Mr Weather B wrote:
Throwing out another idea, how about some kind of listening challenge, partly to introduce Zune listeners to new music? Like listen to 10 pieces of world music, classical, jazz, etc. in the next week. Minimal integration with the Zune software could enable tracking, like add your challenge songs to a playlist with some defined title like "Challenge1" and your profile could have a separate tracking list for the challenge by simply monitoring what was played from that playlist and whether it fits the requirement of the challenge.
Definitely love this idea! Finding new music can be a difficult thing and this would be a fun way to do that. Maybe get some MS points for completing the challenge. The number of songs might have to be tweaked for non-zune pass members, but maybe getting points would offset that? I suppose the challenge could have a recommended playlist or 2 maybe as well. Afterword, the list you used to complete the challenge could be available on your card or something for others to browse through. I'm kind of thinking Pandora here even though this is more about buying music. Mr Weather B wrote:
I feel like there is an element still needed to make this really viral, and it's right on the tip of my tongue, but it hasn't hit me yet and I wanted to throw the idea out to the group.
As for the viral piece, a couple of ideas to throw out there. I know we can get music from other people's zunes if we are in physical proximity, but what if we could get a song from someone through the site? I see this scenario: We're looking for world music for the challenge, so I start browsing through the genre/artists and see that a user is the top listener of Shamus-Ud-Doha Bader-Ud-Doja. I send a message to them and I'm able to get their "favorite" song that matches the challenge(obviously making something complicated simple :) ). Maybe it will only play a few times, but at least I can hear the music and complete the challenge. I've heard new music AND made contact with someone who could potentially become a friend. Maybe that person supplying the song gets some kind of credit for challenge assistance.
Another idea for viral could be "group" challenges. Same idea with lists of songs, but maybe you get 5 songs and a friend gets 5 songs. You both get credit for completing the challenge, but the burden of getting the songs is less. I've gotten most of my XBox live friends by playing the same game so maybe you could see others who are involved in a certain challenge and befriend them.
Mike
