Quick Note on Ads in Zune Social

re: Quick Note on Ads in Zune Social

bobr — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:28:11 GMT

"if you’re Robbie Bach and are reading this, I would just like to say: hello!"

???????

What's up Cesar Robbie gone MIA?

re: Quick Note on Ads in Zune Social

Kev Orng — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:07:02 GMT

@MrWeatherB - No kidding, its almost like someone at MS is trying to trip up the zune team. Even from the start, the decisions to limit sales to the US market and not make it Mac compatible ultimately led me and some of my friends to settle for a you-know-what instead. And now they start throwing out these easily misinterpreted comments that appear to introduce two of the bogeymen that customers clearly do not want: Draconian DRM and maybe- intrusive ads. And by the time poor Cesar has explained it here, public perception has already linked Zune, ads, and DRM.

Anyway, I've got maybe three years before I'm in the market for a media player again, which should give the Zune software development team plenty of time to

realize that cross-platform is the way of the future. The third thing younger customers don't want: to be tied to one OS.

re: Quick Note on Ads in Zune Social

Kiel — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:08:09 GMT

I dont really get it... if i already have zune pass, why would i put up with ads for 'free' songs?

re: Quick Note on Ads in Zune Social

Kyle — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:52:10 GMT

Is it just me, or do embedding Zune Cards never work...

re: Quick Note on Ads in Zune Social

MrWeatherB — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:42:33 GMT

This is the second time in just a couple weeks where you guys have needed to apologize/explain/qualify comments made around potential Zune features, namely ads on Zune and the infamous NBC comments around content filtering. While the blogosphere is overwhelmingly eager to bash Zune at every opportunity, Microsoft doesn't need to be laying up opportunities to do so on a silver platter. I love my Zune and I haven't been scared a bit once I learned the details around either of these news bits... however, each time these stories break, I see so many comments on blogs along the lines of "I will never buy a Zune now that I hear they are planning to do [insert inflammatory mis-interpreted scary anti-customer feature here]." Somebody in Microsoft marketing needs to consider how some of these feature announcements could be mis-interpreted and be a little more pro-active aronud how to craft them. The Zune community is much better off when something good is finally printed about the Zune in mainstream media like the New York Times, rather than having them pick up something bad and have it explained and de-fused on a much lower traffic site (no offense!) like Zuneinsider. I want more Zunes out there so I can do more sharing, stop making it easy for people to get scared away!

re: Quick Note on Ads in Zune Social

Cdammen — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:07:07 GMT

I love the fact that you guys are putting a lot of focus and effort into making the the Zune Social even better and more diverse. Service > New Hardware = The Future. Keep up the good work!

So... when are you guys launching in Europe? ;)

re: Quick Note on Ads in Zune Social

ZuneTracks — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:02:47 GMT

I think that is a great idea.

re: Quick Note on Ads in Zune Social

Sri — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:55:40 GMT

Nice, thx for explaining b4 everybodys starts screaming.."OMG WTF Advertisements on Zune!!"

This seems to be a nice way to put advertisements, in a way that does not affect the user experience. Hardcore users and fans interested in special content would not mind an un-intrusive ad. But, this will give another opportunity for the iPod fanboys to badmouth Zune...

lol @ "if you’re Robbie Bach and are reading this, I would just like to say: hello!"