Like/Dislikes: Zune team seeking feedback!

As many of you know, we’re constantly seeking feedback from users about what we’re doing, and what we could do to make Zune better. So I’m asking specifically about Zune Marketplace: what do folks like about it? What about Zune Pass? Do you have one? How can we make it better? Post a comment!

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Cesar
(formerly of the) Zune Product Team

See this, as it relates to improvements, and my other thread on the implementation of a review system.

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Richard | Zune 80 - 83rd member on Zune Forums.

http://animorphsforum.com & http://zunejamaica.com

Found some songs I wanted, but marketplace labeled the songs as unavailable. So, will they be available in the future, if not, they shouldn't be in the marketplace. Other than that, I'm having a great time in marketplace and yes I have a zune pass and purchased microsoft points as well. I do like when your searching for artists and there's a most played column and playlist column. Don't quite understand the podcasts, there just too many and some are video others are not. Maybe there should be a brief synopsis when you go over the podcast instead of having to click and then read about it and then subscribe. The mixtapes and playlists are great. Idea for next playlist-Guitar Hero I, II, and III

I

Combine it with the XBL Marketplace

Regarding Zune Pass, I don't have one yet. But since I'm in a household with a total of five people, we would consider it if there was an easy way to add-on more Zunes and/or computers to a Zune Pass.

I mostly used the marketplace at first to find podcasts, but the disorganization and search "feature" make it easier to find podcasts using Google.

I really like the Zune Marketplace.  If you're refering to the software itself, it could use a few improvements (not visually, but in terms of features like better tag editing, screensaver disabling, etc.).  If you're talking about the Marketplace, then I think it's very good.  A few things I'd like to see are: video downloads, more music (the selection is great, but more is better!), and the ability to comment on podcasts.

As for the Zune Pass, I have one and I love it!  It's one of the many great features that separates Zune from the other competitors.  I only wish you could "tie" it to more than one account.  I share the account with another member of my family (we live inside the same house) and it would be nice to be able to tie it to her WLID as well.

Other than that, I think the Zune Marketplace and Zune Pass are awesome!  Great job!

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May the Force be with you!
IMO, iP*d, iTu**s, Ap**e, M*c, etc. are all swear words. ;)

from http://forums.zune.net/2/73108/ShowPost.aspx#73108

Regarding music not available via Zune Pass...

I wish there was some way to see an explanation about availability when an artist/album/song can't be downloaded. As much as I love the idea of Zune Pass, I hate it when I am browsing the Marketplace and I come across music that is available but only for purchase. I know Microsoft can't control the studios or artists, but at least we could have a brief note about the reason why it can't be made available for Zune Pass (and maybe even what they outlook is for changing that). It's especially frustrating with artists that have some of their albums/songs available for Zune Pass download but not others.

And what about a way to be alerted to (or see a report of) music that has recently been enabled for Zune Pass downloads? I've been disappointed by not being able to download many things in the past, but I have no easy way of finding out if the status has changed for those items. It's easy enough to recheck on specific music, but I want to see a list of ALL music enabled for download in the last week (or something to that effect). I don't want to have to remember to check Led Zeppelin or The Beatles or anything Disney (for my kids, I promise!) every couple months to see if things have changed. Or another angle might be to have the Zune software allow users to flag specific artists/albums/songs for later follow-up (either to purchase or hopefully download with Zune Pass). 

As many others have pointed out, Zune Pass can be a great way to experience new music or indulge in nostalgia without having to buy. I certainly don't want to buy "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer, but I love that I can just grab stuff like that (legally!) when I'm in a flashback mood. Or I can download 30 albums of Christmas music and then ditch it all when the season's over. Especially for us old fogies who had their main music collection on pre-CD media formats, Zune Pass is a nice option to have. Now if Microsoft would just enhance the usability a bit more...

Greetings, thanks for starting this thread.  My major gripe with Zune Pass is the inflexibility associated with changing your email address associated with my account.  I created my account with the Zune marketplace back when I was using my hotmail.com address.  Today I have migrated everything over to a live.com address, but there is no way I can migrate dechah over to the live.com address in the Market place.

This is a pain because I simply need my one live.com address to login to my Windows Live Spaces, my Skydrive, Windows Live Messnger etc etc etc, but I need a separate login using the old credentials to get into the Zune market place.  If I try and create a new login with my live.com address, I have to forego the dechah tag because it is already in use (by me).

 

I have to honestly say that the Marketplace isn't my main concern. The Zune Marketplace works well enough for what it does. The only thing I would improve if I could is the amount of songs currently blocked for use under the Pass. There are just too many songs that are available for sale, but not in the subscription.

My main issues are with the actual software itself.

Tag editing definitely needs to be improved. The editable options are too limited and the changes often do not stick. Also it would be nice to be able to edit more than one file's tag at a time.

You guys really need to get smart playlists working again. There should at least be a way to search for most recently added tracks in your collection.

Determining what you have on your Zune compared to your PC is confusing if you manually update your collection. Searching for a song title will send you to the PC directory, but not tell you if it's currently on the Zune or not.

How about the sever lack of Movies and TV Shows to buy on the ZMP.  I have experience with XBL so I KNOW for fact that MS already has the product in place so why is there such a hold up in getting the licensing in place for the ZMP?

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Hold your breath someone is about to tell the greatest lie EVER!

Zune pass is great, you should advertise it more.

The market place needs more videos, podcasts, specialty stores and audible books. The navigation its great and the variety has gotten better by the day.

I would like to see the MarketPlace with any Wi-Fi connection, and that you should listen to your customers more and less to the corporate guys, we know this is a business but if you keep your customers happy, they will bring more and more; then the corporate guys will be happy.

I think you guys are doing a great job, and we can see the improvements in a daily basis, I hope you keep it up.

Thanks,

I have beta tested many games for major companies, have beta tested multiple Microsoft software (discovered a top critical flaw in Windows Home Server), have been a network administrator for nearly 10 years, so I do know a thing or two.  I really like the Zune and want it to do well, but there are many areas it can improve in.  Please impliment these improvements, and do contact me for further information if you wish.

ZUNE HARDWARE:
HARDWARE:
-Add AM radio.  There is so much good stuff on AM, especially here in Southern California
-Add a set of stereo speakers on the Zune so people could watch or listen to items without having to use the headphones.  Even a mono speaker like most cell phones have would be better than no speakers.

INTERFACE:
-I want to be able to browse or play songs I have rated highly (drop the hearts, bring back the stars rating).
-It needs to be faster when scrolling down or up going from A to Z.
-If I am in the music section and want to go to W, I need to scroll all the way down from A!  AGH! I should be able to scroll up from A to go to Z.

OTHER:
-Add a clock.
-Add BlueTooth stereo audio for Zune hardware.  Maybe this can be a software upgrade since the Zune has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth recently announced they will be doing Bluetooth over Wifi (http://www.wireless-weblog.com/50226711/introducing_bluetooth_over_wifi.php).
-Drop the propritary plugs.  Use standard mini-USB.
-I like the cloth wrapped headphones, but they transmit friction noise on my clothes
-The earbuds don't stay in the ears, and believe me, I know how to use headphones, I am an headphone junkie.
-Get car deck receivers to support the Zune via Stereo Bluetooth or a Zune connector so I can easily listen to the Zune in my car.

ZUNE SOFTWARE
OVERALL
-The thing hogs up my CPU, and I have a fast CPU.
-Enable it to run as a service in the background downloading Podcasts.
-The "heart" rating system is stupid.  Bring back the 5 stars rating system.
-The "twist" interface is great on the Zune hardware.  Why can't we have the "twist" interface for the Zune software?
-Add an icon in the lower-left hand side near the Zune and CD icon to display if downloads are occurring and the percentage done.  If one clicks on it, it will take them to the marketplace>downloads section.
-Make it mine?  Too bad I can only select a few backgrounds.  I want to select my own backgrounds.  Make it so when I change a background in in either my Zune Tag, Zune device or Zune software the picture is applied to the background for all.

LIBRARY
-You NEED to make a good tag/album editor at least as good if not better than the existing Windows Media Player.  Editing music is basically non-existent with the Zune software.
-I want to be able to paste album art, not search for it on the hard drive to add it.  Windows Media Player does not have this problem.
-The ability for the software to automatically manage the library by renaming, and moving files into folders to keep things organized would be a nice optional feature.
-Add DivX support.  Also, the hardware & software are very picky about what MP4 formats it will play.

VIDEO
-When viewing video fullscreen, it always shows the bottom bar which is annoying.
-Does not detect all standard MP4 encoded video files I have in the scanned directories.  Again, the software is very picky about the MP4 formats.
-Make it sync with Windows Media Center (it claims it will in your advertising, but no one I have talked to at Microsoft knows how to do this), and make it sync both standard def and high-def.  Most major shows are HDTV now, so make it sync them.  Have it auto-detect the presence of shows recorded in Windows Media Center

PODCASTS:
-Notification in the corner of the Podcast icon graphic indicating if it downloading new podcasts, or if there are new podcasts to listen to and the # of new ones.  If I want to find out which Podcast has new shows and how many at a glance.  This should be displayed in both the Zune hardware & software.
-I really like the resume feature.  It would be nice if where I left off in my podcasts carried over to the Zune hardware and vice-versa.
-Need support for enhanced podcasts on the Zune software & hardware
-When I mark a track as "keep until I delete", there needs to be a check box next to it or something to indicate I did this.

RIPPING
-Rip needs formats such as AAC and VBR MP3 with the LAME codec for high quality sound.

BURNING
-When I burn multiple podcasts/albums as a data CD, they should be burned into multiple folders.  Windows Media Player does this right.  Zune does not, it burns them to the root directory and they are all mixed together.

ZUNE SOCIAL:
-Drop the 3 plays limit.  You should not DRM anything that I have on my device and want to share.  Much of the media I have created myself and I don't want DRM shackles on it.  If it was a purchased DRM song, then I can understand keeping the DRM limits on it, but other than that, DROP THE DRM!
-I like how what I play with the Zune software and Zune hardware shows up on my Zune Tag.  Why can't the podcasts I listen to show up on my Zune tag?
-I want to be able to share a video just as I can share audio, and it would not let me with my other Zune friend.
-How about sharing via the Zune software or Zune.net.  Add a right-click, share function.

ZUNE MARKETPLACE:
-Drop the Microsoft points.  I don't want to do any conversions to figure out how much I am paying.  I live in the US and want to use dollars and cents.
-DRM for subscription music makes sense, but DRM for purchased music does not.  I will not "buy" any music with DRM on it.

ZUNE OTHER:
-Get the Zune team together with the Windows Mobile team and throw out the crappy Windows Media Player 10 Mobile and replace it with the Zune interface.  Even the button layout on the Windows Mobile phones matches the layout of the Zune, you just need to design it.
-CONSOLIDATE YOUR MEDIA PLAYERS!!!!!.  Pick Zune or WMP, don't have both.  It creates confusion and the need to run multiple players.  Imagine if you had to run different browsers to view different websites, ugghh.
-More frequent updates to Zune software & firmware.  I don't want to wait a year, or even half a year for things to be fixed.
-Gapless audio playback.
-Add a "recently played" feature to both Zune hardware & software.  With the twist interface it can be "recently played > (music, albums, artists, podcasts, videos, pictures)"
-Make everything a cohesive experience with Windows Mobile, Windows Live, Windows Messenger, Windows Home Server, etc.
-Use the Sync Center.  Isn't this software designed to unify our syncing of devices?  I have a Zune and a Windows Mobile phone and I need to use Windows Media Player, Sync Center, Windows Mobile Device Center, Zune software, and have Outlook open all to sync my two devices!  5 different programs to sync 2 devices!!  This is insane!  It should be one piece of software that interfaces with all my devices to sync them all.

ZUNE PRAISE:
-There are lot of things to fix for sure, but there are many things done right:
-Audio/video pauses when I unplug the headphones.  Nice.
-Podcast support is great.  More control over Podcast options is better than iTunes.  The resume feature is wonderful.  Marketplace Podcast channel is better organized and much easier to browse than iTunes.  Keep the Podcast Channel up to date and keep it easy for people to subscribe.
-The hardware is excellent.  Great size (though it could be a tad bit smaller), and the Zune pad works so well.
-Excellent interface.  The "twist" interface is a winner, better than the iPod.  Needs some refinement here and there, but excellent nontheless.