Welcome to Guest Spotlight! A new feature on ZI in which we have different members of the Zune team post anything that is on their mind. A favorite feature, day-in-the-life, technical explanations of features, etc. Anything goes! We'll keep these coming on a regular basis from folks all around Zune. Let us know if you have any ideas on who you would like to hear from, or what you would like to know more about. Enjoy!

I am an avid music lover and I crave for new music.

Like most lovers, over the years I ended up selecting a small circle of friends that share common music taste with me. Our taste does not overlap 100%, and I kind of know what to expect from them, nonetheless I want to know what is their latest and greatest band/album because I might like it!

My music friends and I have been in a long relationship over the years: we went to gigs together, we bought and exchanged records or tapes, we talked about music. Thinking back, I can say I discovered most of my beloved bands this way: I still remember a cassette with my first Sonic Youth record (Goo, 1990) recorded by my friend Fabrizio - what a life changer!

Today, those friends are on the Zune Social. The best thing of all is that, even if they live far away from me, I can go and check their latest trip all the time: I just open the Zune PC client, select the Social tab and pick the friend I am into for the moment.  When I am on their profile page, I just double click on the first song in the Recent list and let it go; with my Zune Pass I can listen to the entire song.

To get the most enjoyment, I don't analyze the list of artists or track or try to anticipate what's coming; I just minimize the app and let my friend be the DJ; if there is a song that I like, I can pop the client back up and start digging into the artist and influences.

Today, I was playing Fabrizio's list - he went all over the place: from old 90's noise rock to new alt/neo-prog. And then it came out: a song from Melt Banana, a Japanese noise rock whose name was familiar but I never checked out - I immediately downloaded the song to my collection, new stuff with potential in my collection! I plan to check them out and listen to their record a few times, to see if it's long loving relationship or just a short passion ;)

A great advantage of the Social is that you can do this not only with the people you know personally, but with any member of the community. I often go to the pick's page and check out the listeners like you - sometimes I find great matches and add them to my friend's list, I can now "play" them anytime I want.

Hope you can find a great band today by playing your friends!

Ciao,

Mauro.

Mauro is a Program Manager on the Zune Services team hailing from Genoa, Italy (now living in Redmond). He enjoys spending time with his two extra-energetic boys and helping create the future of Zune!