The Zune MP3 player and associated marketplace and PC software were first launched in the US in 2006. Between the launch and October 2010, these services were available only in the US and Canada, but on October 11th 2010 the PC software and the marketplace were made available to other countries in the world to coincide with the worldwide launch of Windows Phone 7 which links in with these services. The marketplace is only available in some parts in some countries, such as in Australia where we can access the video, movie rental and Windows Phone 7 apps sections of the marketplace, but not the music section that's available in some other countries. So you can download here in Australia is version 4.7 of the Zune PC Software and it's actually a very decent media management solution which is extremely stylish, simple and quick unlike iTunes 10. The user interface is based on a style called Metro which is now used on the Windows Phone 7 devices and Windows Live Messenger 2011. This software is the only way that Windows Phone 7 devices will be able to sync with a computer and will only sync Music, Podcasts, Videos, Apps and Updates.This article will take a look at the Zune PC Software and the features you can use in Australia and then show you the additional features the US have and that hopefully Australia will receive next year. To download the software visit www.zune.net and don't worry, you don't need a phone to use the software. Trust me, you're going to LOVE the Zune PC Software if you currently use Windows Media Player because you don't have to change the way you store your music and you get to move to an extremely awesome looking program.
The Zune PC Software in Australia is split into 3 sections: QuickPlay, Collection and Marketplace. We'll look through each section now.
Collection
This is where you will spend most of your time. The Collection section is the place to manage and organise all of your music, videos, pictures and podcasts.
Music
The music section is separated into 5 different views depending on how you wish to view your music: Artist, Genre, Albums, Songs and Playlists. The Zune PC Software can automatically connect to the internet to download album art and track information for albums which are missing information. You can also burn and rip CDs of music through the Zune Software. If you insert a music CD or blank CD, then you get an extra Disc section at the top where you can either rip or burn a CD (whichever is appropriate).
Artist View
Genre View
Albums View
Songs View
Playlists View
Burning a Disc
Ripping a Disc
Videos
The Zune Software has a really nice way of managing videos. It's been designed to work with the Zune Marketplace, so you're able to actually categorise TV shows into series and episodes. This doesn't only apply to content downloaded from the Marketplace, but for any other video files you have (e.g DVDs you've ripped to enjoy watching on your PC or Phone). You can categorise videos as either TV shows, movies, music videos, personal videos or other videos.
All Videos View
TV Shows View
Movies View
Pictures
The Zune PC Software provides a way to browse through photos. This is only here so you can upload and download photos to and from your Windows Phone. To make edits to the photos, there is actually a link to Windows Live Photo Gallery which is a much more capable and appropriate program for organising your photo collection.
Podcasts
The Zune software has a good podcast manager. Unfortunately we don't have access to the podcast marketplace here in Australia (it must be attached to the Music marketplace) which means that you need to manually enter your podcast RSS feeds in, instead of browsing through a marketplace. Once we get the music store in Australia, podcasts will be even easier to download and listen to than ever. For now the Zune software manages podcasts quite nicely once you enter in the feed address, grabbing the album art where possible and automatically downloading episodes as they come in. If you plug a Windows Phone 7 device in I also believe it will sync to it unplayed episodes and delete from the phone episodes you've listened to automatically so you always have fresh content to listen to on the go.
Now Playing
The Zune PC Software has a really nice looking Now Playing screen. There are some additional features that are missing from it in Australia that I'll mention later on, but the Now Playing screen consists of the details of the current track with album art, a pop up playlist of songs in the Now Playing playlist, buttons to find out more information and like a track, playback and time controls and an awesome background showing all the albums in your collection which gradually fades between colours. The albums switch places continuously so that you don't have the same albums always shown in the big squares. The arrow at the top left takes you back to the collection. All of the controls and playlist fade away eventually after a few seconds of inactivity to leave just the background, album art and track information. Video playback is just as elegant. The video plays filling up the screen and the controls fade away after a few seconds of inactivity.
Music/Podcast Playback
Video Playback
QuickPlay
Quickplay is the first screen you're brought to when you initially start up the Zune PC Software (unless you change that). It shows you your favourite pinned items, music, podcasts or videos that are new to your collection and stuff you've listened to recently. It looks pretty awesome once you start to use Zune PC Software for a while and it fills up. It's the only section of the player where the background turns completely black instead of the normal white.
Marketplace
The Zune Marketplace is a great online store, which is unfortunately only partially available in Australia at the moment. The store normally allows you to download Music, Videos, Podcasts, Channels, Picks and Apps, but in Australia at the moment we can only access movies from the video marketplace and apps for Windows Phone 7. The music, podcasts, picks and channel marketplaces are not available as of yet, but hopefully will be made available here in the future :) - So with that aside, lets take a look at the Zune Marketplace.
Video Marketplace
The Video marketplace opens up to display movies that you can rent or buy with a list of genres down the side and some top and recent picks in the middle. If you wish to see more about a movie, simply click it and then a description of the movie will be loaded as well as a button you can press to watch the trailer. If you wish to purchase or rent it, then you can do that right from within the software.
Movie Marketplace
Movie List
Movie Description
App Marketplace
This is the place where you can browse for all the awesome apps to upload to your Windows Phone 7 device. It works the same as the video marketplace. Down the left hand side are app categories and in the centre are top picks and newest apps. If you click on an app you'll be taken to a page with a description about it and a series of screenshots of the app. If you like it, you can buy it and it will then upload it straight to your phone. You can also search the marketplace for content if you can't find it while browsing.
Windows Phone 7 App Marketplace
Windows Phone 7 Apps Category List
Windows Phone 7 App Description Page
Windows Phone 7 App Screenshots
Searching In The Marketplace
Other Zune Features
Finally there's a few other things to document that aren't a part of any other section. To buy content from the Zune Marketplace, you need a Zune Tag, which is an account that you sign in with. If you're not signed in, then you'll see a sign in button that you can press to sign in or create a Zune Tag. If you're already signed in, your Zune Tag and picture will be displayed in the top right corner and if you click it, will bring you to your profile. In Australia this section is fairly useless at the moment, because we currently don't have access to most of Zune Social yet. When Zune Social becomes available in Australia (hopefully if and when the Music Marketplace does) then this section of Zune will become more useful.
Zune PC Software has a number of settings you can change. To access the settings, click the word Settings at the top right corner of most screens (Now Playing Screen excluded).
If you want to shrink the Zune PC Software down into a small window that floats on top of all other windows so you can easily change songs without switching to the full application, click the tiny Mini-Player button (it's to the left of the minimize button in the top right of the software) and it will shrink down into the Mini-Player.
Finally, Zune supports a number of Windows 7 features such a Jump Lists and Thumbnail Previews. Right clicking the Zune icon in the Superbar will allow you to play a shuffle of all music in your collection or play music that you have pinned in the Zune PC Software. The thumbnail preview lets you pause/play, go back to the previous track, skip to the next track or like a track without opening the full application.
Jump List in Windows 7
Thumbnail Preview in Windows 7
The only part of the program I can't show you currently is the Device section, because I don't own a Windows Phone 7 handset yet. When I do, I'll come back and add it in to make this article more comprehensive.
Features NOT Currently Available In Australia
There are several features in Zune 4.7 that are not currently available in Australia. They are the Zune Music, Podcast, Channels, Picks and Zune HD Apps Marketplace and features related to them including enhanced Now Playing view, MixView, Smart DJ and ZuneSocial. I was able to get most of these features working in an American version so here's what might be coming to Australia further down the track.
The Music marketplace works the same as the Videos and Apps marketplaces. You can read a biography of most artists as well as buy music videos and other content related to them.
Music Marketplace
Marketplace Artist View
Marketplace Artist Bio
Marketplace Artist Music Videos
Marketplace Artist Related Content
The Podcast marketplace is the same as the music marketplace without all the extra content that is provided such as music videos and biographies. Clicking a podcast will display the episodes in the series.
Podcast Marketplace
Podcast Listing It's Episodes
Channels are a feature that is unique to the Zune Marketplace. They work if you have a Zune Pass (it might come here if we get the music marketplace, the Zune Pass allows unlimited access to the Zune Marketplace for a monthly subscription fee) and are basicallyplaylists that constantly get updated. One example is the top 25 chart. This changes all the time and so the Zune PC Software will download any changes that it sees to the list each time you load the software. Other examples are chill out music that is constantly refreshed for you so you get a fresh dose of chill out music each week. It's a cool concept.
Channel Marketplace
Channel Listing
Finally, the Marketplace also has apps for the Zune HD player which is only available in the US and Canada. It is expected a new version of the Zune player will be launched sometime in 2011 and will run the Windows Phone 7 OS, similar to the iPod Touch.
Zune HD App Marketplace
Unfortnately I can't show you any of the Zune Social section because it requires you have a US account, even if you secretly install the US version of the Zune PC Software in Australia. I'm sure there's plenty of goodies we're missing out on without it though.
The last 3 features link in with the Zune Music Marketplace which is why they're missing in Australia. These features are all about discovering new music that you might like using the music currently in your collection as a guide. The first is called Mixview. Microsoft describes it like this: "Get a visual mapping of the connections between your music and related artists, their influences, and other Zune listeners that like the music you like. Mixview builds your musical knowledge and appreciation for artists and others like you."
Mixview
The second feature is called Smart DJ. Microsoft describes it like this: "Ever find an artist you like and wonder who else makes music like that? Smart DJ helps you find those other artists. One click on any album or artist in your music collection or on an artist profile in Zune Marketplace, and you can get an instant mix of related music."
Smart DJ
The final feature is one I came across by accident. For some artists, when you're on the Now Playing screen, instead of showing the usual collage of albums, it switches to photos of the artist you're playing and overlays the titles of the songs on these photos. It looks really cool actually and so here's a few screenshots of it.
