So, what will you be able to do with the new Zune?

These include the ability to buy music over wi-fi, a new feature that lets you buy songs you hear on FM radio, casual games, and some music recommendation features — which Apple's iTunes/iPods could also be getting tomorrow. We also hear that Microsoft will be lowering the price of its Zune Pass subscription service — from $14.99/month — sooner than later.

There's some appeal to those features, although if Apple announces a Pandora-killing music recommendation service of its own at 1 ET, Zune's take on the service will seem less interesting for sure. The ability to buy songs from the radio seems to fit well with the player's built-in tuner, but one wonders just how many people actually use that function of the player, and whether or not this new feature will result in some heretofore-unseen market being tapped in a big way. Seeing how well the whole Zune campaign has gone so far, there's really no reason to doubt their business model.

Zune Gets New Features That Won't Help Sell Zunes [Silicon Valley Insider]

Of course, any club you can get into in Los Angeles isn't cool enough for you to be there, so Zune L.A. is invite only. And look at the entertainment you've missed so far:

At the christening, Zune wooed all manner of movers and shakers in the art, music and event-planning world with mojitos, music and visuals. Eastside promoter and Temporary Spaces founder Sean Patrick DJ'd (plugged into a Zune player, naturally) across from a custom light installation (an "interactive chandelier") from noted London-based artist Moritz Waldemeyer....

Zune L.A. has hosted private events for groups such as CAA, and for now its offerings will remain invitation-only. Musicians such as Janelle Monae and former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford have already performed at Zune L.A., and former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker will launch his line of New Era hats this month.

Its next event, on Tuesday, is a screening of "Joy Division: The Documentary" (followed by a 90-minute DJ set from Joy Division bass player Peter Hook).

Former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford! And Travis Barker's hats. Man, I miss L.A. so much.

You might assume that Zune L.A. is just another trendy venue with an open bar and a bunch of semi-famous people milling about. You would be wrong.

Chris Stephenson, Zune's general manager of global marketing, calls the space "a clubhouse for the creative community in L.A. — a place for people to gather and connect that's designed for creative expression."..

Says Stephenson: "We envision Zune L.A. as a cultural hub."

So why is Microsoft debuting this concept in L.A., and not in Seattle or New York?

"We wanted to pick somewhere where we could not only feed off the cultural energy of the city but collaborate with the creative community to add to it," he says. "L.A. had the right mix of entertainment gravitas and growing cultural relevance within art and design."

Gravitas and cultural relevance, of course! How did I miss that? I just figured you guys were trying to figure out a way to develop some buzz for your player in the shadow of the iPhone. My mistake.

Zune gets in tune with L.A. [LA Times]

(A quick caveat: I contribute freelance work to the iTunes Store. That being said, I didn't understand the appeal of a less functional, more expensive version of the iPod I already own even before I made any money from Apple, and I'm not even a Mac guy.)

• Zune claims ownership of weekly "set of exclusive video podcasts from Hot Chip's most recent UK tour," but word of the iTunes Festival is the first thing you see on the band's Web site.
• There's also no reference to Zune in regards to the band's U.S. dates.
• In the "Buy albums" sidebar there's a link to iTunes for The Warning and no mention of the Zune Marketplace.
• Zune announced that Hot Chip was its "Ignition" artist in February (which "gives recording artists with new releases a unique channel to potentially reach tens of millions of consumers!"), but there's no reference to this anywhere on the band's site.
• Instead, on Jan. 29 whoever's writing Hot Chip's news section announced that iTunes was selling a "remix bundle" and a "bonus track bundle" for the single "Ready For The Floor."

You'd think Zune would demand some recognition for the tour support and the heavy on-site promotion they've given, but maybe they're just happy to be in the same room with an act that debuted at No. 109 on the Billboard Top 200.

Hot Chip Goes 'On The Road' with Zune [LiveDaily]
Hot Chip At iTunes Festival [Hot Chip's MySpace page]
Hot Chip Debuts Exclusive Track on Zune Marketplace February 26 [Ultimate Guitar]

The new Zunes are out—mostly. While availability of the 4GB and 8GB flash models is excellent, the black 80GB hard drive model has been hard to find. Microsoft assures us that "high demand" is to blame...

We looked at numerous online stores. The product has apparently launched, and units have actually been shipped (something Microsoft confirmed), but retailers are out of stock. Microsoft doesn't have them, Amazon doesn't have them, Best Buy doesn't have them, and Circuit City doesn't have them.

Yeah, we're boggling, too. Still, this isn't necessarily a good thing for Microsoft, as Wired wonders if it might be as much (or more) of a cock-up on the company's part as unexpected consumer demand. Also, I don't know what this "scarcer than a Wii" stuff is, either; there were half a dozen Wiis just sitting there, forlorn and unbought, at the Burlington, N.J. Target just a few days ago. Tip!

Zune 80 Scarcer Than A Wii, Microsoft Blames Popularity [Ars Technica via Gadget Lab]

Paid Zune Sharing: Patent Pending [ZuneScene, via Coolfer]

• Develop and maintain the Voice of Zune.
• Help evangelize Zune's vision across Microsoft.
• Be the editorial expert within Zune.

In case you're wondering, the "Voice of Zune" sounds a bit like Jim Nabors after taking too many antihistamines. But why even bother with this posting? If you're looking for someone whose devotion to the Zune is borderline-evangelical, we know just the guy!

Job Details [Microsoft.com]

[Photo: Getty Images]

A party was going on a few doors down from my friend's apartment complex in Minneapolis a few weeks ago. My friend said that she'd been invited to the party earlier in the day by the tenant of the apartment (with whom she was only a casual acquaintance) with promises of "Guitar Hero on the XBox360, great tunes coming from the Zune, and free beer."

When we stopped by we found two dozen college students relaxing, drinking, playing Guitar Hero, in a room covered with posters for Microsoft's mp3 player, the Zune. After some free social lubricant (MGD), the host told us the whole story: Microsoft paid him to host parties like this. As long as he documented the party with pictures, he was reimbursed for all the expenses and paid a little extra for his "trouble." What sort of marketing is this? Does it happen with a lot of other mega-corporations? If so, how do I get such a sweet gig?

If any Idolator readers have hosted these parties, feel free to post your experiences below—we promise to only snicker at you for a few seconds, honest. Especially if you used your money on better beer than MGD. (Also: Maybe this guy should offer up his place, so he can get a little bit of beer money out of the deal?)

The Dirty Underground World Of Zune Parties? [AV Club]
Earlier: Never Let It Be Said That Zune Doesn't Take Care Of Its Fans

I salute you, MSZunefan. I salute you. Don't let the haters get you down. Hey, I'm gonna put together a little care package for you. Some Zune stickers, five songs from the ZMP, and a some Zune artwork.

The guy shells out money to get his skin permanently marked with a logo and hangs himself out to dry on the Internet—and he gets five lousy songs. What, does he have to get a neck tattoo in order to get a prize package worth more than $25?

Re: I finally got my Zune tattoo (2 pics inside) [Zune Scene]
Earlier: Meet The Poor Bastard Who Decided To Get A Zune Tattoo

Anyone wanna hook this guy up with that one dude who took the plunge and got some OK Cola ink in '94? We have a feeling they'll have a lot to talk about over the next few months.

I finally got my Zune tattoo [Zune Scene via Gizmodo]

Music label EMI made waves Monday when it revealed plans to sell songs on Apple's iTunes online store with no digital copy protection.

On Wednesday, Microsoft rode the waves, spreading word that it, too, is negotiating with EMI and other labels to lift copy protection from music sold on its rival Zune Marketplace.

"A primary objective for us within Zune is to figure out how to give consumers what they want while still balancing the rights of the content owner," said Jason Reindorp, Zune marketing director. "Those kinds of discussions have been happening behind closed doors for some time with EMI as much as any other label."

We're not surprised that Microsoft wants to be next in line for DRM-free content; as Hypebot notes, they have the financial resources to match the reported $5 million advance that Apple gave EMI to engage in this experiment. But this strategy seems to play against the Zune's possible cheap-with-a-subscription plan, which was floated earlier this week. Wouldn't those two marketing strategies directly compete with one another—especially if the Zune store made a similar decision as iTunes, and turned the untethered downloads into "premium" content?

Microsoft is seeking DRM-free music [Seattle P-I, via hypebot]
Earlier: Shiny Brown Turd Gets A Bit Of Hot Pink Lipstick Slapped On It

You have to admit that as far as viral marketing goes, making your product so blindingly bright that it looks like a glow-stick is... well, it's better than making the thing brown, right? Right?

New Zune Colors and Marketing Strategy Coming in May [Zune Scene, via Gizmodo]

Zune's latest party bus is promoting Mims, whose "This Is Why I'm Hot" just dropped to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Always on the leading edge, these guys.) More importantly, though, this bus is white—not brown! Is this the sign of a rebranding to come, or did Microsoft get all its Zune-brown paint confiscated by the Austin PD?

Microsoft Zune Wants To Develop Artists [Listening Post]

Austin P.D. hauls off a guerrilla marketing posterer for Microsoft Zune on 6th St. at SXSW.

And to think we were so proud of Microsoft's marketing squad for turning down the volume on that SUV while it was parked on an Austin side street earlier today.

Zuned! Austin P.D. Hauls Off Microsoft Street Spammers at SXSW [losanjealous]

At 3am on Ludlow St, members of the Zune Marketing team thought it would be a good idea to blast their competition grade car stereo in a densely packed residential area. Thank you Microsoft. For those of you who don't know, Zune is Microsoft's attempt at competition for the iPod. It's a lot too late, and too little for the market. I think last night's incident if anything is just an indication of their desperation.

The offended residents are also demanding restitution for being disturbed; we think this is a smart, and potentially very lucrative idea, given that the Zune's marketing techniques over the past few months have looked, to casual observers, like a huge, kind of awkward party where the entertainment is derived from setting giant piles of money on fire. And now that the aggrieved residents have taken their campaign to the Internet, we have no doubt that getting their cash will no doubt be much, much easier.

Wake Up Microsoft [wakeupmicrosoft.com, via Curbed]
Earlier: How Not To Market Your So-Called "iPod Killer"

1. As it turned out, that free Zune promotion we posted about earlier was for MSN, not the Zune. Yes, that's right: not only does MSN think the Zune will entice people to start their Web-browsing experience at their beleaguered portal's home page, they think comment spam is the way to get the word out. Isn't corporate blindness synergy great?

2. The real zeitgeist-defining item in that story on iPod-related junk that we ran yesterday is the Chat Divas Barbie doll, which "can talk on its cellphone in one hand and sing karaoke with a microphone in the other." No word on whether it comes with its attendant 20 paparazzi.

It's only been a few months since its release, but the Zune has already entered the pantheon of free ringtones, weight-loss pills, and cheap penis enlargers. From Digital Audio Insider:

Microsoft is running a little Zune promotion — make MSN your homepage and you might win a free Zune.

Which I learned from a comment to this recent post. Before deleting it (I'm trying to keep comment spam to a minimum) I decided to cross-reference the time of the comment with the server logs to see who left it. It looks like it came from someone working for Mr. Youth, a marketing/promo company that lists — surprise — Microsoft as one of its clients.

Other blogs have fallen victim to the Zune comment spam, too, so we're guessing that this is some sort of concerted effort on Microsoft's part. Which seems a bit misguided to us—after all, given the Zune's soft sales, you'd think that Microsoft would try and devote its resources to, say, actually getting people to pay for the things.

Comment Spam And Free Zunes [Digital Audio Insider]

Look on the bright side, Zune developers: If Steve Jobs gets his way, this little copyediting mix-up could actually work in your favor.

CompUSA knows how to sell Zunes! (LOL) [MacRumors Forums, via Consumerist]

On a day when Microsoft is trying to celebrate its Vista launch, the Redmond-based behemoth has to wave away the stench from its shiny brown turd. From CrunchGear:

Sadly, we have to report that the brown brick cost Microsoft $289 million last quarter, hardly the numbers the company was hoping to post at this time. While we're assured from our internal sources that the next rendition of the Zune (it's not the Zune II) will address many of the shortcomings of the current model, and that the group has a roadmap to profitability in the works.

That's good news, as over the weekend we stopped by our local overstock and discount store in Seattle and were shocked—shocked!—to find a stack of nearly a dozen brand-new, unopened Zunes selling at $168. That's about 25% off the going rate of $229 we've been seeing around ze Web, making it a good deal for someone looking for a Zune.

If there is anyone out there still looking for a Zune. But this deep discount raises one question for us: Does the slashed price mean that Universal gets a smaller cut than the dollar-per-unit promised to them? If not, we bet that avoiding bad deals like that one during the development of future Zune models be a huge stepping stone on the above-referenced "path to profitability."

Zune Goes Discount, Contributes to $289 Million Loss for Microsoft [CrunchGear]

We're guessing that the iPods in this Costco store's Zune display aren't there because of a gift-card-enabled run on the Microsoft music player. From yesterday's USA Today:

"Zune was a non-event this holiday season," says Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. It called 40 retail stores — including Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City Stores — during the first week of December, and found that 70% of the stores recommended iPod to customers, compared with only 10% for Zune.

Zune was fourth among mobile media players with 1.9% market share in November, compared with 62% for Apple, according to researcher NPD Group. SanDisk and Creative Labs were second and third in market share, respectively.

Apple's New iPod Could Bolster Market Dominance [USA Today]
[Image via MacDailyNews]

Ed. note: Today's Wall Street Journal features an article on the reluctance of some young consumers to purchase the Microsoft Zune. We have invited an anonymous commenter from the war-torn region of Darfur to provide his perspective:

Uzoma Anumudu chose the [Zune] when shopping for a portable digital media player last month. But now he has a problem: Microsoft's new Zune player, which he bought as an alternative to the ubiquitous Apple iPod, isn't in wide enough use. The 20-year-old University of Pennsylvania student grumbles that it's hard to test a feature that lets Zune users wirelessly beam music to each other. When he went to a local Starbucks in search of fellow Zune owners, he found only a field of iPods. "Many people still don't know what the Zune is," he says.

"Oh, you poor, poor man! How terrible it must be that your $249 electronics device is not popular in your Ivy League school! How will you ever find someone with which to share your Thom Yorke remixes while drinking your costly specialty-coffee drink??? We weep for you!"

Consumers say the format wars make buying a new brand a turnoff. Samina Akbari, for instance, already owns an iPod Shuffle and is looking for a new digital media player with video capability. While the 27-year-old artist from Brooklyn, N.Y., finds Zune's wider screen and wireless-sharing feature appealing, she wants to avoid transferring the episodes of "Project Runway" and "Grey's Anatomy" she bought from iTunes. She plans to stick with the iPod and the iTunes store. "I'm not dedicated to iTunes, but I like the design of the iPod," she says.

"How can such hardships be endured? While we live in fear of the Janjaweed soldiers, you have to live in fear that you will pick the wrong digital device in which to preserve your precious collection of fashion-design television programming! For shame that you must wrestle with this choice!"

Brian Timm, 17, a high-school student in Northville, Mich., sold his 30-gigabyte video iPod and preordered the Zune last month, so that he and his friends who also bought Zunes could more easily swap their favorite heavy-metal tunes. Sharing music was a hassle with an iPod, Mr. Timm says. "Other than give you one of my headphones, I can't do anything."

"Okay, now you're just being whiny."

How the Zune Is Faring So Far With Consumers [WSJ]

John Paczkowski at Good Morning Silicon Valley is reporting that Microsoft has submitted a patent application describing the music-sharing site Weedshare, a Windows Media-based site that uses a pyramid-ish structure to compensate people who share files that are eventually purchased. Paczkowski's compiled an exhaustive amount of evidence to point to Microsoft's likely adaptation of these features for the Zune, and he adds:

... there seems to be plenty of evidence to suggest that compensated sharing will be part of the core Zune product strategy and that it will likely be very similar to the system we see today in Weedshare, but perhaps a bit broader. Think super distribution. Think games. Software. Video.

We're sure that somewhere, in the bowels of Microsoft, people are hard at work trying to figure out how to apply this incentive-filled concept to the distribution of Zunes themselves.

Me? I'm between jobs until the Zune incentive program rolls out [Good Morning Silicon Valley, via Coolfer]
Earlier: Is Zune Banking On Multi-Level Music Marketing?

The Zune Deathpool has begun! Yesterday, Wired News noted that the device's wireless-sharing feature (in which users can share songs for three days or three listens, whichever comes first) is applied to all songs—even the ones that artists distribute for free. As Lawrence Lessig would say, "Totally uncool, brahmigo."

And today's Wall Street Journal looks at the Zune's zlow sales:

The 30-gigabyte Zune player from Microsoft, which retails for $249, was on the Top 10 list of Amazon, the largest Internet retailer, for several days after its release on Nov. 14 before dropping off. But yesterday, the most popular model of the Zune, the black version, was at No. 76. The Top 10 digital media players included six iPods from top-seller Apple Computer Inc. and one MP3 player from SanDisk Corp. The 30-gigabyte iPod has a $249 list price and ranked No. 2 at one point yesterday.

"The product [Zune] wasn't particularly attractive. At the end of the day, you put it on a shelf and it just didn't compare," said Rob Enderle of research firm Enderle Group.

A Microsoft representative notes that first-week Zune sales were on track with the company's expectations, and that holiday-weekend figures were still pending. Unfortunately, her statement can only be read for three days or three times, whichever comes first.

Zune, Creative Commons Don't Mix [Wired News]
Microsoft's Zune Falls Off Sales Pace For Media Players [LA Times]

- The "I can't install this damn software" pain is felt by users and their computers. [FLX-TECH]
- The Zune Marketplace ushers in a new Microsoft quirk: the White Screen Of Death. [CrunchGear]
- Zunes are not flying off the shelves in Paramus. [Ka-Ching! On The Money With Dylan Ratigan]
- Get ready for the Zune Wikipedia wars. [Gadgetopia]
- What if you gave a launch party for a product ... and no copies of that product showed up? You'd have last night's Queens of the Stone Age show in New York. [Coast vs Coast]
- TI plays the Zune launch party in Atlanta. Really, those pictures say one thing to us: He should have given the Zune team some styling tips. [Platform|Launch|Action]
- Give a kid a Zune, and you'll make him cry like Rick Santorum's kid. [Anil Dash]