About this time of year last year Microsoft announced the Zune HD and new Zune software for the PC and I would expect the company to announce improvements to their Zune service sometime soon. In this article I am going to share with you some of the ideas I have as to what we might expect from Microsoft.
With 90% of Microsoft does this year being “all in” with the cloud I believe that most of what might be new for Zune will actually be as services within Zune.net and not necessarily a load of new features for Zune connected devices.
Free streaming of music you already own
One of my main hopes is that Zune, as a service, will identify all the music a user has in their collection, via the Zune PC Software or integrated experiences on their other devices. The music that they have on their devices could then be matched to the same music within the Zune library to allow playback of their music wherever Zune is via Zune.net or integrated experiences. (I don’t know much about the music service Lala which Apple bought last year but I think this service did a similar thing.)
I know that the Zune Pass allowed users to stream music from the Zune library but this costs money and if you own a track but don’t happen to have it on your PC or phone why should you have to pay money to stream it. (I know it’s not pay-per-track but a monthly subscription.) Wouldn’t it be great if Zune offered functionality to stream the music you own to any of your devices for free, this would surely make it an attractive music service for many people. This idea also helps with the restriction on mobile devices of limited storage as I know I can only hold a fraction of my music on my phone but if I could stream any of my music via Zune.net it would be great. People do love free things after all and it is likely people would like the streaming model to such a degree that they decide to purchase a Zune Pass too.
Share playlists across Zune.net
Another idea I have had for some time is to share playlists created on one’s PC or device on Zune.net so that the playlists are accessible wherever the user may be. Seeing as nearly all the music in one’s playlist should be in the Zune library on Zune.net it should be an easy thing to do and would allow users to not have to sync their devices so often with their PC.
Another positive of this would be to allow users to share their own playlist with their friends either on Zune.net, Facebook or Twitter. If a friend had a Zune Pass then they would be able to listen to the entire playlist (so long as all tracks were in the Zune library) but if a user didn’t have a Zune Pass then using my first idea they could still listen to the music that they owned which also appeared in the playlist.
It would also be good to access playlists on the Xbox 360 which will be getting access to the Zune music library later this year and by sharing a user’s playlist through the whole Zune service/network would be excellent.
As good as showing how many times users have listened to an artist or song I think that socially interactive music needs to also be about sharing music and not just stats.
Bringing Zune to Windows Live
Over the past year Microsoft have done a great job of integrating more into Windows Live such as Office and soon to be Windows Phone but there are still a few products that Microsoft offer that aren’t in Windows Live. I think Zune could be integrated into Windows Live through SkyDrive.
I have yet to really need access to Office in the cloud, although it’s an extremely useful feature, as I don’t often need to edit it there. There have been times when it has been useful to check an Office document in the browser though and also to use the online storage to access the document from anywhere. I think music could be treated in the same way, after all Windows Live now provides excellent viewing capabilities for most things other than music.
I know it would be great to have access to music that isn’t on the Zune servers by storing it in Windows Live SkyDrive. But, more than that wouldn’t it also be great if you could upload any music to SkyDrive that Zune couldn’t find in its library and then seamlessly stream music from there just as easily as it is to stream music from Zune.net.
I am not sure technically how possible it would be to listen to a playlist (my second idea) and to have Zune stream music from its servers when it can and then to stream music from SkyDrive if it didn’t have the music all without any interruption to the listen. It’s certainly something I think would be a great way to combine a music service of a few million tracks with the breath of music people actually own.
Another positive this would have would be to download music owned by a user to their devices which might be very useful for some devices which might not always have internet connectivity so can’t always stream music from the Zune service. Windows Live Mesh could potentially be used to sync the songs that are stored on SkyDrive access all of a user’s PCs. The sync software could also share the Zune application data across multiple PCs such as the chosen background used on the software.
My first three ideas try to combine the music a user owns with the streaming functionality of Zune whilst not allowing people to individual tracks. Obviously record labels would not want users sharing tracks but I don’t see why they would have a problem with users sharing playlists with each other and listening to music they already own or via the Zune Pass.
More integration between Bing and Zune
The last time I predicted anything for Zune it came true within weeks, I’m not sure I will quite so on the money this time but I’ve already had some more ideas about my last prediction. A few months ago Microsoft integrated the Zune service into Bing to allow track previews within search listings (Its only in the US at the minute though). However I think this idea can be expanded upon, in a financial way.
Zune does a pretty good job of selecting related artists within the Zune PC software and on Zune.net but perhaps it could bring a similar functionality to the Bing search listings too. There must be so many related artists and songs to the music searched on Bing that it would make sense that Bing could suggest music in the same way it sells website suggestions.
I know this would distort the accuracy of the music suggestion system but currently Microsoft has the only search engine that offers such great music integration within search results and the company stands to make some money from this. It might also encourage record labels to take more notice of Zune (they are always keen to increase sales through adverts) which could help to increase the music library Microsoft currently has.
The best way to implement this would be to have two areas on the right of search results one where companies have paid to have their related music shown and where Zune shows related music. Therefore allowing Microsoft to make more money and allowing it to keep the accuracy of Zune’s suggestion system intact. This could also exist on Zune.net but I think it best on Bing.
Zune on more platforms
I believe over the past year Zune really has become an entertainment service, before then it only really existed on Zune devices and the PC. By the end of the year Zune will be accessible on the PC, Zune devices, KIN devices, Windows Phone 7 devices and on the TV through the Xbox 360 (this will be all areas of Zune and not just films).
I think that to really show how much of an entertainment platform Zune is Microsoft need to take it to other platforms. We have seen that Microsoft is not nearly so averse to bringing other services to competing platforms such as Bing on the iPhone and Android and I think an official Zune app for both mobile platforms would be great. I reckon Mac users would also love to access Zune via an application and not just Zune.net.
If Microsoft can improve the functionality within Zune and bring it to many platforms then it really does stand a chance of fighting iTunes and even reducing any impact Google’s much rumoured music service might have on the entertainment distribution market.
Additions to Zune device software
If Microsoft is too add any of my idea to the Zune service then they will need to add some new functionality to the Zune software and integrated experiences. There would need to be a way to created and share playlists through Zune.net and with friends on social networks. I think perhaps that the Zune software should feature Facebook integration to “like” songs and artists. There would also need to be an easy way to upload music to Windows Live SkyDrive both within the software and on SkyDrive.
I also think that Microsoft need to allow the exact same functionality that is found within the Zune PC software on all platforms that Zune is available including Zune.net. It would be great to create playlists in the browser just as easily as in the software but also to be able to create SmartDJ playlists anywhere. I don’t think there will be much new within the Zune PC Software as people have already had a look at 4.7 which seems to really only add support for Windows Phone 7.
Apple was expected to make some major announcements last week with iTunes and many feel they feel short. Microsoft, on the hand, is not expected to make any such announcements but could easily stun many people if they were to only introduce a few of these ideas; fingers crossed.
With Zune going international within the next few weeks (I can’t wait!) I think we could expect an announcement from the Zune team at anytime.
Not having full access the the Zune experience might mean I wrong about some things or that they already exist, if so I am sorry but that’s Microsoft fault for taking so long to roll out Zune to the world.
