Zune 3.0 Update

Months back, I got a first-generation 30GB Microsoft Zune through club.live.com. It’s Microsoft’s casual game site, designed solely to promote the Live search engine. Play the games, get the tickets, get free crap. There’s one particular game that I can blow through in about 2 minutes and get 25 tickets. After many months of doing this, I cashed in and got the Zune. The price was definitely right, and it’s a nice little device. Certainly removes any need for me to get an iPod, which I really, really don’t want anyway.

Microsoft just released a software and firmware upgrade on Tuesday, and all around, this should be what allows Microsoft to take a small chunk out of the Apple iPod armor. A lot of it is optimized and improved if you have a Zune pass ($15 for unlimited song access as long as you have a pass), but the functionality is there for everyone.

On the firmware front…

• Games. It’s a small touch, and it drains the battery life with new speed and efficiency, but I have a 25-40 minute commute on a bus or train to work. Zoning out with music on and playing poker is fantastic.
• Clock. It’s a tiny little digital thing in the upper right corner, but it was sorely needed.
• Device-based song buying. I don’t have a Zune pass, but this update is increasingly making me feel that it might be worthwhile. If you do, there’s now a couple different ways you can find some new music. The first, most direct way is to search for it by name. That’s what the Marketplace button allows you to do. You can also browse top song and album lists, and download straight to the player. You can also tag songs for download if you happen to hear something you like on the player’s FM tuner. I’ve read this doesn’t work quite as well as one would hope, mostly because the formatting isn’t perfect on station tags, but the idea is a great one. Radio is still how most people discover new music, and this lets people immediately tag songs they like to be added to their collection.

On the software side:

• MixView. The big addition is MixView, which presents a graphical take on song and artist relationships. It’s a lot of fun to use, and if you have a Zune pass, it can be a great way to quickly expand your collection. Starting on any artist, song, album or Zune user, related items pop up around that item. These can be other songs by the same artist, artists who influenced that artists, artists who are influenced by that artist, etc. It lets you pretty quickly jump from point to point and find new stuff fast. I guess it is comparable to Genius, which shipped with the new version of iTunes (which I am yet to use, because I kind of hate iTunes*), and that the general consensus is that Genius has a slightly more standardized recommendation engine – more consistent quality recommendations – while MixView combines some quality, some boneheaded, and some mind-blowing recommendations. And MixView is prettier.
• Channels and Picks. Recommendation-based content that you can subscribe to in order to find new stuff. I think one is for podcasts, which I may try out, but the other is for songs, and only works with a pass.

Despite the renewed focus on a pass, the new stuff is definitely worthwhile. The pass really is a good deal, too, if you can spend an hour or so a month finding new music you want. There have been rumors about an iTunes subscription system for awhile now; I’m shocked they haven’t pulled the trigger on it yet. I do understand the aversion to music subscriptions, but I think there is a market for people who will spend a little bit of time finding new stuff they like, new releases and old. I’m not quite at the point where I would do it (I have enough auto-charging subscription services in Netflix and Tivo), but I definitely think it would be worth the money.

* I do. I hate iTunes. It has become something that I begrudgingly use, because of all the instant-access music stores – iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, etc. – it has the best selection by far. But it’s just such a pain in the ass. If you’re an Apple person, it’s fine. The songs you download from iTunes will play perfectly well on your iPod, iPhone, iMac, iDock and fit perfectly into your little iLife. But I'm not. I have a PC and a Zune, cause the price was a helluva lot closer to right on those, and I wanted a larger selection of software (yes, I admit it. That means games). So if I use iTunes, which I inevitably have to every so often, I immediately burn and re-rip whatever it is I bought. Again, pain in the ass. The beauty of MP3s was that it seemed like we had finally hit a nice, decent-quality universal format that everyone could agree on. Then Apple had to mess it up. Granted, other people have jumped on the DRM bandwagon since, but Apple’s iTunes DRM was the one that really forced people to accept this as a standard.