Zune Insider

We meet again, Zune Nation!  Here are the goodies for the week of May 3rd – May 9th.

MUSIC

Artist of the Week: The one and only Jennifer Lopez is back with her first album in four years!  Can ‘Love?‘ live up to the expectations?  Have a listen and see what you think.

This week on our interview series ‘5 Minutes with Fame‘, we’ve got Jimmy Eat World!  Check out this Zune and Xbox exclusive and find out what each band member wishes he could take from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Beastie Boys return after being away for 7 years, and to celebrate the release of ‘Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2‘, we’ve got a contest!  Go HERE to enter now!

Hard rockers Shinedown are back with a live album, ‘Somewhere in the Stratosphere‘!  You can listen and get that concert experience at home or in your car – just without five thousand or so of your closest friends.

Are you ready to fiesta on Cinco de Mayo?  You will be if you download our FREE playlist.  Just add chips, salsa and margaritas and you’re good to go!  We’ve also got music from a lot of great Mexican artists on sale, so check those out, too.

International sensation Shakira is our Trending Up Artist this week.  She’s got a new song out called “Rabiosa” – a collaboration with rapper Pitbull.  She also has a Spanish version featuring El Cata so you get a choice!

Our FREE song this week is by a brother and sister duo who hail from Southern California.  Try “Sweet Louise” from the Belle Brigade – if you enjoy folk rock, you’ll love them.

Critically acclaimed Seattle band Fleet Foxes have returned with their second full length album.  Give ‘Helplessness Blues‘ a listen now.

If you want to know what’s ‘Hot This Week‘, all you have to do is get our playlist.  We gather the hottest new releases and the songs that are climbing the charts, and it’s yours with Zune Pass in one quick download.

Country superstars Lady Antebellum have a new single out – “Just a Kiss“.  Will this be another big hit for them?

Sixx A.M. – the other project of Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx – is out with their new album, ‘This Is Gonna Hurt‘.  Nikki has also just released a book of the same title and is currently on a book tour, so if you’ve ever wanted to meet him, this could be your chance!  Check his website for details.

Last but definitely not least – Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there!  We’ve got playlists and sales just for you, and we hope you get to have a nice, relaxing day.

VIDEO

Vince Vaughn and Kevin James star in ‘The Dilemma‘ – a buddy comedy where secrets cause all kinds of mayhem.

Daleks, the Tardis, and the Doctor – oh my!  The 6th season of ‘Doctor Who‘ is here – get the new episodes or go back to other incarnations of the Doctor.

What was your favorite new music and/or video release this week?  Tell us in the comments and we’ll pick one lucky person to win a free month of Zune Pass! P.S. Be sure to come back and check next week to see if you’ve won.

Greetings, Zune Nation!  Here’s what we’ve got for you for the week of April 26 – May 2nd.

MUSIC

Artist of the Week: The Airborne Toxic Event with their new album, All At Once.   This is the sophomore effort from the band, so the expectations are high.  Have you listened to it yet?  They also performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on the 26th – did you catch them?

Beyoncé is back and all about the girl power with her latest single, “Run the World (Girls)“.  She’s even taking a poll on who runs the world over on her website, so go vote if you’d like to speak your mind on the battle of the sexes.

This week’s Trending Up Artist is the Foo Fighters!  They’ve gone number one with Wasting Light in countries all over the world, proclaiming “ROCK AND ROLL IS NUMBER ONE” via Twitter.  If you haven’t listened to the new album yet – get on it!  It really DOES rock.

We have not one but TWO completely and totally FREE songs for you this week.  The first is “Electric Love” from Dirty Vegas, whose new album of the same name dropped this week.  The second is “New Colors” by the Figurines – be sure to get them both!

Metal rockers Otep are out with their new album, Atavist.  Have a listen to these Ozzfest veterans and see what you think.

Have you checked out what’s Hot This Week yet?  Download this playlist with your Zune Pass and you’ll be ‘in the know’ with one click!

Augustana return with their new – and self-titled – album – listen to what the rockers from sunny San Diego have come up with this time.

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As you can tell by the new design, we’ve dusted off Zune Insider and relaunched it with a new look and feel!  If you are reading this in RSS, click here to head to the site and check it out.  A few things we want to point out:

• We love social media! We’ve added widgets for Facebook and Twitter in the sidebar to the right.  If you aren’t part of the Zune Nation on either of these, please join us!
• We love the Zune Nation! We have added commenting system Disqus to the site to encourage healthy conversation, feedback, tips and tricks.  But remember…just like on our social networks, we want this to be a place that everybody can enjoy, so please behave.  If you’re not registered on Disqus make sure to do so, we want to hear from you!
• We love links! Check out the sidebar on the right, there you will find information about other RSS feeds, product info and just about anything else Zune related.
• Don’t forget to subscribe! In the top right corner of this blog you will see links…one of them is to our RSS.  Click it and get updates delivered right to your reader.

Thanks for stopping by! As a special thank you for reading all the way to the bottom of this very short post, we’re going to do a little mini-contest to see who actually got this far.  Everybody that leaves a comment on this post between now and April 19th at midnight PST will be qualified for a chance to win a free month of Zune Pass! We’re going to give away a few, so send your friends our way too.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Zune Insider Episode 111 dated April 8th, 2011 of the Zune Insider Audio Podcast is now live and is hosted by Matt Akers (skipdeez) and Jessica Zahn (jetherealz).

Show notes:
We missed each other the last two weeks! (0:00 – 2:49); Zune HD gets more apps! (2:50 – 5:05); Matt gives Jess kudos (5:06 – 10:23); April Fools Day at Microsoft is awesome (10:24 – 17:14); New guest John Randolph discusses new features in the Music Marketplace and brings music recommendations (17:15 – 24:11); Marco is out, but Jess and Matt talk movies – Tron Legacy, Black Swan, and the Fighter (24:12 – 28:35); James is out, but emailed us TV recommendations – The Killing, The Hard Times of RJ Berger, and The Kennedys (28:36 – 32:03); Podcast Rob Greenlee (@robgreenlee) recommends This is My New Podcast and WTF with Marc Maron and Conan O’Brien (32:04 – 37:33);  Live inbox! (37:34 – end) .

The mp3 file is 33 MB and runs for a 48 minutes. Subscribe to the podcast in the FREE Zune Marketplace 4.7 Media Player software here.  Download the audio file directly here - stream it

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Zune Insider Episode 110 dated April 1st, 2011 of the Zune Insider Audio Podcast is now live and is hosted Matt Akers (skipdeez) and guest co-host Rob Greenlee (webtalkrob).

Show notes:
Rob is back in the saddle as guest co-host this week while Jessica is OOF! (0:00 – 2:35); Don’t forget about Zunestore.com for hot deals on new Zune HD media players! (2:40 – 6:00); Matt gives a how-to on Wireless Sync and the Zune.net learning center (6:04 – 12:20); Rob and Matt chat about the Zune software podcast collection view and settings! (12:25 – 15:30); The Barry Sanders of podcast guests Paul Pearson drops by with music action! (15:35 – 24:20); Movies with Marco Desimone! (24:30 – 34:00); Podcast Rob (@robgreenlee) does double duty as guest co-host & guest and he chats about free podcasts of full premiere TV episodes for Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara series (34:05 – 37:40);  Live inbox and the many ways you can contact us! (37:45 – end).

The mp3 file is 36 MB and runs for a 53 minutes. Subscribe to the podcast in the FREE Zune Marketplace 4.7 Media Player software here.  Download the audio file directly here - stream it

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