Spring release adds features that inspire people to explore, discover and discuss their favorite music.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 5, 2008 — Last November Zune launched “Zune Social,” a music community Web site where music fans can discover new music, browse each others’ playlists, and comment on their discoveries and tastes.

In just its first five months, more than two million users have joined the community. With enough members to populate a major city, the community is almost as diverse as the world of music itself, from hardcore audiophiles and passionate music fans to people who are just crazy about the Zune player.

Brian Seitz, a Group Marketing Manager for Zune, says it’s a core goal of his team to create an experience where the diversity and knowledge of all those music fans is tapped to inspire Zune listeners to explore new music. With that in mind, the Zune team worked to incorporate extensive customer feedback into a refresh of the online music community and Zune software, which is being launched this week.

“Zune owners are pretty passionate, and they had a lot of great ideas for making the community more valuable to music fans,” he says. “And I definitely fall into that category myself — the main reason we’re all here is we love the music.”

The spring update includes enhanced features that build on the sense of community and musical exploration Zune delivers. The downloadable Zune application is now integrated with the Zune community site so members can send messages to friends, look at their music collections, shop for new content, and drag-and-drop Zune Cards to their players, all without opening a Web browser. Also, the online Zune Marketplace is offering TV episodes for download for the first time.

Zune Card Makes Musical Exploration Portable

One way to make these connections is with the free Zune Card, a sort of electronic Zune playlist, which automatically reflects the songs played on a Zune player or Zune PC software. With the spring update, the Zune Card now becomes more portable.

“For Zune Pass subscribers, dragging and dropping a friend’s Zune Card onto your Zune means that all of the music that friend has been listening to is automatically synced to your Zune, so you can listen to the full tracks when you’re out and about,” Seitz says.

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