So yeah, I kind of teased that Inside the Circle is planning a few things going into its second “season”. Now, I’m going to discuss what a few of those plans are. I’m quite excited to get these things off the ground and help make Inside the Circle that much more of a destination and community space for people who dig Music and/or Zune and/or Microsoft :-)

So here’s a few things we plan on introducing. Will they all work? Probably not. But gosh darn it they’re all worthy of that old spirited try, yes?

The “Circle This” Podcast:

Quite a few people have relayed to me that they think Inside the Circle should have a podcast. It’s something I’ve discussed with friends time and time again and I think that it’s definitely worth a shot. I’ve spent a great deal of time listening to podcasts of all types to find out what makes them work and what doesn’t. What I hope to do with the Circle This Podcast (title is actually still tentative – may change at launch) is be a quick and easy audio experience for those who want to get Zune information, music recommendations, tips and tricks and interviews.

Some parts of this are still being planned and finalized, but I hope to have the debut episode available sometime soon.

Club Social Community Events:

Club Social was the original name for my Zune Card. When I started using Zune Social (back when it first opened) I named my page that because I set out to make it a place where people could stop by and chat about music and what’s going on in their world. I always enjoyed the community atmosphere of Zune Social and I wanted to help with that. Since then my card discontinued the Club Social moniker, but I kept a hold of the name in the hopes that someday I could bring that title back with a much bigger scope.

With the Club Social Community Events Program, I think I have the chance to take that original idea to the next step.

The CSCE will be the umbrella for all types of community based events including: Zune Meetups, Online Chats and XBOX 360 Gaming days. The goal of the CSCE will be to bring people (gamers, music lovers, whoever) closer together in a variety of fun and informative ways.

The ZuneTune Revolution:

I’m sure everyone has already noticed that the #zunetune project is being commenced on Twitter. The project is the brainchild of myself and Shane DeSeranno, a member of the Zune team. The idea is to create a playlist using content submitted by users.

So far, Shane has also created a small program that collects the properly formatted ZuneTune tweets and create a playlist that people can open up in the Zune software. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber you can download the entire playlist, sync it to your Zune and check out, on the go, what people in the community are listening to. If you’re not a Zune Pass subscriber (and why aren’t you) then you can at least opt to purchase those songs.

It’s also fortunate that zunetune.com is now available. We’re still formulating ideas on what exactly to do with that domain, but there’s potential to really make ZuneTune into something worthwhile for Zune users and lovers of music.

Plus, if you haven’t already noticed, the Sunday Treasures videos will now have a consistent information format and include a #zunetune link that takes you directly into the Zune Marketplace and to that particular track if you wanted to buy it or download it with your Zune Pass (this will be done where applicable).

The Club Kids Project:

One of my friends, Michael Sison and I have been floating around the idea of doing the occasional articles where we do a review of venues that we’ve been to and performers that we’ve seen. So on one level expect these to start happening soon – while we’re both still young enough to do such a thing.

However, I also wanted to take this a step further and include you guys somehow and this is what I came up with: The Club Kids Project. What that means is I’d like for you guys to send Inside the Circle pictures of you out somewhere enjoying music: be it a festival, jazz club, rock concert, anywhere where music is being sent out into the air and into your ears (bonus points if you can get your Zune somewhere in the shot). Hell, I’d be fine if you sent a picture of yourself relaxing in the den with an old-school phonograph.

We, on this end, are going to start a collective photo gallery starring you guys. If you also want to share a bit about where you were, who you saw and what you thought, we’ll include that in the comments of the photo. I firmly believe that everyday music is being listened to, celebrated, enjoyed and/or created, so this is one way of putting it all together in one place.

These are just a few of the ideas that have been brewing around the Inside the Circle laboratory. As we soon start our second year, we hope to do more to make this blog a better destination for you when you want the latest in Zune news, information on free MP3s downloads, coverage of great events and more.