The 3.0 release was packed with lots of awesome new features. As a part of this new feature set, we introduced channels for our Zune Pass users. Channels are essentially subscription playlists that are updated automatically for you on a regular basis. This is an awesome way to have new music delivered to you automatically. I really enjoy my channels, and I want you to enjoy them too.  So, in this post, I am going to give you a little primer on channels, how they work, and how to use them.

First of all, you must be a Zune Pass subscriber to enjoy the full channel experience. For those of you who don’t know, (get out from under that rock, dude) the Zune Pass is a subscription music service in which you can download, stream, and sync millions of songs from our Marketplace catalog for only $14.99 per month. That’s right, unlimited song downloads for the cost of one CD per month. Yeah, awesome.

Once you have your Zune Pass, sign into your Marketplace account and then connect your device. If your device is not linked to your Marketplace account/Zune tag, you will need to link it to sync channels. To link your device go to Settings > Device > Linking. Once there, click the radio button next to “Link my Zune to a Zune tag”, you’ll also want to check the box next to “Enable Zune Marketplace content purchase from device.” Then click the “next” button and you’ll be presented with the Marketplace sign-in dialog box. Enter in your Marketplace credentials, then click the “confirm” button to send the credentials to your device. Once your device is linked, click ok to exit settings.

Now it’s time to find channels and sync them to your device. Go to Marketplace, and click on channels. There you will find lots of channels, from the “Billboard Chart hits” channel, to our own curated channels like “Hip-Hop hosted by The Leadbelly”, and even custom channels created based on your listening habits titled “Just For You”. Let’s use the Hip-hop channel as an example. In the categories section on the left side, click on “Zune DJs”.

Once there, click on “Hip Hop hosted by The Leadbelly” and you will be taken to the channel page. Then just click on the subscribe button and the channel will start downloading into your collection.

Now go to collection > channels and you should see the channel there. Now just sync the channel to your device as normal, either by dragging and dropping it to your device, or right-clicking the channel and choose to sync to your device.

Now sit back and relax, as it may take longer than a usual sync to get the channel on your device. Why is that you ask? Well, channels (and friend’s user cards for that matter) are actually sync’d directly from Marketplace using a USB passthrough internet connection. So, the device is really downloading the channel right to the device directly. When the device is syncing/downloading the channel, you will get a status message in the device view of “updating device content.” We realize that is not extremely informative status, and will look to improve that in the future.

So, let’s pretend that channel sync did not work for some reason. Here are a few troubleshooting tips…

If the channel got to your device, but there are no tracks in the channel, your device credentials may need to be updated. Try unlinking your device, then re-linking it to your Marketplace account as described above. If that doesn’t help, some users have reported that rebooting their device can resolve the issue.

Another great feature of channels is that they can be updated from the device itself over-the-air on a WiFi connection. This also doubles as a good test to see if your device is properly linked. On the device, go to settings > wireless > sync > channels > update channels.  If you are in a WiFi hotspot (currently we have Wayport access at all McDonald’s locations that have Wayport access), or at home with your own wireless network, you’ll then be asked to connect and the channel update will proceed. This is great if you are on vacation and want to catch the weekly update of your favorite channel.

To recap, there are a few conditions that have to be met to sync channels.

1.       You must have a valid Zune Pass subscription

2.       Your device must be linked to your Marketplace account with Zune Pass

3.       Your device must be partnered with your computer (NOT connected as a guest)

Got all 3? Then what are you waiting for? Go explore the awesomeness that is channels! Channels have enabled me to find tons of new tunes that I would not have otherwise listened to.  Try them out; I think you’ll find some gems as well. Enjoy!