Music, culture, and the inside scoop from Cesar Menendez,
a Microsoft employee working on Zune - Microsoft's new music project.

November 14, 2007

Zune-Arts Relaunches

Over a year ago, Zune-arts.net went live with a video featuring two dudes, a bunny, and a cool Regina Spektor song. This year, the site is relaunching - with over three dozen collaborations, a redesigned interface, and a new video. Check out "Masks" a film by PandaPanther with music by The Black Angels:

 

 |  Wednesday, November 14, 2007 7:29 PM  |  39 Comments
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Dan D

also there are issues with wireless sharing between 2 z30's running the new firmware. it takes forever to find my friends zune wich is right next to mine.

DavidMx

Hey cesar, what about a Zune-Arts Podcast, It would be great, givin away new music and new videos!

De Mexico Pa'l Mundo

Kyle

Scratch that last post, it isn't what I want to do.  Sorry if this is confusing.  I have two accounts.  I have one that I would like to use but my email account is attatched to the other one.  I would like to make my real account's email the other ones.  How can I delete the other account and change the email of my current one.

bobr

That was very odd.

bernard

very 300ish

Woody56292

yeah I checked this out yesterday, the video is awesome, and I like the new zune-arts.net site.

I agree with David, can we get a podcast please?

=D

sportsunit

That was odd and cool all at the same time.  Whatever...lol.

Zerodogma

Trippy video... Cylons fighting/meshing with Punkin'-heads... in a very LSD-helmet induced sort of way ;-)

That Black Angels song is very reminiscent of The Doors, therefor very fitting.    

Mark

my only complaint about the new zune stuff: takes entirely too long to convert windows media center recorded tv. I started a sync about 2 hours ago of a south park episode and it's at 31%!!!!

DavidMx

My aunt just came from the US and.. there weren't Z80's :( they tell her that next week, but I can't go next week.. and I miss the social!

De Mexico Pa'l Mundo!

Nick

That was some funky stuff... in a good way.

brutha-man

Zune 2 software=fail. Don't like it...its messed my stuff up.

newZUNE2

ZuneMaster

@bernard

300 Roolz!! And so does this new video!! and so does the new firmware!! I generate interest amongst my Apple brethren with the new firmware too!!

Dan D

i hope theres a fix for this tag edting because i have songs thats say #3 in the list but its tag is 00 so it shows up first in the cd. how come there is no find album info anymore either? i really liked that feature. well gotta go to work. i cant wait to buy a z80. :) again just wanna congratulate you guys on a good job even if there are some major drawbacks with library managing now

JHAirForce05

I would love to see a podcast come out.

sportsunit

Mr. Cez, you guys need an official Zune podcast...seriously.  There's a lot of people who need to be consoled about the state of the current software...lol.  Seriously, will MS release some sort of statement that there will be an update soon?  It's too bad you guys just finished, had a party and everything, and now people are moaning and groaning.  But, being a user of the Zune software, I'm sure you understand.

Larry

I'd really like to know if Microsoft is ever going to release Zune support for Mac OS X.  That's the only thing keeping me from buying one, and I think it's ridiculous that you guys don't support it on anything other than Windows.

Eric Dyer

Great stuff.

How do you go about choosing the artists for the zune?

damien

John Lennon would be so proud. Peace, brotha.

:D

(I still love the Zune Arts stuff. I'm glad to see more graphically-artistic Zune commercials, too.)

Eric

Caeser, the new update has completely screwed up my ENTIRE music collection and my MP3 player. I first installed the new software and it rescanned my music and screwed everything up. I mean my I have the cover of a Stevie Ray Vaughn album, with the title of a strokes album and the music of Chris Cornell.

WHAT THE HELL? I AM SO SICK OF THIS!

Cesar Menendez

Eric - try this fix and let me (and us) what happens http://forums.zune.net/2203/ShowPost.aspx

Ken C

Can we get an update on when Podcasts that we (podcasters in general) have submitted to you guys might start showing up?

Dan D

looks like the zune team is back to their bbq's and leaving us in the dark once again :) j/k i really have to say though i noticed how awesome the new zune software looks annd feels compared to itunes which never ever caught my eye. it was to plain and boring. i def like the new look. thumbs up. but down for no tag editing. i think less ppl would be mad about their library problem if they could at least fix it themselves! lol

Matt

Cesar, I have a question for the Zune Team. I'd really be glad if you could ask them and get me a response.

Is the 320 by 240 resolution on videos on the Zune a hardware limitation, or a software limitation?

I've been curious for a while.

Matt

Because I know the iTouch has a .3 inch bigger screen and has 480x320, I just really think if it's possible it should be near the top of the priority list for updates.

Matt

Sorry for the triple post, but I stand corrected.

All of the iPods down to the Nano have 640x480 video.

I mean, I love my Zune and still want an 80, but even slightly increased resolution would make me sooo happy.

Fred

who chose the defaults for the software? Come on you guys know males are the ones buying the zunes for the most part so why default to a pink background. I'm just curious to know the reasoning behind the choice? Seems to miss the target demographic

mnmtiu

Just want to second (or third, or whatever) the vote for a zune arts podcast.  These videos would be perfect for a little zune consumption.  I think you're missing the boat a little here.

Ricardo Dawkins

@Matt...

the only iPod with better on screen video resolution than any Zune is the Touch.

sportsunit

A couple of quick one-liners about the zune software:

-the now playing aspect of the software needs to be redone with the "now playing" list having the same functionality as a playlist.

-the restore download history for subscriptions continues to stall at 12%

-there is currently no way to skip songs with a broken heart on the device, which negates one of the only benefits of having such as simplified system.

-video organization for your colleciton is currently one big folder with all of your videos files dumped in it, which is not acceptable.

-There are at least 10 scenarios where sorting is not possible but should be in the software.

-We should be able to see genres in not only the list view, but in the browse view as well for our collections.

-Will there ever be any sort of library organization on the device, even just a save quicklist option?

-With 30,000+ songs in my library, I almost feel paralyzed not being able to create autoplaylists.

-Do you guys actually read the threads on the wishlists of the zune.net forums because there are some very important threads on there.

-Right-clicking a song to get to an artist's page in the marketplace or an album in the marketplace should be standard across different sections within the software.

-Finally, will there ever be a more focused venue for people like myself who have had zunes and zune passes from day one to express how development of the software should progress from here on (or does MS and the Zune Team want to go through this with every new relaase)?

p.s. I believe that focus groups have some sort of importance, but I  would suggest that MS and the Zune team put more trust in their loyal fanbase to help with the design and progression of the platform because we would love to see it succeed.

Dan D

i love how sportunit says he has a couple of "quick one liners" that turn out to be separate paragraphs lol

sportsunit

lol@paragraphs...I believe they must contain more than one sentence bud.  OK...OK...two-liners is that better.... 3-liners?  LMAO...

Matt

@Ricardo:

I was looking at the specs on iPods, and the Nano, Classic, and Touch all have 640x480 listed under every video format's size.

Dan D

@ sportsunit - lol well i commented and then read it. then im like oh well i guess most of em are one liners but very long looking one liners. i agree with all of ur "three liners" though as long as tag editing is on there!

Espiox

Hey Cesar. I was listening to J on Major Nelson's podcast today, and he mentions that one of the best things with Xbox Live is the community stuff like MyGamerCard that has been done with APIs. Are Zune Social APIs coming? Because flash files can't be posted on the forums I visit.

LARKgo

Yeah, video's cool. Too bad my music collection is so messed up right now I don't really care. I'm sorry, but trying to get the Zune software to actually display the right album art/artist/album has taken way too much of my time already, and I'm seriously thinking of just putting my Zune (which  I've been loving up until now) away and dusting off my iPod until this issue is finally cleared up.

I just don't understand how such terrible software was released...

Cesar Menendez

Toph

I agree that a Zune Arts video podcast would be fantastic. (And cool video. :))

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