Zune Social
Zune Social was the online component of Microsoft's Zune initiative. It is a social networking website that displays a user's most-played artists, favorite and recently played songs, a list of the users friends, what your friends are listening to, and any comments about them. It has been compared to iLike and Last.fm in that it tracks and displays, or "scrobbles," songs that the user has played.
The central component of Social is the Zune Card. It is a Flash-based widget that can be embedded on other sites and social networking pages (Myspace, Facebook, etc.). It showcases the user's most recently played songs, their most played artists and number of times that artist has been played, and a user-selected list of favorite songs. Clicking a song, artist, or album will bring up the respective page on the Social website. Select songs have an option to preview a 30-second clip, and users can download the song via Zune Marketplace, suggest the song to a friend, or add it as one of their favorites.
In May 2008, Microsoft added Reputation badges to users' Zune Cards, which can be earned by having listened to an album or artist a certain number of times, or by making helpful posts in the Zune forums. In addition, Zune Cards can now be synced with user's devices; subscribers to Zune Pass can in this way download all the songs on their friends' cards.
Comparisons to Microsoft's Xbox Live Gamertag are inevitable, as the two services use the same back-end. They differ in that the Gamercard shows the user's recently played games, while the Zune Card displays recently played songs. Users sign into the service via Windows Live ID and can link their Gamertag and Zune tag so that friends on Xbox Live will carry over to the new service.
Plays are recorded on both the device and software, and the software sends play updates by default every 15 minutes. Songs played on the device are recorded during the sync process, though the order they show up on the Zune Card is a result of the sync order (not play order). Only albums that are in AMG and Zune Marketplace are shown, and plays are kept in the database for 28 days only.
Zune Social Badges
If a user listens to an artist or album enough times, Zune awards that user a badge. Users also earn badges for contributing useful information to the Zune.net forums and for reviews.
Album Power Listener
- Bronze - 200 or more plays
- Silver - 1,000 or more plays
- Gold - 5,000 or more plays
Artist Power Listener
- Bronze - 200 or more plays
- Silver -1,000 or more plays
- Gold - 5,000 or more plays
Forums Contributor
- Bronze - 10 or more posts rated highly
- Silver - 25 or more posts rated highly
- Gold - 50 or more posts rated highly
Reviews Contributor
- Bronze - 10 or more reviews rated highly
- Silver - 20 or more reviews rated highly
- Gold - 50 or more reviews rated highly
Badges are permanent and do not expire.
Zune Social Sites
From the Zune's social nature, many Zune sites have emerged, creating a fast-growing Zune-centered site, forum, and blog culture. Popular sites include:
- InsideTheCircle.net
- ZuneBoards.com
- ZuneInsider.com
- ZuneLuv.com
- Zune.net
- Zunerama.com
- ZuneThoughts.com
- ZuneTracks.net
- Zunited.net
- ZuneSpring.com
- ZuneScene.com