Yeah, it's a day late...

Mondays are so totally not the best thing around. More so when they're cold, windy, rainy, and cloudy.

Hope things are better where you guys are at. Although I doubt it.. Ha ha.

• Urban Outfitter's free five for the week
• Kid Cudi featuring Snoop Dogg "That Tree"
• iTunes has Choc Quib Town's "De Donde Vengo Yo" as the song of the week
• And you are a fan of Zune on Facebook, right? They've posted some free downloads as well.

I've always been a huge fan of BT's work. From the driving force that is "Emotional Technology" to the stirring emotional experience that is "This Binary Universe". When I listened to the two singles from "These Hopeful Machines", Suddenly and The Rose of Jericho, I knew instantly that BT had another hit on his hands. Not only was I correct, but it was extremely exciting to hear an album all the way through and enjoy every second of it.

For "These Hopeful Machines", BT took the chance of blending both sides together, meaning that Side A is one long track and Side B is one long track. Now you can't pick and choose, you have to sit and experience both tracks as one continuous stream of thought. It was funny though... BT likes to use a technique called "Stutter Edit". What that means is that you'll hear kind of like the Max Headroom way of singing. When I was playing this for some of my friends, they thought that the stutter edits meant that there was something wrong with the digital file that I downloaded. I had to educate them that the stutter edit is a signature technique from BT, which also created the thought that trying to sing these songs while vacuuming the floor would make for interesting experiences.

Fortunately, "Suddenly" is the initial track for Side A. This is a great driving track that really sets the stage for not only Side A, but Side B as well. When you listen to both tracks back to back you can feel both the energy and drive.

All-in-all, I highly recommend "These Hopeful Machines", but if you aren't sure of yourself then give "Suddenly" a listen. If that leaves you wanting more, then the entire album will do more than satisfy.

After more trouble than I expected with the Qik service, I wanted to be sure to share one of the few non-NDA pieces of information I could, namely what Bing will look like on a Windows Phone 7 Series… from 20 rows back. Presented by Senior VP of R&D and Online Services Division, Satya Nadella, this video was taken on the last day of the 2010 MVP summit. In it you will see it is split into roughly two segments, what Bing will look like on a Series 7 phone and what Bing looks like on an iPhone. Like most have surmised, if you have used a Zune HD you will get a good sense of where the Windows Phone 7 Series user experience is headed. Unrelated to the 7 Series announcement, a few interesting facts we learned in this session were that individuals aged 18-24 were Bing’s largest growing demographic. Second was that image and video searches are Bing’s most popular search areas. Third, Bing Maps + Map Apps is sweet.

As the sessions came to a close I wanted to note how wonderful it was to meet Marques and have fun FourSquaring all over Bellevue and Seattle with other MVPs. It was also great to meet MVPs from different technical backgrounds from all over the world. Many of you I have been following on Twitter, so it was nice to put a face to a Twitter avatar. It was also great to meet MVPs who did not know we, Zune MVPs, existed (we’re here and we care!). I had the same experience my self when looking at some of the technical expertise labels floating around Summit. In lighter news, it will be great so see all the Windows Mobile Phone MVPs wanting to become Zune MVPs as they realize just how cool Zune on a 7 Series phone will be. To the Xbox MVPs, “WEST SIIIIDE!” Considering what lays ahead, we are all family now. Shouts to the technical experts I met from Media Center, XNA/DirextX, Expression Web, Visual C#, SQL Server, SQL Server ASQ, Team Foundation, SharePoint, Access, Visual Studio, Silverlight, and Desktop Experience. When can I press F2 for a new Summit?

Enabling music junkies since 2009.

So let's be real. 90% of the MVP Summit is under NDA. We're meeting with Zune to cover different aspects of this service, so I can't divulge that information in the course of this blog post. However, as we begin Day #2 I wanted to tell you guys that so far, we have heard things that are quite spectacular. Much like last year, I feel quite excited about the potential for Zune in 2010. Plus, if you've been following us Zune MVPs on Twitter, you know that we are testing the Facebook for Zune HD application.

Now I should also mention that this year's Summit was the first opportunity for Neville and myself to meet face to face. I can tell you guys that we haven't killed each other, stolen each other's stuff or had buckets of KFC just flung around everywhere -- although we're both working on that KFC thing! In all seriousness, Neville and I have gotten along great and it's an honor to finally meet someone that I've been working with so long.

For me, as an MVP, I don't do this for the gifts, swag or whatever you want to call it. I do this (and I think Neville will agree with me) because it gives us a chance to have more avenues and connections that will help us help the community. NOW, having said that... these jackets that we were given are total kick ass. I have to say that Zune puts together really interesting items: jackets, poster packs, stickers, the "Lost Ones" comic books... these are just interesting things for them to attach their brand to and give out as gifts or contest prizes.

Sorry folks, the Zune jacket isn't available to the public and I ain't giving up mine!

So now we've reached Day #2 of the deep sessions. It's another day for us MVPs to hear more about the Zune roadmap and offer the feedback that you've given us so they know what's going on. Remember, all of that stuff that you've been telling us about, either here or in the zune.net forums or on Twitter is the information that we collect and that we take to the Zune team at events like this. Through your hard work and loud voices, you got things like the clock (can't emphasize enough how much the community contributed to the clock being a part of the Zune device firmware).

So again, Day #2 is under NDA. However, follow myself or Neville or Travis or any of the other MVPs and as we go through the rest of Summit! We can be quite an entertaining bunch when we put our minds to it.

Brought to you by Roxy, this is "Ghost of an Earthworm".

If you realized that I hadn't posted in a while, thanks for noticing. =]
What happened was that on 4 Feb my lower back muscles decided to spaz out and irritate my nerves. The Urgent Care doctor gave me Hydrocodone, Cyclobenzaprine, and Ibuprofen to deal with the pain; it was bad.. almost passed out twice. Five days later, I start to battle a cough that is most likely bronchitis; I'm probably going to get some Codeine for that tomorrow. Some other shit's also gone down but that shouldn't impact my posting, much.



Yay Life.

Free download overload:

• Ludacris and Lil Wayne in "Eat You Alive"
• Last week's Music Monday from UO
• The "How Low" remix by Ludacris featuring Ciara and Pitbull
• This week's freeness from UO
• Free iTunes Choc Quib Town download
• "Hey Ho" by Ludacris featuring Lil Kim and Lil Fate
• From Roxy, Marit Larson with "If A Song Could Get Me You" (may or may not work)

Enjoy.

  Circle This: Episode #14: Three Men and a Little Podcast

Visit our podcast page over at the Zune website. You can subscribe via the Zune Marketplace or by using our feed in your favorite feed reader. Or download the MP3 file here.

Show Notes:

• Hosts: Marques Lyons, Neville Williams, and Julio Angel Ortiz
• Running Time: 73 Minutes
• Intro and outro music by Shohei Urata
• Server space provided by Travis Pope and Paige Aiden

Topics Covered:

• The Case of missing music in the Zune Marketplace
• Have you seen any missing artists? If you see something say something.
• The rise of subscription services?
• The Strength of Zune Pass
• Super Bowl Halftime Snooze-Fest
• What did you think of The Who as a halftime performance?
• Are The Who still relevant?
• Alternative Halftime Performance Ideas
• Pre-Summit Roundtable
• 3rd Party Apps on Zune HD
• Taking Zune (music & devices) international
• Digital Copies and Zune
• Zune on Windows Phones and only Windows Phones?
• Reading two disc albums on first and second generation Zunes

Link List:

• Zune – Missing Tracks Thread
• Zune’s Missing Tracks in the Press
• CNET
• ARS Technica
• Engadget
• BBC – Warner Executive talks about the potential of subscription music
• Wikipedia – List of Super Bowl Halftime Performances
• Yéle Haiti
• Text “Haiti” to 501501 to donate $10 to Wyclef Jean’s Haiti Earthquake Fund
• Yéle Haiti Homepage
• Yéle Haiti on Twitter
• anythingbutipod – DaveMacMS on developing non-game apps for Zune HD
• DaveMacMS on Twitter
• XNA Creators Club – Developing games for Zune with XNA Games
• Bing –Definition of Oligopoly
• EFF – Understanding the effects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• Microsoft – Software + Services: The Greater Sum

Marketplace Recommendations:

• “Let it Rot” by The Cyanide Valentine [zune marketplace]
• “Lithium” by Nirvana [zune marketplace]
• “Zodiac Girls” by Black Moth Super Rainbow [zune marketplace]
• “Sci Fi Lullaby” by Silversun Pickups [zune marketplace]
• “Nothing But Your Love” by Toshi Kubota [zune marketplace]
• “We Have Explosive” by The Future Sound of London [zune marketplace]

Thanks for listening!

And without further ado:

So check it peeps: For the past few months I've managed to chat and pal around with Thomas Ian Nicholas. He's an awesome guy who has great talent in both the acting and music realms. Turns out he also has a love for gaming, specifically Rock Band. So I suggested to him that he come onto XBOX Live and play a round of it with some of the XBOX peeps.

He agreed.

So, in a partnership with 360 Junkies, we're presenting a night of Rock Band goodness with Thomas Ian Nicholas. The event is taking place Monday, February 22nd from 8:30pm to 10:30pm PST (event scheduled to change depending upon final checks and balances with Thom). I understand that Rock Band isn't the most multiplayer friendly, but we'll try to accommodate who we can, so we hope you understand.

We're doing this on a Monday because XBOX 360 has Music Mondays, so we figured that would be a great time to get everyone together. Maybe, also, we can convince Thom to pick up a copy of Modern Warfare 2 and learn that for a future playdate?

Who's ready to rock!?

By the way, if you haven't seen it, I wrote a post about seeing Thom perform live acoustic guitar. Check it out here.

There is a groundswell amongst Zune users in regards to music being abruptly gone from the Zune Marketplace. I'm reading tales of people who started a song in the morning only to come back later, restart the song and find out that it had been removed from the Zune Marketplace. I can sympathize because one of my favorite artists, BT, who used to have 90% of his albums available in the Zune Marketplace (under Zune Pass no less) is now relegated to having all of his albums crossed out and you're only able to hear him thanks to contributions he made on various soundtracks and compilation albums.

Initially, I thought this was a few albums here and there, but it's turning out to be much more than that. Places like CNET have caught on to it and are posting their own thoughts about the situation. 

Over at the Zune forums, there's a lengthy thread going where Zune users are highlighting what albums they are noticing are no longer in the Zune marketplace. Incidentally, if you notice albums that are no longer available, feel free to add to the list. I've become increasingly fond of the Zune Pass subscription, and Zune Marketplace in general for the clean and easy access to music, but if artists are dropping left and right that doesn't bode well for anyone.

Many users are being directed to the FAQ that launched when the 4.2 update was released. It seems that the problem became more prevalent with the launch of this update. Specifically with the 4.2 update FAQ, users are directed to this part of the Q&A:

I previously saw music that I was able to preview, stream, or download. Why can't I find that music now?

While we have an extensive library on offer with this release, there may still be some content that is not yet available. If the content you are expecting to see is not found in the Zune marketplace library, please check back regularly as we will be refreshing content often.

For me, that's fine if you're talking about music that wasn't available in the Marketplace to begin with. However, we are now seeing it done with tons of music that was there in the Marketplace prior to the 4.2 update. Music that had been available for the longest time. Music that was even available under Zune Pass.

When you're going up against a juggernaut like iTunes, iPod and the like you can't afford to let events like this linger. I understand that there have to be contracts in place, agreements with labels before music is added to the Marketplace, but given the list of music that I saw in the forums thread this isn't like 1 or 2 labels that just backed out or let a contract lapse. It becomes even more stinging when users are making the comment that they don't see Amazon or iTunes having the same issues that the Zune Marketplace is currently experiencing.

So what can you do as a user? My best advice if you don't find your desired content in the Marketplace is to hit up places like Amazon and pick it up. Since the music is in MP3 format, the Zune Software will have no problem detecting that media and syncing it to your device(s). Additionally, even if the album is crossed out in the Zune Marketplace, you should still be able to map your MP3s to the appropriate albums and have them count for things like Zune Social.

I hope, for Zune's sake, that they are working round the clock on this. I would figure that they are given that music is the backbone of this service. Zune Pass is something they tote left and right and the Zune Marketplace is, in my opinion, a well-designed music browsing experience.

Let's see what happens, shall we?

[image credit: http://e-nidhi.com/wordpress/?cat=3]

• Comic-Con
• Wonder Con

So, as you can imagine, the MVPs (myself included) are all psyched and pumped up for MVP Summit 2010. Now you all know that the Summit will feature 90% NDA material, but that doesn't mean we can't give you a good 10% from the event.

If you want to keep up with all of the MVPs, keep an eye out for the Twitter tag: #mvp10.

If you want to keep up with the Zune MVPs, specifically use this great twitter list that Zune put together.

Also don't forget that we still want to hear your feedback about the positives and negatives about Zune. It's this feedback that will go directly to the Zune product team, so make your voice heard.

[Image Source: Flickr - Trinity / CC BY-SA 2.0]

Raise your hand if you watched the Super Bowl. Keep your hand raised if you enjoyed the halftime show… Don’t lie now.

The The Who are a great band and have some great music. They have wonderful crossover appeal. I have a few of their songs on in my collection. They were part of the voice of a generation. The problem is that voice is not m-m-my generation. I am sure some baby boomers were more than happy to see Pete Townshend rocking out again. However, in the quick snapshot of the Twitter comments I saw as well as the conversation that was going around the living room, over the pizza, Doritos (great commercials by the way), and wings, none of us were too amused. Again, The Who are great, but there are other more current bands deserving of a shot to do a halftime set at the Super Bowl.

Last Tuesday, The New York Times discussed the the halftime show. In the article, Ken Belson talked about how the artists are chosen. He also touched on how the show itself has changed over time. In my limited memory of Super Bowl halftime shows, I remembered them as spectacles. Remember when Indiana Jones had to steal the Super Bowl Trophy? Remember The Blues Brothers? Remember ‘N Sync? What happened to that? Belson’s article has a little insight into the halftime show selection process. It turns out since 2004, the year of the wardrobe-malfunction, the selection of the halftime act has rested with the NFL. Since then some have noted the choice of subsequent acts as “safe.”

With the exception of Prince, who got away with an “interesting” looking guitar shadow, the halftime shows have been letdowns in the post-Janet era. This is personal opinion, so please disagree all you want. Take 2005, Sir Paul McCartney performed. What if someone like Mariah Carey, or Green Day performed instead? Since the NFL does not pay an appearance fee the the question then becomes one about availability and appeal, right?

As The Who played Baba O’Riley (a.k.a. Teenage Wasteland) one friend noted the irony of a senior citizen singing about a teenage wasteland. While they continued their set, we started to toss a few names around and I came up with Jay-Z. Some raised objection to his potential crossover appeal. I remember Marques made the suggestion of Lady Gaga via Twitter, and I shared it with the group. Think about the target audience of many of the commercials. Think about the target audience of the recent musical performers. There is a bit of a disconnect. I took a look at a Wikipedia list of previous halftime show performances. In the list, one link led to a Sports Illustrated top 10 list of halftime shows. Two of the halftime shows that made it into the top 10 were post-2004, The Rolling Stones (2006) and Prince (2007). The Stones’ core demographic are men over the age of 40. With respect to Prince, I would expect the same though perhaps a stronger following with women. Both have an undeniable universal appeal. There is one problem, they are not my first choice when I reach for my Zune. Mixview has a long list of more current artists they influenced. Electronic Arts did not try to sell Dante’s Inferno to my parents. They tried to sell it to me. The same could be argued about the GoDaddy and Bud Light commercials.

We are six years removed from the nipple seen round the world. Fines have been paid. Tempers have subsided (I hope). I get playing it safe. However, safe is boring. It is time to make the halftime show interesting again. What if we had an Avatar themed halftime show with the trophy as a hometree? Come next year, I hope I am not considering a switch to the Puppy Bowl instead of watching a twelve minute set from Boston, or Billy Joel. I kid, but this boring halftime show stuff has to stop. It does not fit with the rest of the pageantry that is the Super Bowl.

120 Revolution is a semi-regular interview series covering new and up-and-coming bands. Up first for 120 Revolution is Sweet Jane, a Dublin band making waves over in the UK and nominated for Most Promising Act of 2010 by the Meteor Music Awards. One of the vocalists for Sweet Jane, Lydia Des Dolles, was kind enough to participate in this interview.

So I wrote a few days ago about what seems to be a new package deal being available in the Zune Marketplace. With this package deal you are able to purchase an album and get a video along with the album. The example that I used was "God Loves Ugly" by Atmosphere. Well low and behold, I foundz me another one! What I especially like about this one is that it features two of my favorite musical acts.

Wowzas, this is pretty sweet.

When you purchase the Jay-Z/Linkin Park album "Collision Course", you can get a package that includes, what seems to be, a 45 minute behind the scenes video highlighting how the album was put together. In the short 30 second clip that I saw, it follows Jay-Z and Linkin Park into the recording studio and I'm assuming by the length of the video that it does give you an inside look at the making of the album.

Now I gotta tell ya, that's pretty damn cool.

The package costs 1200 points. If you want to take a look at it click here.

Is the Zune software taking over your processor like Modern Warfare 2 has taken over Xbox Live? It seems like with every update of the Zune software some of us have an issue with high processor usage, or experience a sudden system slow down. There are a few reasons that this can happen. In general, this is a system specific issue as opposed to there being something wrong in the Zune software. Before we get to the reasons, here is a quick tip to look at your task manager and assess your processor usage:

1. Right click on your taskbar
2. Select ‘Start Task Manager’ (Picture)
3. Your System Task Manager should appear. Select the ‘Processes’ tab (Picture)
   • Pro Tip: clicking on the column so there’s a downward facing triangle above ‘CPU’ organizes your processes by CPU load descending (Picture)
4. Look at the processor usage for Zune.exe in the ‘Image Name’ column. (Picture)

Actually, 46% is relatively normal during a sync operation (at least for me with an AMD Opteron 170 @ 2.0 GHz). But what about Zune.exe staying at 85-90% when your Zune is not connected to your PC? Let us walk through a few of the possibilities.

Tip 1) The first has to do with system drivers. If your sound card or video card drivers are out of date, you may see a spike in processor usage. Be sure to update your divers from either your computer maker’s support website or from the OEM website for the video card or sound card in your PC. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, your updates may be handled automatically through Windows Update. Also, many manufactures will bundle a custom update program with laptops and desktops they sell. Check these programs to make sure there are not any updates that require your attention. Either way, here are a few websites to get you started on keeping your drivers up to date. Follow the instructions of the respective sites.

Laptops & Desktops

HP Support	Compaq Support
Acer Support	Gateway Support
Lenovo Support	Toshiba Support
Samsung Support	Asus Support
Dell Support	Sony Support

Video & Sound Card Manufacturers

NVIDIA Drivers - Video	ATI Drivers - Video
Realtek Drivers - Sound	Creative Drivers - Sound
Asus Drivers - Sound

Windows Update

Windows Update

Tip 2) If your drivers are all set, the Visual Performance setting within the software is the next place to look for the source of continually high processor usage in the Zune software. This should be more of an issue with older PCs. As of Zune 4.2 the Visual Performance setting is located under the display heading of the software category on the settings page. To get there:

1. Look at the upper right corner of the software, selecting the settings link (Picture)
2. Select 'display' from the left column of the 'software' heading
3. Drag the ‘Screen graphics’ slider down to basic (Picture)

Upon completing this operation. The Zune software will notify you that your newly selected settings will take effect the next time you open the software. Once you close and reopen the Zune software you should notice the drop in CPU usage right away.

Tip 3) Perhaps everything is ok with your PC and Zune’s visual performance. It is possible the newly installed version of the Zune software is scanning your collection for new additions. Typically, this major scan happens when you install a new version of the Zune software. Windows 7 users should know that Zune 4.2 now monitors all Windows 7 library content by default. As a result, be prepared for a potential influx of files. Overall, the Zune software is going through you collection and making sure it has everything added from all of your PC’s monitored folders or Windows 7 libraries. In the process of doing this, it is searching to see if the new songs have Marketplace-compatible companions (if the new tracks were not originally downloaded from the Zune Marketplace). This process is known as groveling. This process is essential as it allows the software to track your artist plays, update your Zune card, give you Marketplace Picks, and make Smart DJ playlists. On slower PCs, this process may take a while. Also, on slower PCs this process is more noticeable. If it is really bothersome, the best recommendation is to let the software run overnight, afterwards you should be all set.

Tip 4) This tip is not necessarily related to updating your Zune software. However, it is something to keep in mind. If the Zune software is converting a video in preparation to be synced to your Zune later, you could see high CPU usage. However, in the task manager, this excess CPU activity will be attributed to ZuneEnc.exe as opposed to Zune.exe

• Picture – using our task manager pro tip I rearranged the ‘Image Name’ column for comparison purposes
• Picture 2 – note the software’s status in relation to ZuneEnc.exe

Assuming you want to sync videos to your Zune, you can combat this influx of CPU usage two ways. Both of these options are located in the conversion settings heading of the device category. To get there:

1. Look at the upper right corner of the software, selecting the settings link (Picture)
2. Select ‘device’ from the three category options in the upper left corner
3. Select ‘Conversion Settings’ from the left column of the device heading (Picture)

Looking at the Video section, select ‘Optimize for my Zune player’ and check ‘Allow files to convert in background.’ You can choose to implement one change and not the other. Know that choosing to optimize only for your Zune player may result in videos with decreased quality when viewed on a TV. Allowing the Zune software to do background conversions is a great solution if you want to take your Media Center or podcasts recordings with you or if you have a Zune 30 device that only supports only WMV videos. Also know that not allowing the Zune software to convert files in the background will cause them to be converted at the time of sync, slowing your sync process and eating up your processor.

 Update:

Josh from Cruleworld was kind enough share a few more tips for those looking to speed up their software.

Hopefully these tips help you understand what is going on behind the scenes when you see your processor usage spike. If you have any other questions about the Zune software, feel free to ask them here or post a question over in the Zune Forums.

So, I told myself last year that I would not attempt to do one of these again: And I'm not. However, for those that weren't around last year, I wanted to bring to your attention something that I tried for Black History Month 2009.

The idea was that since Jazz is "African-American Classical Music" and the only music to really be born and bred within the U.S. I spent an entire month creating posts, putting up videos and offering Zune Marketplace suggestions revolving around Jazz music. The Jazz 101 series, as I called it, was not intended to be a catch-all guide to Jazz that encompasses everything, but really just brief snapshots into a history of this music that I'm proud to have studied, composed and performed.

So I'm inviting you now to go through all of the Jazz 101 posts from 2009. Considering that the information is historical and therefore won't change year to year, I hope that you find some interesting tidbits about Jazz music that you probably hadn't considered before. And still feel free to leave comments on individual Jazz 101 posts as you see fit. I'm always interested to hear what you guys have to say about the different elements of Jazz music.

There are some other things that I'm doing this year like I did last year: My Zune Card will primarily display jazz all month. For those who sync my Zune Card to your devices will 90% of the time have some jazz that you can listen to. I'm sure that the Zune Marketplace will also put up another great playlist of jazz music so I encourage you to check it out.

So I offer this challenge to you: Partake in some jazz this month. Be it a recording or (as I would strongly suggest) a live performance. Let me know what you think of the music.


Let's now travel through Jazz 101. Enjoy the ride.

And yes, by nature of the display, you'll be reading it backwards.