We’re heading to Microsoft headquarters, and we want your thoughts to come along for the ride.

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In just a few short weeks we’ll be boarding a plane and heading to Microsoft’s annual Most Valuable Professional Summit to talk entertainment with the the people who bring you the Zune software, services, and devices. We’ll make this a short an appeal for your thoughts as possible. We want to know what you think about everything Zune. We want to know how you feel about where Zune is headed. Lastly we want you to know that everything on this page will be printed out and personally handed to Microsoft. So how about it folks? Let us have it in the comments.

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18 Comments on “CommunityScene: We’re Going To Redmond”

  2. They need feature parity (or better!) with the Zune HD on WP7.

    Also, when WP7 was in development, the marketplace had a podcast section where podcasts could be streamed and downloaded. It was cut before release. When will we see it back?

  4. * Hardware upgrades or different storage sizes available.
    * I second the advertising comment made already. Great ads on YouTube don’t pop up on my TV or radio!
    * Software upgrades more often than once or twice a year. They should add some features or bug fixes. iTunes has fixes weekly it seems. Sometimes it’s daily!
    * Add ability to play DVDs through Zune software.
    * Add support for digital movie copies.
    * Allow Last.fm scrobbling or bring more data analysis, like graphs and tables.
    * Allow RSS feeds of activity on Zune plays, favorites, purchases, etc.
    * Make finding friends easier using Hotmail contacts, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, etc. (I have friends on Zune who don’t remember their Zunetag so we don’t connect!)
    * Add more background images, or custom images.
    * Fix the issue that miniplayer has where sometimes it retains the UI for the full screen player instead of mini UI.
    * Add volume control, not just mute, to mini player.
    * Integrate Internet radio, ala Radiotime.com or the radio feature of Windows Media Player.
    * If Zune is your music. Everywhere. Then why not fill in the missing place: At work without a Zune Pass and without music from home. Solve this by doing what lala.com, maestro.fm, and Grooveshark do…allow users to upload music to the cloud, regardless of where music was purchased.
    * Convert Microsoft Points to real currency. I don’t mind this but lots of music loving friends do!
    * Integrate social networks so I can Tweet, Facebook, etc. what song I’m listening to.
    * Reduce cost of Zune Pass so it can compete with other services.
    * Build up the Zune Marketplace catalog…too many songs and artists aren’t there.
    * Integrate a lot of the Windows Phone 7 type of features into Zune’s desktop software, such as the pictures hub.
    * Make window resizing allow any size, not just the predetermined window dimensions you can pull to select.

    Finally, thank them from Zune fans that know they know these things. We appreciate that they want to listen to us and we’re not really griping, we’re just all trying to make the software the best it can be.

    TheExMascot

  5. I too would like to see a firmware update where we can experience a similar WP7 UI design. And dear god… FLASH support! I would like to view Youtube and videos from other sites. Also when I click on links in the Facebook and Twitter apps, it would be nice to resume where I left off in the app when done viewing a page instead of having to close the browser and log back in to those apps.

  7. I think our friend Lorenzo covered many many things that we’ve all been complaining about for some time now.
    I do have a couple features of my own i’d like to see come to life.

    – I’d like to be able to stream my entire library on my computer from my zune or WP7 while on the same network or not.
    – I don’t know why they cut out some of the features of the ZuneHD portion of the WP7, but i’d like to see the full zuneHD UI in the WP7 visual effects included. Everything I say.
    – I’d also like to have more sorting option for the media on the devices like “by date added” just like in the software. Or by rating…
    – I do think that at some point they’ll need to make a Zune with the WP7 interface and do the same thing apple did, allowing people to get the same experience on both devices sharing apps and everything. But to be honnest, i’d like to see WP7 be more like ZuneHD instead of WP7 having Zune in it. I understand the decisions they made but I think they made the wrong decisions. If they stop catering to their die hard fans they will lose everything that makes them special and just become like the other guys.
    – The zune software needs darker backgrounds and even customizable background and font.

    I love Zune. I’ve been a fan since day 1 and can’t consider anything else.
    Tell them to keep up the good work.

    Thank you!

    Cedric Adam

  8. Here’s another suggestion:
    Allow podcast plays to count toward Zune plays on software. I’m around 9,100 plays but I’d be past 10,000 by now if podcasts counted towards plays.

    TheExMascot

  9. Here’s another. Zune software should remember my podcast subscriptions that way if I install Zune on a different PC for the first time it can suggest to subscribe to those podcasts if that PC is not on the same network. Maybe adding podcasting to the zune.net site would help it stand out. I tried Mediafly, which is a podcasting that pulls in feeds and you can subscribe to, and listen/view, podcasts through their site. Zune should do that!

  10. Can Zune please see if they can update some of their artist pages??? Some artists don’t have backgrounds and they seem to be pretty well known. I know it seems like a silly request, but it helps add to the consistency of Zune’s amazing UI 🙂

  11. My first and primary concern for Zune is that the metadata needs to be made impeccable! (There are so many flaws with duplicate, empty, incorrect albums and more…) Zune should almost be a place where you can look up information about an artist and not have to wonder if the information is accurate. (biggest fault with Zune for me)

    When linking an album in your collection to metadata the information should be direct from the Marketplace catalog… not some third-party source.

    Artist pages that rotate the pictures at random whenever you visit them so you don’t always see the same picture over and over.

    Podcast badges and separate play count area… (Possibly same for movies/music videos and tv)

    Volume control on mini-player (software)

    Podcast marketplace available on Zune device for streaming

    Some sort of ping system for the user so that they can ping an artist and be notified when there is an new album for that artist or something to that effect.

    Enable somehow lyrics pages into the software/marketplace like in Bing music search.

    Make the Zune Marketplace like Bing where you can play any song for free once

    (I’m sure I have many more thoughts just can’t think of them at the moment…)

  12. Please do not kill the Zune. And if there is new hardware released, market the thing! When the HD came out we looked around and some storeworkers didnt even know they had it. They need to make a big deal on release day because it is a great product – people just need to be made aware of it!

  14. -Accessory Infrastructure with standardized connectors
    -Ditch Zune Marketplace software, or at least get a ‘lite’ version. Zune Desktop Software can make my Quad-Core 16GB RAM desktop with 10Mb internet seem like a PentiumII trying to run Vista.
    -VoIP support
    -More for BPOS DOCUMENT how to connect to BPOS Sharepoint from a mobile device!
    -Better sysnc support with SkyDrive and Sharepoint. Seriously Microsoft, you need to get the software you have to fit in your own eco-system. Require business units to implement connections for accessing content from multiple devices.
    -Why does this have to be mentioned, WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER. You borked the TabletPC, borked PlaysForSure, borked Digital Music players, borked WHS (nice one) and seem to be doing your honest best to bork a major bright spot in Windows- Media Center! Why can’t Media Center be accessed on WinMo/WP7? I’ll tell you the answer- There Is No Good Reason.
    Bring Bill Back. The guy had vision and new inovation when he saw it. Emulating Android and IOS doesn’t cut it anymore.
    For Zune/WP7, the Team needs to make sure as much as possible works with their product. You need to get after BPOS to make it work. You need to get after MediaCenter Team to get remote record working at a minimum- by next week. You need to give them a little longer for SoftSled. But WindowsLive team in the wringer until they give you a solid feature set. Microsoft has all the pieces and more than enough talent, they just need to put it together.

  15. My #1 concern with Zune is I do feel like Microsoft is nearly abandoning it to pursue WP7. Some of us simply won’t fork out the cash necessary for a wireless data plan, so a wi-fi device is our best option. If I have to, I’ll pick up the next generation of iPod Touch, but I’d prefer it be the next generation of Zune HD. I’m losing faith that there will be a next-gen Zune, so I will likely switch to iPod when the new hardware is released in September if Zune doesn’t release or at least announce something before that.

    Branding isn’t a big deal to me, since it is the software that I fell in love with. They could put the Zune UI on any number of devices, and I’d still be happy. Why not share your software with other companies like Samsung, Sandisk, or Creative? Consumers could buy their hardware but still be able to sync with Zune and buy from Zune Marketplace and purchase Zune Pass. Seems like a money-maker.

    On another topic, why isn’t Zune competing on the fitness-player front? With most cell phones integrating music players, it seems that a big chunk of the remaining PMP market is interested in fitness-friendly players. Apple has the iPod Shuffle. Why isn’t Microsoft Zune trying to tap into that market at all? Touch-screen players make lousy jogging companions.

    Enough has been said about marketing, but I’ll had my 2 cents. iPod is everywhere thanks to some genius marketing. After all this time, still nobody seems to know what a Zune is. Such a great product, but it feels like Microsoft didn’t have enough confidence in it to pour more money into advertising. 🙁

    My final comment has to do with innovation. Microsoft took off back in the 90’s due to its innovation. It beat out Apple in the personal computer market, it won the Internet Browser war against Netscape, so where is all that innovation now? I feel like they’re constantly playing catch-up to Apple these days. iPod Touch has been out for a few years now and keeps getting better. Zune HD was released 2 years after the first iTouch, and hasn’t seen a real update since. Yes, it’s a more beautiful music experience, but where’s the Netflix compatibility, the video chat capability, or a real helping of useful Apps? I’ll give it to Microsoft for leading innovation in video games with the new Kinect, but something tells me if Apple had a gaming system, it would have had a motion-based camera 2 years ago.

    I want to know what Microsoft is doing to ensure they are no longer playing catch-up in the PMP market. What are they doing to actually get an edge on the competition, or do they feel that the PMP market is failing and smart phones are the only place left for music lovers?

  16. Don’t kill ZUNE the device!!

    Zune the service is great and needs to be extended across platforms. Make it available on Android, iOS, Mac, etc. Fix the web streaming player so it doesn’t require Silverlight or flash.

    Make the full Zune client available on all platforms as well. Microsoft, YOU’RE a software company first and foremost.

    I would absolutely love to see a Zune tablet or Xbox tablet. Despite being a software company, you make some awesome hardware. Integrate this with a built-in Kinect camera on a 10″ screen and that’s one killer device.

  17. Don’t hold back when making the stuff. You need to excel rather than just have a solid hardware and software offering, make it badass.

    I love the features everything has, except make it flashy and sexy.

    For example love a lot of what Zune.net has to offer, but the website is clunky and extremely slow and isn’t very attractive because it looks pieced together.

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