ITC In-Depth: XBOX Live Update 2010 (Zune Music)

Zune Music

*Note – The following review and video are based upon a beta preview of the XBOX Live update. The update is subject to revisions and changes prior to final availability.

Back in Fall of 2009, during the E3 Keynote, Microsoft announced that Zune was going to host their newly refreshed video services. While it was curious, at the time why the big Zune moment on XBOX involved video (and not audio), the new video service did bring with it some great enhancements for those who wanted to purchase or rent video content. As stated on XBOX’s website:

Zune on Xbox LIVE gives you access to full HD video entertainment via your Xbox 360.  Now you are able to rent and buy the latest movies and TV shows.  Watch instantly what you want, when you want it, with 1080p HD and 5.1 surround sound.

Party
With Xbox LIVE Party you can catch the latest movie and share the experience with up to 7 of your friends - even if you're miles apart.

Buy Once, Play on Multiple Screens
With Zune, now you can buy movies or TV shows on your Xbox 360 and download them again to watch and enjoy later on your PC or Zune HD.

Well, finally, Zune lovers can rejoice. With the Fall update, you’re getting access to Zune music through the XBOX 360. But it goes further than that. If you’re a Zune Pass user (and an XBOX Live Gold member) you’ll be able to stream music from the Zune Music Marketplace right through your XBOX. Zune is also including some of it’s other key elements with this update in addition to access to their entire Marketplace:

Enhanced Search – Be able to look through the Marketplace to find your favorite artists, albums, songs and playlists.

Zune Social – Zune Social is connecting with XBOX Live. You will be able to find like-minded fans in the XBOX Live universe and get new music recommendations. Additionally, you’ll get to see your friend’s avatars and check out their recently played songs and artists – think of this as when you’re able to sync your friend’s zune cards to your Zune HD.

Smart DJ – One of Zune’s most popular features is also part of the XBOX experience. Just like with the PC software and the Zune HD, you’ll be able to create dynamic playlists using your favorite artist as the initial kernel.

When you start up the Zune app you are presented with the following series of tabs: Featured (think front page of the Zune Marketplace), Smart DJ, Queue (think now playing), Search, Social, Me and Music Videos. If you were looking for tabs that says “My Collection” then you’ve come to the wrong place.

The interface of the app is definitely Zune. The background has that cool Zune color, your XBOX 360 avatar is in the corner and curiously it tells you how many Microsoft points you have remaining. I’m assuming that’s because you can purchase music videos (you can’t purchase any music tracks through the application directly).

To activate Smart DJ, you click on a tile that says “add artist”. I highly recommend an XBOX 360 chat pad if you don’t currently own one. Having to navigate the letters one by one can be a pain in the ass, and we want to get to the experience as quickly as possible. While you are typing the name of the artist, the app will begin to populate artists below. When you see the artist that you want select them and a playlist of music will begin.



Zune was able to bring their excellent ‘now playing’ visualizations to the XBOX 360. There are some different animations that you get with the XBOX 360 than you get with the PC Software or the Zune HD device. Again, its another great way to enjoy your music when you’re alone or having a few friends over.




Also note that music will continue to play while you’re browsing other sections of the application, including creating a new Smart DJ playlist, visiting the social or browsing the new releases. However, the music ceases to play once you’ve exited the app. I wouldn’t have minded if the app tied itself to the controls that you get when you use the guide button, but alas, if you want to enjoy the Zune experience you can only do this in the confines of the app, itself.

The “Social” and “Me” tabs are just the way you have them in the PC software. With the “Social” tab you are able to listen to music that your friends on Zune are listening to. If your friends on Zune also have XBOX Live accounts, their avatar will stand in front of their hub (that’s a nice touch).  When you click on a Zune friend, you have the option to play their last 24 recent plays or see their top artists. Keep in mind that you can only play songs from that set if they’re available in the Marketplace and can be used under Zune Pass.



The “Me” tab houses all of the music videos that you’ve downloaded to the XBOX 360, your top artists and your recent plays. You can also do some account management from this area as well.

One thing not mentioned in the feature set is the appearance of Channels. Under the ‘featured’ tab of the application, if you select ‘top songs’, what you get are essentially the same playlists that are located in the “Top Songs” channel area in the PC software. So you can listen to the top songs downloaded on Zune, for example or top songs in hip-hop, electronic and other genres. If you did want a quick way to discover some new music, utilizing this feature would be a great way to go.

Have you wanted to make a video playlist out of your music videos? Now you have that opportunity. From the ‘music video’ tab simply use the “X” button to put your music videos in the order that you want them played and kick back. The videos will run one after the other (and even on an infinite loop if you want). It’s a great thing to have when you have a party going and you want to play video DJ.

My takeaway: If you were expecting this application to find your collection from the PC (your albums, heart-rated songs, playlists, etc) then keep on expecting. What you get with the Zune app is essentially a full stream-only version of the Zune Marketplace. If this experience is different when using the Kinect device then that’s something I’m not privy to, and won’t be privy to until Kinect is released (at which time I will update this post accordingly). I’m sure we’re all familiar with the interface that was presented during E3. I’m assuming that’s a Kinect-specific interface:



The ‘now playing’ visuals are nice, but if you’re stuck with album covers, it’s quite humorous. The album cover visual, since it’s only really working off the songs in a given ‘now playing’ playlist at the time, only tries to populate THOSE album covers. I’ve seen screens with sparse covers or screens with the same cover posted up all over the place.

Oh, and what about your Zune HD? Well if you plug in your Zune HD, then you’re still stuck using that primitive music player that the XBOX 360 has always had. That’s quite disappointing too. Frankly, I would have no need for that bare-bones player if this app could tap into my PC collection. If you want to use your Zune HD, though, then you have to use it and enjoy those acid-based visuals instead of the cool artist stuff.
For a v1 version, I give Zune credit. However, I’m fearful that people will find this great for the first week and then forget about it all together. Other than it being Zune, I don’t see how this is really any different than having the LAST.FM application sitting next to it.

I don’t know how this changes with Kinect, until I have a Kinect device in my house (I pre-order one from Amazon for same-day delivery). Again, I’ll update this post accordingly with my thoughts on the Zune experience using Kinect.

• Positives:
  
  
  
  • It’s nice to be able to stream music via Zune Pass
  • The now playing visuals with artist images is well done
  • Zune Social is represented and utilizes XBOX Live avatars
  • Tolerable lag time but there can be some hiccups
  • Cool to create a music video playlist
  • Plays do get recorded and uploaded to Zune Social
• Negatives:
  
  
  
  • Wish it could tap into my local collection and playlists on my PC
  • Hell, I wish it could recognize CDs ripped to the XBOX 360
  • The ‘now playing’ visuals with the album art needs work
  • You are bound to the app in order to listen to music
  • If you get an error, there’s really no way to see what the error is