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So what is happening with Zune and Windows 8 Consumer Preview?

Feb 10, 2012 4:32 am by damaster | 20 comments

This morning Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, revealed in his blog post the first official screenshots from Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which gave us a glimpse of the new Office 15 suite and “Windows Communication” apps (essentially Metro-styled Windows Live apps). Furthermore, contents from the Windows Store is also revealed, showing what will be available in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Of particular note is the existence of the Zune brand within the store, see image below:

Reports around the internet seems to suggest that the Zune client isn’t dead yet, given the existence of the “Zune Music” and “Zune Video” apps, as shown above. However, we tend to think that these two apps merely provide access to the Zune marketplace, much like their counterpart apps in the new Xbox 360 dashboard. As far as the Zune client is concerned, we think it is dead, and media playback will be handled by the Metro-styled “Music” and “Video” apps – potentially a replacement of Windows Media Player:

If this seems to be the case, it ties in nicely with previous reports about Windows Phone 8 having a separate sync client other than Zune, further suggesting that the Zune client is gone:

Windows Phone 8 will reportedly scrap integration with the desktop Zune client in favor of a syncing relationship with a dedicated companion application.

The Verge even suggests that the Zune branding might not stay for long, and will be removed by the time Windows 8 ships:

We are hearing that [the Zune] branding will be removed shortly before the Windows 8 release, moving to Xbox Live for Windows as the entertainment brand for Windows 8 Music, Video and Games.

What do you think the future holds for Zune? Will it still exist as a branding for music and video services? Or will it be merged into the Xbox LIVE branding? Let us know in the comments below.

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Anonymous
I really hope they don’t kill the Zune desktop play. I love it, it works great, looks amazing and syncs with my Zune HD & WinPho.
I would honestly miss it, unless they create and really good intergrated replacement
Robin van Veghel
I Seriously hope Zune will stay, I love Zun beter than anything else. I use it everyday and on every pc.
Geef
Winamp is still king of all.
- nima Tayebi
  Wnamp is king of media players as VIM is the king of development environments.
Delibird444
I will never, EVER, enjoy saying that “Xbox Live for Windows” syncs “music, pictures and videos” to my “Windows Phone 8″. That’s a brand clusterf***.
In my opinion, each brand needs its own identity. Xbox handles the games, Zune handles the music and videos, Bing handles search, Windows Phone is a phone, Windows is an OS. Xbox may be popular, but I sure as hell don’t want it to cannibalize Zune just because they’re too lazy to go fetch some brand recognition.
- http://jvd897.blogspot.com jvd897
  Good points, but to clarify, this article said that the “Xbox Live for Windows” branding would be used for Windows 8′s entertainment apps, not for the new Windows Phone “dedicated companion application”. As you say, that just wouldn’t make sense.
Crashfan
The Zune PC app is heralded as a wonderful alternative to the bloated iTunes, especially for listening to and purchasing music. Now they want to ditch that and stick with Windows Media Player? Microsoft is seriously confusing me right now.
Since Windows 8 will still run Windows 7 apps (even better since I know you can disable the worthless Metro on desktops), Zune will be right there on my desktop as it has always been.
- Damaster – LiveSide.net
  Yes I agree with you the Zune PC client is beautiful. Let’s just hope that the “Music” app will be just as beautiful as Zune.
- http://jvd897.blogspot.com jvd897
  I don’t think “Windows Media Player” will continue to exist in its current form. I’d expect Windows 8′s Music and Video apps to look, run, and feel very similar to the current Zune desktop software, especially given how the Zune software and branding seems to have influenced so much of Metro to begin with.
  If this is the case, the Zune software will just be redundant, at least on Windows 8.
Anonymous
Not sure if you guys realized this but… The 1st screen shoot is of the Marketplace. The marketplace holds more than just apps but music, videos, and more. So I believe this is link to search to music and a separate link to videos to search for entertainment content. Nothing here suggest that it is the Zune Software. Zune software would be downloaded as one app not separated as two separate apps, one for music and one for videos.
- Damaster – LiveSide.net
  No. The first screenshot shows the “Windows Store” which is for apps only. You won’t find music or videos there. The “music & videos” heading are just app categories.
Anonymous
That Zune app link in the Store has the same green color as the Xbox app. Maybe that’s a hint.
http://twitter.com/jwk6 Jason Kohlhoff
Zune Music and Zune Video are Apps on the Xbox 360, and Zune Music + Video is an App on Windows Phone 7. In my opinion, Zune Music and Zune Video will be apps on Windows 8. Both apps will use the Zune branded music and video service.�
Microsoft has never said or even implied that they are killing off the Zune service. All of that was purely speculation because they stopped making the Zune HD device. All the Zune haters just can’t seem to grok the difference.
Mario Albertico
I imagine they want to clean up the Windows Media Player vs. Zune client “mess” (i.e. branding, multiple players, etc.) with the release Windows 8, but I really do hope whatever comes to replace one or the other for one unified client is as beautiful and full an experience as the current Zune desktop client. I surely do not want my Windows Phone to act as a next-generation PlaysForSure device that just happens to plug in into a scaled-down WMP or “sync companion app.”
nima Tayebi
What comes to your mind when you hear iPhone? what about iTunes? did apple ditch iTunes because iPhone brand was more popular? I see the same situation between Xbox and Zune. There’s already brand awareness for Zune. The more indows phone Microsoft sells the more awareness towards Zune they get.
They wont sell more Windows Phones or Xboxes by rebranding Zune to Xbox Music or anything else. Nobody buys iPhone because they know iTunes is a good Media brand. If it was that way nobody would buy anything branded with Android.
Aaronsteers
I love the Zune brand, but “XBox Music” & “XBox Video” could do quite nicely – just cut out the “for Windows” nonsense and focus on making Xbox the all-encompassing entertainment brand for Microsoft.
Guest
Don’t forget; the Zune never launched outside of the US and Canada. The Marketplace did get to a few other countries, however the selection was reduced compared to the US and Canada. Although some Americans and Canadians may mourn the loss of the branding, most of the world are not familiar with it. Windows 8 and the next Xbox are great opportunities to start anew with unified services across many countries.
Anonymous
I wouldn’t mind them getting rid of the Zune branding either if they keep the elegant, speedy, and smooth Zune software experience with the music and videos apps. Media Player can go to hell for all I care.
Pete K
Are we talking about the brand or the software? I love my Zune software but anytime I mention it, people at my (Apple-dominated marketing firm) work, they laugh. But I can tell they love the way it looks, and are envious whenever they see it.
As far as I’m concerned, ditch the brand, stick to Xbox for “living room” entertainment, and stick to an unbranded, generic Music + Video hub.
- Damaster – LiveSide.net
  I think I made it pretty clear in the article whenever I mentioned “Zune client” it refers to the software player; and same goes for “Zune branding”.