Zune Social was the online component of Microsoft's Zune initiative. It was a social networking website that displayed a user's most-played artists, favorite and recently played songs, a list of the users friends, what the user's friends were listening to, and any comments about them. It has been compared to iLike and Last.fm in that it tracked and displayed, or "scrobbled", songs that the user had played.
An example Zune Card of Zune blogger Cesar Menendez (a.k.a. "Zune Insider")
The central component of Social was the Zune Card. It was a Flash-based widget that could be embedded on other sites and social networking pages (Myspace, Facebook, etc.). It showcased the user's most recently played songs, their most played artists and number of times that artist had been played, and a user-selected list of favorite songs. Clicking a song, artist, or album would bring up the respective page on the Social website. Select songs had an option to preview a 30-second clip, and users could 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 could 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 could be synced with user's devices; subscribers to Zune Pass could in this way download all the songs on their friends' cards.
Comparisons to Microsoft's Xbox Live Gamertag were inevitable, as the two services use the same back-end. They differed in that the Gamercard showed the user's recently played games, while the Zune Card displayed recently played songs. Users signed into the service via Windows Live ID and could link their Gamertag and Zune tag so that friends on Xbox Live would carry over to the other service.
Plays were recorded on both the device and software, and the software sent play updates by default every 15 minutes. Songs played on the device were recorded during the sync process, though the order they show up on the Zune Card was a result of the sync order (not play order). Only albums that were in AMG and Zune Marketplace were shown, and plays were kept in the database for 28 days only.
Zune Social Badges
If a user listened to an artist or album enough times, Zune awarded that user a badge. Users also earned badges for contributing useful information to the Zune.net forums and for reviews.
Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices. Editions of Windows Media Player were also released for classic Mac OS, Mac OS X and Solaris but development of these has since been discontinued. Windows Media Player was eventually replaced in Windows 8 with Groove Music. Groove Music persisted in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, before being replaced in turn with the Media Player in Windows 11.
The Xbox network, formerly Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system on November 15, 2002. An updated version of the service became available for the Xbox 360 console at the system's launch in November 2005, and a further enhanced version was released in 2013 with the Xbox One. This same version is also used with Xbox Series X and Series S. This service is the account for Xbox consoles, accounts can store games and other content.
Windows Media Center (WMC) is a defunct digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, as well as all editions of Windows 7 except Starter and Home Basic. It was also available on Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8.1 Pro as a paid add-on, before being discontinued in Windows 10, although it can reportedly be unofficially reinstalled using a series of Command Prompt commands.
Urge was an discontinued online music distribution service run by MTV Networks. Urge was integrated into Windows Media Player 11.
Microsoft Points, introduced in November 2005 as Xbox Live Points, were a digital currency issued by Microsoft for use on its Xbox and Zune product lines. Points could be used to purchase video games and downloadable content from Xbox Live Marketplace, digital content such as music and videos on Zune Marketplace, along with content from Windows Live Gallery.
Xbox Games Store is a digital distribution platform used by Microsoft's Xbox One and Xbox 360 video game consoles. The service allows users to download or purchase video games, add-ons for existing games, game demos along with other miscellaneous content such as gamer pictures and Dashboard themes.
Windows Live Mesh is a discontinued free-to-use Internet-based file synchronization application by Microsoft designed to allow files and folders between two or more computers to be in sync with each other on Windows and Mac OS X computers or the Web via SkyDrive. Windows Live Mesh also enabled remote desktop access via the Internet.
Games for Windows – Live or GFWL was an online gaming service used by Games for Windows–branded PC titles that enables Windows PCs to connect to Microsoft's Live service. Users, each with a unique Gamertag, are able to play online, keep track of their friends' status, send and receive messages, gain and keep track of Achievements and associated Gamerscore, voice chat across platforms, and more. Some games allow for cross-platform play, such as Shadowrun, putting Windows players against Xbox 360 players.
Zune is a discontinued line of digital media products and services marketed by Microsoft from November 2006 until its discontinuation in June 2012. Zune consisted of a line of portable media players, digital media player software for Windows PCs, a music subscription service known as a "Zune Music Pass", music and video streaming services for the Xbox 360 game console via the Zune Software, music, TV and movie sales, and desktop sync software for Windows Phone. Zune was also the provider of music streaming for United Airlines in-flight, after a partnership in 2010.
Bing for mobile is a search tool for handheld mobile devices from Microsoft as part of their Bing search engine. It is designed for mobile device displays. Bing Mobile is built into Windows Mobile and Windows Phone as proprietary software, accessed via the Search key on Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 devices. It is also available on Windows Phone 8.1, and can be downloaded for other platforms, including and Android.
SpiralFrog was a very early music streaming service based in New York City that launched in the United States and Canada on September 17, 2007. SpiralFrog offered free and legal music downloads, all supported by advertising, and was the largest site of its kind in North America. On March 19, 2009, SpiralFrog terminated operations due to loan recalls. While SpiralFrog was not successful in the end, it nonetheless helped shaped the digital music industry shift from the purchase to streaming models, and its ultimate revenue recovery
Zune is a discontinued media management software for Microsoft Windows that functions as a full media player application with a library, an interface to the Zune Marketplace, and as a media streaming server. The software is used to sync with all devices with Zune functionality including the Zune 4, 8, 16, 30, 80, 120, Zune HD, Windows Phone 7, and Microsoft Kin. Zune devices work exclusively with the Zune software, which applies many design principles of Microsoft's Metro design language.
Live Anywhere is an initiative by Microsoft to bring the Xbox Live online networking service to a wide variety of platforms and devices including Xbox, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, Zune, and more.
Windows Mobile Device Center is a synchronization software program developed by Microsoft, and the successor to ActiveSync. It is designed to synchronize various content including music, video, contacts, calendar events, web browser favorites, and other files between Windows Mobile devices and the Microsoft Windows operating system.
The Zune 80 and Zune 120 are portable media players developed by Microsoft in its Zune series of media players. The Zune 80 was announced on October 2, 2007 and was released on November 13, 2007. It, along with the Zune 4, 8, and 16, is part of the second generation of Zune devices. It features music, video, and podcast support, and comes with Wi-Fi and FM Radio. The Zune 120, part of the second generation of Zune devices, was released September 16, 2008. As of January 2010, the devices run the 3.3 firmware.
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design language. Unlike Windows Mobile, it was primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.
The Zune HD is a portable media player in the Zune product family released on September 15, 2009, by Microsoft. It was a direct competitor with Apple's iPod Touch series of mobile devices. It was initially released in 16 and 32 GB capacities. A 64 GB version was released on April 9, 2010. It has a touchscreen interface for navigation and included Wi-Fi for synchronization, access to the Zune Marketplace and Web browsing.
Kin was a short-lived mobile phone line from Microsoft designed for users of social networking. The phones, aimed at people between ages 15 and 30, were manufactured by Sharp Corporation and sold through Verizon Wireless.
Groove Music is a discontinued audio player software application included with Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.
Windows Phone 7 is the first release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. It runs on the Windows CE 6.0 kernel.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
