipod you have to go through all kinds of hell

[Biomech @ Aug 23rd 2008 3:12PM]

Yeah, I'm not saying iPods are any better. My friend said he can't take music off his Touch and has to go through a lot to do so... so that's a pretty huge drawback for me.

[Chris @ Aug 13th 2008 9:02AM]

What music video is playing there?

[fischziege @ Aug 13th 2008 9:22AM]

i would love to know that, too

[EpicWinrar @ Aug 13th 2008 9:58AM]

All That Remains - The Air That I Breathe

[gstar @ Aug 13th 2008 3:16PM]

It comes preloaded on the Zune 80.

[tcc3 @ Aug 13th 2008 9:14AM]

How about they scout out some exclusive programming content? The software is a joke, people. They have the best HD based player on the market with substandard software. Part of the reason to not use Media Player was so they wouldnt be tied to the Media Player Dev cycle. I have yet to see the benefit of this. We'll see media player 12 before the Zune team gets their act together.

I dont care much for the clock and alarm, but its easy to fix and people want it. Fix the media center support. I should be able to leverage the media center sync features instead of manually selecting tv shows to sync. Fixing the video organization would be nice, perhaps a folder view? The list goes on.

Its sad to see them do so well keeping Apple honest, only to stumble and do a face plant so close to a competitive product.

[DG @ Aug 13th 2008 9:40AM]

You're sure right. The Zune 1.0 software wasn't great, but at least it worked the same as WMP10 and was actually functional. I still use WMP10 to sort my music, and really only use Zune 2.0 to set up Podcasts and move the music over.

It's a real drag, and one of the things that keeps me from recommending the Zune to others. And considering how infrequently the Zune software is updated, I would really like it if I could use WMP10 to load music instead.

[Chuck @ Aug 13th 2008 10:43AM]

What's wrong with the Zune software? For me, it's much snappier than iTunes, and less 'spreadsheet' fugly. But I cannot say enough about how slow iTunes is. 3.5 Gigs of ram with no other apps running should make any app feel spry. iTunes doesn't.

Of course, I use my Zune software much more than iTunes, so I may be missing something. Just my opinion people, not flame war bait. I honestly want to know what people dislike about the software.

[tcc3 @ Aug 13th 2008 5:01PM]

Its all flash and no utility. I'm not an itunes fan either, but happen to think that MS finally got Media Player right on the 11th try.

Untill recently Zune couldn't change the metadata at all. Its still not as usefull as WMP11.

Video selecting sucks. This could be simplified by adding the ability to have either video playlists or a folder view for videos.

The library view is a cluttered mess. Let me pick the default view (by song, by artist, by album, etc) so i can use the full screen to see my collection.

There would be less pink if Hello Kitty exploded on my desktop.

My biggest beef is what I said above - no proper media center support. I bought the thing over iPod in part for Media center sync. I should be able to tell it to sync all of a show, or sync newest ep, etc. The old Portable media centers (the ancestor of zune) could do this. So can Windows Mobile. So why do I have to manually select media center shows to sync?

TV shows cannot be sorted by show only by episode name. That makes it a bitch to sync Media Center manually; see above.

I could probably go on, but I avoid the software as much as possible. I use WMP11 for anything useful, and use Zune as a glorified sync utility.

[Patrick #2 @ Aug 13th 2008 9:39AM]

Hey Nick, how's the weather today over there in Redmond?

Why don't y'all start making better products so Apple will finally have some viable competition?

[Ghost1991 @ Aug 13th 2008 9:56AM]

Look I understand that Apple has a very a successful line of products going on for them, but to imply that they're the leader in ALL of the categories is a bit biased and maybe....untrue?

Of course I replied with the interpretation that you are talking about all Apple products and not just iPods. Even then, IMO Apple does not have the best player but the most popular.

[tonybullard @ Aug 13th 2008 9:53AM]

Does anyone actually buy a product because of exclusive content? I mean, I guess is sometimes works for Consoles...but an mp3 player?

The way I see it, a person who picks their mp3 player because of what content they can get on it, IS NOT the kind of person who would support your product, and tell their friends about it. It seems like it would be the kind of person who would call it an iPod, no matter what the brand.

Seems to me like they're going after the wrong market. They need to be the answer to all of iPod's shortcomings, cause that's the only way they're going to gain any ground.

[Shenzhov @ Aug 13th 2008 10:01AM]

Until Microsoft throws out the Zune software and the hard to navigate Zune store, they are going no where with the music player.

There were music players out there before the ipod. Apple does a great job at software and that's what put the ipod where it is today.

It goes back to what I've said before, Microsoft only cares about itself and it's business partners, not about the end user. Until they understand it's all about the user experience, they will continue to lose market share on all platforms they make.

The Zune is not a bad piece of hardware, but the desktop software blows chunks. Exclusive content will not help the Zune. You can put a bow tie on a pig and you still have a pig.

[Squish @ Aug 13th 2008 10:28AM]

Honestly I think the Zune s/w is much better than the iTunes s/w. Things are much easier to accomplish on the Zune s/w than iTunes'. I'm not saying it's impossible to do it on iTunes...just more difficult. Plus the more colorful interface on the Zune s/w is more pleasing to the eyes. But iPods are made to be simple....as the s/w is.

I wouldn't know what that says about the user, though. Everyone that I know that is technically inclined actually prefers the Zune over the iPod if only they could get it to function on Linux =P.

[Kyle @ Aug 13th 2008 10:56AM]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/23/zune-guy-fed-up-with-zune-seeks-to-cover-up-tattoos/

Don't do it yet Zune Guy!

[Kyle @ Aug 13th 2008 11:00AM]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/23/zune-guy-fed-up-with-zune-seeks-to-cover-up-tattoos/

Don't do it yet Zune Guy!

[Kyle @ Aug 13th 2008 11:01AM]

Sorry for double post..I hate myself..

[Jubei @ Aug 13th 2008 11:24AM]

Exclusive content? So what MS is trying to do is lock out Apple from obtaining content for their devices. Genius. So instead of selling movies in the millions through Apple, MS will convince Hollywood giants that they can sell 20 to 50 copies through the Zune per year. Sheer genius indeed.