My take is this, the Zune social is a new, hip way of connecting music lovers. If you browse around to a user and see what they are listening to you can accomplish a few things... a) if you already know the music, you can form an idea of the type person they are b) If you don't know the music, you can give it a try and maybe find something you've never heard that you really like. There are tons of lesser known, non mainstream artist that rock.

I can see the social as a way to connect and make new online friends with others that share the same music tastes.

I have a Zune Tag, but I hardly look at it or look at others'. I would much prefer if the Zune team concentrated their efforts on adding more features to the software and device.

As an additional feature that has "social" implications, I'd like to hear an optional beep whenever someone tries to send me something from their Zune. Currently, if I'm not looking at my Zune, I'll never know whenever someone tries to contact and share something with me.

Haha, I didn't think my answer would get placed up here. That's awesome. I still would go with my listening lounge analogy. It's because I can now peek a listen through someone's "headphones" that I'm discovering music I probably wouldn't have found on my own. That's the great thing about this service.

Ya i too would rather the Zune team better the new software the old one was soo easy to find ur album info just right click and select find album info i want that back please.ONE LOVE

Audible support!

Unbox support!

Down with censorship!

I'd describe it as a poor mans Last FM.

Its a place where you can spy on what others (usually complete strangers) are listening too.

Zune Social is ok. But I still think Last.FM is the better of being a "music discoverability" site, than ZS. I REALLY thought you should have formed a partnership or buy Last.FM, where there's already a more established place for discovering music. Just make it work with the Zune, without alienating their current user base, and it would work out real well. But I guess it's too late for that...

I also don't like it for some other reasons:

1. You have to go to a separate site to view it - Is there a problem with viewing it in the Zune program? It would make more sense there. So for now, the Social section of the program is rather useless.

2. You need a Live ID - not everyone has that, and aren't interested into doing that either. Most independent sites support all e-mail addresses.

3. Not all album art is shown - I found it surprising, that some of the music that came with my Zune (with album art) didn't show album art on the site. Just a brown square.

4. You can't use the word "Zune" in your profile status - I think that's ridiculous. There's many Zune lovers out there, and restricting that doesn't help your fanbase.

5. Inbox is separate by site - Why can't I receive the messages in my Live Hotmail account? Or any account for that matter? It's kind of ridiculous. I could do more than the meager offerings in ZS.

Those are my main dislikes. Hopefully you'll guys do better. I still wish you would just update WMP11 to work with Zunes. That's what a lot of fans want, and you guys aren't giving.

Hey! I really want a zune, cause they are cheaper than iPods, and not made by apple. But all my music is in iTunes and in mp4 format! will I be able to get it onto my zune without having to convert it back to mp3?? and also, can it be used as a portable hard drive, and how can i put pics on it???ummm...i think thats all. oh yeah, vids, will it only take .wmv or can I add .avi onto it as well, and stuff like DiVX?? thanks

The Zune Social is greatt!!! It is cool to see all the music that people are listening too out there.  It is also cool to see what music I listen to the most.

PLEASE IMPROVE THIS....

The only part of the social I see need of improving is on the zune device itself.  There needs to be an option available to make a beeping sound when somebody trys to connect to your device.  There are always a few zunes around me, but I cannot connect to them because they don't know I'm trying to connect; because they arn't looking at there zune at the moment.

"It reminds me of being in a record store with one of those listening lounges. Everyone has those huge headphones on rocking to something and you look over and you wonder what they're listening to. This social gives us a chance to answer that question. The social is just one gigantic listening lounge."

Take this analogy further. Wouldn't it be good if I could go and tap that person on the shoulder and talk to them about it.

That's why providing IM capabilities(http://jamiethomson.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!550F681DAD532637!3203.entry) is so important.

-Jamie

Hey Cesar, I thought you might be interested in featuring one of the things that my favorite Zune site is doing.

The folks over at ZuneBoards.com is giving away free, yes FREE accessories in exchange for posts. This is a great idea and really brings us Zuners together to create the 'social' feeling.

There's been thousands of discussion spurred by this new program. 7 people have gotten free accessories already, and it's been 48 since the program launch! I find that truly amazing.

www.ZuneBoards.com/forums/zunecentive.php

http://www.zuneboards.com/site-news/zunecentive-launched-earn-free-zune-accessories-easily.html

http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/zunecentive-167/

ZuneBoards completely changed since they left the 'warez' scene. I'm starting to like it more and more.

The Social is so elegant and simple that I don't believe people quite understand it yet, they still are trying to fall back on what they know vs. bringing themselves into the space.  Personally it's taken me awhile to get into the groove of going from profile to profile, dropping comments and exploring, yet now that the light bulb has gone off I'm addicted.

Being able to listen to music directly from the web page without installing something or even having a profile is an amazing feature and makes discovering music much more accessible.  The Social is like a bazaar, at first confusing but once you get to know it you love what you can discover and get addicted to all the little gems you can discover.

So I love the Zune 2 device. Slick, sexy, and much better than the iPod. However, Zune software is a different story. iTunes has a HUGEEE advantage in regards to software. Will the Zune software be updated soon so that it can be at least as user-friendly as the iTunes software? Things that I'd like to see are: Smart-playlists, easier metadata editting, when a song is playing the list mode will highlight the song, less glitches in organising songs, and album art displayed when song is playing. If you have time, a reply to danselikeglassx @ gmail.com would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Bo

Wholeheartedly agree with Jaxim and Rockman87.

HAVE THE ZUNE BEEP WHEN SOMEONE WANTS TO SEND YOU A SONG.

It's all uppercase because this is a *vital* change in order to get music sharing to become successful on the Zune. Like they said, I too see a few people with Zunes nearby, but nobody is ever looking at the screen when they are listening to music! There must be a way for them to become aware of that someone wants to send them something. Also, don't just have the subtle click sound that's currently used in the menus.

I'd love to check out the Zune social....but as I'm in the UK, I'm pretty locked out of everything my Zune30 should let me access.

Cesar, could you please tell me why UK users can't send Play data to the social? I'm logged in, but because I'm in the UK, my data doesn't send. What exactly is the big deal with me showing people what I'm listening to? Or are my interests region-restricted as well?

I can understand not accessing the marketplace, but uploading data to the social? Come ON.

Michael, #2 on your list seems abit odd considering that when you install Zune software, you go through a process that establishes a Zune/Live ID.  As for #1, I tend to agree and assume some aspects of Zune Social site will eventually be included in the software.

I have used it as a tool to fuel my mass downloading sprees.  With the zune pass, I can download just about anything without paying per track.  A cool way to choose what my next downloads will be is to see what others are playing on their Social pages.  It's not something that I do often, but I have downloaded more than 10 or so albums in one day after checking out the pages of my friends.

I really like the zune card and social.  I think it's a real innovative feature.  I just wish it was easier to get the site to recognize your music.  I have tons of MP3s but not all of them show up on my recent played.  Zune shows the artwork so I don't know why it doesn't show up.  I fixed some but it's annoying to have to fix 30 or 40 CDs.  Especially considering most were ripped using Windows Media Player.

I love the idea, and the firt pass is pretty good.  I like checking out others songs, someone suggested someplace playlist sharing would be fun, i liked being able to search others playlists (if they allowed it ofcourse)when I was on yahoo music before Zune.

Let me echo another comment

Audible.com support (wich means audio bookmarks as well)

Amazon unbox support

Please.

Compatibility outside the US would be nice. I travel to Europe for extended periods and it's just a small hindrance that I can't access my favorite new social network.

I like The Social but I do think it would have been a wise decision to also support last.fm and pandora as well. Users like choices.

I do like that we can communicate directly with the users, almost like an auto-generated music blog in a sense, but I wish the Zune would recognize podcasts as well rather than just music. I realize that as a company MS wants to encourage purchases from the ZMP but as social users I want to explore and discover other content too.

Finally, the well-known dead horse of the extremely limited tag editing. It's past the point of ridiculous when I need a third-party application just to make simple tag edits and have to wonder if the day arrives when Winamp and other popular media software can directly interface with Zune devices if people will abandon the Zune software?

I personally love Zune Social.  It's a really nice idea that has great potential.  However, I did see a few pictures and videos of Zune Social inside the Zune Software... I'd imagine that's in the works?

the Zune social is ok...  Previous comments comparing it to www.last.fm are right on.  The size of their community, integration with local events/performances, etc. put Last.FM miles ahead of the social...  

Don't develop new ideas for the social.  Steal the best ones from Last.FM and get back to work on fixing the software and firmware deficiencies with the Zune.

Is there any way in which I can sign up to for Zune social in the UK??  My issue is that I have a problem with my premier earphones (the right side has really low volume).  All I want to do is speak with someone to replace it as it is still under warranty!  But only way to do this is to be part of Zune social.  Please help or advise!!