This week at Advance 08, Robbie Bach*, who leads the Entertainment and Devices division here at Microsoft, talked about a pilot program to bring advertisers into Zune Social. Before the internets and the conspiracy theorists go too far, let me set some context around this.
First off, adding sponsored content to your friends list is entirely optional. If you don’t want to be associated with any brands, you don’t have to add any. We think including partners in Zune Social could work because there’s a definite value to the community, with sponsors offering up premium content. You’ll be able to get access to branded content that enhances your Zune experience if you want it -- like a free track, a video, a background image, etc.
Take the Ryu Hayabusa proof-of-concept as an example. He’s a fictional character from an upcoming Xbox 360 game, one you can add to your friend list, and sync his Zune Card to your Zune. If you visit Ryu’s page, you can also download the Ninja Gaiden 2 video game soundtrack. And as an added benefit to adding Ryu, his page will refresh a few times a week – giving you more fun game-related content to enjoy. But if you hate ninjas, or aren’t an Xbox person, you don’t have to add him. Either way, all good!