Music-wise, there are a bunch of new features, including the following:
* Gapless playback
* Better Integration with the Zune Community
* Drag and drop Zune Cards onto your Zune
* Edit album and track information
But it's the addition of TV content that will steal the show (no pun intended). The Zune Marketplace even managed to snag NBC, which left iTunes last year over a pricing dispute. According to Microsoft's press release:
Starting today, consumers can choose from more than 800 episodes of popular television series to download and watch on their computer or their Zune, including COMEDY CENTRAL’s "South Park," FUNimation’s "Afro Samurai" and "Witchblade," MTV’s "The Hills," NBC’s "The Office," "Heroes" and "30 Rock," Nickelodeon’s "SpongeBob SquarePants," SCI FI Channel’s "Battlestar Galactica" and "Eureka," Starz’s "Ghost in the Shell" and "Street Fighter," Turner Broadcasting’s "Metalocalypse" and "Robot Chicken," UFC’s "The Ultimate Fighter" and "Fight Night," and VH1’s "Rock of Love" with Bret Michaels.
Each television show will be priced at 160 Microsoft Points per episode (approximately $1.99) at launch. With more than 3.5 million tracks, two-thirds of which are available in pure MP3 format, 800 television shows, 4,800 music videos and 3,500 audio and video podcasts, the Zune online store is a great place for consumers to find the entertainment content they want. In addition, the bright, full-color screen on every Zune portable media player delivers a high-quality video experience on the go.
"Partnering with Zune will allow us to develop innovative content offerings for their customers, including flexible pricing and packaging options beginning this fall," said JB Perrette, president of NBC Universal Digital Distribution. "NBC Universal is excited to offer our hit television shows to Zune customers."
Ironically, the $1.99 is the same that iTunes charges for most TV programs. At the time of the split between Apple and NBC last year, Apple said NBC wanted to increase the wholesale price of each episode so much that Apple would have to charge $4.99 per episode. It's definitely interesting that the pricing is the same.
No word on if / when movies / video rentals will be available on Zune Marketplace, but you have to figure that Microsoft will close any service gaps between iTunes and Zune Marketpalce eventually.
Will all this make a market share difference? Do I even have to ask? Still, for Zune aficianados, this is all good stuff.
Source: By Tech Ex
