Most people are familiar with AudioBoo - its a great site for recording, or uploading audio to. So it tends to be popular with people who do podcasting. And when you go to the site and have a look around - well, its obvious that podcasters use it - a LOT!

But - if you know how and where to look - there is gold in them thar hills! Because some real talented musicians have also uploaded their music to AudioBoo - and all you need to enjoy their music on your Zune is:

1) access to a browser (this the need for the Zune HD)

2) Join AudioBoo  (its free and easy)

Here is a sample of what we found:  -

The sweet music from The Russell Thomas Agenda - Concrete Jungle. More of his music can be found at his Russell Thomas AudioBoo page… (but you need to be an AudioBoo member for the link to take you there)

and from sweetgabby60 comes this Reggae piece -Reggae 2

And for a bit of variety, check out AgentX:

We found this music by putting in “reggae” into the search bar. That easy!

Don’t forget to share your great new “secret” with your BFFs.

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A lot of Zune owners do not realize that they can get neat free stuff from iTunes. There are a lot of great free stuff available through the iTunes store - podcasts, for example. Also, a lot of music websites provide free music - but they auto download to iTunes. Not a problem as we will explain below.

First, you have to understand that the Zune supports AAC.  This is also the default file format used by iTunes when you rip a CD.  In other words, both Zune and iTunes use the AAC file format (though iTunes does use other formats as well - eg MP3).  So if you have a collection of music already in iTunes and have just been given a Zune - rest assured that you can play them on your Zune!

To show you how easy is is to get iTunes music onto your Zune we will go through a simple example.  Lets go to Soundclick where there are thousands of songs offered under creative commons license (and so, free to us):

There are literally hundreds of thousands of songs available across 17 different genres for us to download to our Zunes for free. For example, if you love the Latin genre there are over 2500 free Latin-genre songs that can be downloaded to your Zune! The trick is to know how to do it! First, Look at the long list of songs available. Choose one and then click through to the3 download page:

When you click on “download” you will get a box opening that gives you the option to open with iTunes. Select that option:

And voila! It will now be in your iTunes libarary:

When you install the Zune software, it automatically scans and adds songs from the iTunes folder. The Wowzune team recommends that you always rip your CDs in iTunes so they’ll work on all your music players (including your iPod/iPhone). You don’t have to do anything special - just rip them in iTunes, and the Zune software discovers them the next time you start it up.

The only problem comes when you try to play DRM-protected songs  as are all the songs that are purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Zune can’t play those songs!  (OK, there is a way to strip the DRM off by burning to CD and then re-ripping). But if most of the music you have stored there has been ripped from your offline CD collection, or from various sites around the web, then these will not be DRM protected and you will be able to play them on your Zune.

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Cnet has just done a review to find out which of MP3 players are best suited for podcasts and concluded that Zune was the best!

A fantastic podcast option, the Zune even ekes past the iPod for the top spot. The software is excellent for podcasts:

What Cnet liked about the Zune was its ability to allow us to manage the number of episodes we want to sync to our Zune and the fact that we can unsubscribe from podcasts directly from our Zune. And they were looking for the ability of players to provide features such as Zune’s accelerated fast forwarding and the passive bookmarking option which automatically remembers the spot we are at in each podcast.

These features, say Cnet, make Zune the best MP3 player for listening to podcasts.

We have previously featured several excellent podcast sources - both audio and video - on Wowzune. So if you haven’t yet discovered the wonderful world of podcasts, maybe this Cnet review will motivate you to give it a try!

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In a previous post we showed how to get some fantastic free music for our Zune. In this post we will show you how to find free videos for Zune.

Wizzard.tv is a huge podcasting site. Apparently there were 1.2 billion podcast download requests from Wizzard in 2008 alone! If you go to their site you will see a link to “shows” in the top bar. Once you click that and are on the new page put your cursor over “Religion and Spirituality” to see the drop down menu. Select “TV & Film” and you will be taken to the page with “This months top TV and Film shows”.

Now, there are 9 videos to choose from (yes, only 9 - despite the category, most are audio!!). But, you ask, where are last months shows? or last years shows? How can we find them? Good question! We contacted Wizzard to ask just that - and they said:

Currently the only way to search the Wizzard.tv site is by category

Ha! Well, not to worry, we worked out how to find over 200 video producers (who then have anywhere from one to hundreds of videos available through Wizzard.tv) . Only interested in comedy shows? Or sport shows? We worked out how to find them as well. We like animation (though we did not find many of those) and so found this JoeCartoon video. .

But be warned - the Joecartoon show (above image) is a good example of where Wizzard is headed. In the last few weeks Wizzard have signed agreements with Sevenload ( Europe’s leading independent network that reaches 15 million users monthly) and with Attention Span Media LLC so that they can channel their podcasts to an even wider audience. Motive? To further “monetize” their traffic. That means that the ads that are inserted in to podcasts and video shows (hey, we are used to that, anyway) will earn even more money for the network and its podcasters.

The podcasts are still free but we do have to view ads as well!

So how do you find the shows? Just type [video site:www.wizzard.tv/shows2/] into your browser’s address bar (leave out the brackets).

We will cover more sophisticated searches in a later post when we plan to review some of the more interesting Wizzard videos. In the meantime - check them out. You will be pleasantly surprised by some (and disappointed in others - OK they aren’t all worth watching!)

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Want some more great free music? This time its not just a free trial (still, we reckon 25 free songs was worth getting!). But, with a small amount of time and by following our tutorial, you can begin downloading a whole stack of great music.

You can listen to this sample to get you motivated (yep, its an hour of great music - for free! - it takes a few secs to load, so be patient - its well worth it!)

Now, this may not be the kind of music that rocks your world (we got hooked after we covered the Latin Grammys last November) - but you can check out Wizzard to see if they have the music you like. If they do, you are going to have to come back here to find out how to get it onto your Zune (unless you are happy using iTunes - which we like to avoid)

But, before we go through that tutorial, we would like to show you how to find more Wizzard music than you can find from the above link. Just go to your Google browser and click the “advanced search” option. Then type Music into “all these words” and the wizzard.tv into “Search within a site or domain”. Then click the advanced search button. You now have over 400 results to look through - much more than is listed for “This month’s top music shows”!

OK - how to get this great music onto our Zune? Well, you can do it by using Juice! Its a great little tool that lets us download music onto our PC - and from there its an easy matter to load to our Zune. How to get Juice and download music to it is well explained elsewhere. You can get the URL feed for Ritmo Latino from here. Once you have downloaded the music you can find it in “my Received podcasts”:

Now all you have to do to is right click the file and select “Play with Zune”. (this will open the Zune player. You can then load the music to your Zune)

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In honor of this truly historic day, it seems important to make sure everyone can listen to the inaugural speech of the new American President. Inspiring and honest, powerful and challenging - here is a podcast of the opening speech of President Obama.

You can upload this to your Zune and listen whenever you need a shot of inspiration or a reminder of challenges we have to face!

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Microsoft Zune - perhaps under the influence of its founding father - has had a definite pro-art platform that it has pursued (see our posts on free zune movies and wallpapers and free zune videos for example)

So its a pleasure to see some extreme edge on offer. Especially when it's free! 

 

 

Wizzardx are now making extreme sport programs available - for FREE - on a weekly basis for Zune - and as you can see from the above samples, these videos are great

AND, if you cannot access the Zune marketplace (not available in your area!) then you might try this neat method for downloading from itunes (really, MS, you need to go and learn a heap from Apple about how to set up a really user-friendly media store!) 

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Free videos can often be fairly amateurish - for obvious reasons (no cash inflow from sales!) So we were delighted to discover Wizzard Media where we can download lots of excellent videos to our Zune. 

Wizzard Media specializes in podcasts - or, in their words

Wizzard Media collectively broadcasts millions of podcast downloads per day through media aggregators like Apple's iTunes, Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace and other podcast aggregators.

Whilst most of their podcasts are audio, there are plenty of excellent videos to get excited about:

Keen on nature? National Geographic has a selection of short videos - and if we subscribe, we can automatically receive each new show as it arrives:

Been avoiding that long trip because it can be a trial with young kids? Check out wubcasts - the "worlds first video podcast for pre-schooolers" There are 20 episodes already available! And no need for expensive equipment - they can watch it on Zune,

In fact, there are video selections across a big range of topics from comedy to "science and medicine" and much in between. Guys: want to impress your new girlfriend by cooking her great meal at her place - but don't actually know how to cook? Download this simple, easy to follow podcast to Zune and you have your guide in your pocket!

In fact, there are over 800,000 hours of audio and video shows available on the Wizzard Media Network. The latest podcasts are showcased on their wizard home page - but you can check this link for listings for over 300 videos available through wizard

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"In the first two weeks of 2008 the number of people consuming my personal podcast with the Zune is WAY up. Over all my show download numbers are up about 15%. This is the largest growth my show has seen in a very long time. What this proves is that when you put Podcast front and center in the Zune Interface like the Zune team has, and make it a integral part of the Zune MarketPlace people are bound to check podcast out. Where Apple has largely failed in iTunes is that they have made podcast hard to find and a buried feature within the iTunes Interface. Today it is nearly impossible to find content that is fresh, the iTunes podcast interface is a wasteland of thousands of podfaded shows and huge numbers of single podcast episodes put up by network marketer’s."


(Sorry about the tiny image, I couldn't find anything bigger!)

Over at RawVoice, there is an incredibly interesting article up about recent podcasting trends and the Zune. In this instance users of the Zune and Zune Marketplace software make up 21.3% of their listeners! This might not seem like a lot, but take iTunes for instance, whose user base makes up only 38.7% of their listeners. Now seeing how the new Zune software and hardware has only been on the streets for a few months now, compared to the many years iTunes has been around, it appears that Apple might have to start taking the "little media player that could" a bit more seriously. Who knows, old Stevie might just take a look at this and declare that all of the Zune Marketplace users have joined good old Robbie Bach in a round a drinks, since you know, being a drunk is the only reason why anyone would want a Zune.
Now before we all start celebrating here, there is a very serious question that hopefully someone at Microsoft will be kind enough to answer for us. What's next? If the Zune has shown us anything it has above all else shown us that consumers of Microsoft products love their media (minus Jerry ;)). Does this mean that we can expect Microsoft to finally stop neglecting their other platforms, especially our much loved Windows Mobile devices? I hope so! Before the new software for the Zune came out, I listened to a majority of my podcasts via my Windows Mobile Standard device. Sure I could have used my first generation Zune, but to be honest, it would have been to difficult as I would have had to mix my podcasts in with all of my actual albums, which would have been incredibly messy and not to mention tiresome to track down and find in my mess of media. At least with my old Samsung Blackjack, I could download whatever podcast I wanted to listen to, throw it on my microSD card, and after a bit of fiddling get it up and running in Windows Media Player streaming through to my Motorola MOTOROKR S9 Stereo Bluetooth headset. It might have been a huge pain in the rear to do, but it was the lesser of two evils.

Microsoft wouldn't even have to try very hard to integrate something like a separate podcasting category into Windows Media Player as they have for audio, video and TV shows. In fact, there is no reason why they couldn't put a little bit of elbow grease into the project and rip Windows Media Player from all Windows Mobile devices and replace it with a stripped down Zune like application, or something similar that would sync up via the Zune Marketplace. Don't get me wrong, ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center are fantastic applications (that was pure sarcasm for whoever missed it,) but Zune Marketplace, while flawed in some ways, is a gigantic step in the right direction for syncing our media with our devices.

The sheer simplicity of Zune Marketplace has made it so that even my mother could get it up and running with no problems, something that is almost nonexistent in the Windows Mobile world and in my opinion keeps a lot of would be users at bay. Right now Microsoft might be a very distant second in the race for portable media players, but that could all change if someone over there in Redmond woke up and realized that they already have millions upon millions of portable devices already out their in our pockets and we are just dying to get some user friendly media features. We don’t need a Zune phone, we just some dang integration for crying out loud! If Apple has shown us anything, it is that we can have our cake and eat it too.

Well, well - it seems that 2.3 software update contains more than just a few little fixes - there's some very significant stuff in the update. I've re-published the list here for your convenience.

"Key Marketplace fixes

* Allow users to view top music videos in marketplace
* Misc improved error messaging including splitting sign-in issues into 4 separate errors for customer and support benefit
* Resolved most cases where retrieval of subscription download history stalls
* Better handling of accounts that have expired credit cards
* Podcasts with spaces in their name can now be subscribed to
* Marketplace no longer blocks explicit content purchases when parental controls are set to allow
* Points balance label is now updated when user purchases new points

Key Player UI fixes

* Allow zooming in/out (2x, 4x, fullscreen) during video playback to prevent stretched playback
* Ability to switch Zune to GDI mode through command-line parameter

Key Podcast fixes

* Allow subscriptions to podcasts larger than 10MB
* Fixed some parsing errors that prevented some podcasts from syncing to the device
* Fixed bug where podcasts were unsubscribing themselves

Key Setup fixes

* Fixed numerous bugs affecting build to build upgrades
* Improved installation for users accessing from corporate networks
* Fixed driver uninstall failures
* Included device 2.3 firmware in client download
* Failure in creating system restore point no longer blocks client installation

Key Sync fixes

* Fixed issues with reverse sync
* Fixes issues with sync meter UI showing incorrect information as to what is on the device
* Fixed issues using wireless sync with multiple devices to the same PC
* Fixed a few different issues setting up wireless sync
* Device is no longer being reported as full even after deleting large file from device
* Device content is no longer being turned into guest content when it shouldn’t be
* Content with bad metadata now shows properly so it can be removed from device
* Turning off “autolaunch when a Zune device is connected” no longer prevents “Sync Now” from working from a wirelessly connected device
* Podcast bookmarking is now transferred/saved to the device
* Wireless sync connection continues to work after rebooting host computer
* Unsubscribe podcast from device now works properly
* Changing album art in the client now updates the device as well
* Duplicate tracks are no longer synced to the device twice

Key Xbox Streaming bug fixes

* Xbox Streaming now monitors the rip folder if user changes default location
* No need to reinstall client to fix Xbox Streaming when upgrading from XP to Vista

Key Infrastructure fixes

* Vista x64 customers can now get to web help from error messages
* Client no longer crashes if database is corrupted

Key Library fixes

* Changes in pictures or video metadata made outside client will now get updated in the library
* UI is now smoother during file groveling
* When a track is added to an album we will now always update the track on disc
* User can now update album art for marketplace tracks
* 'Unknown Artist' metadata is no longer written to files when writing out user edit of album name
* Renaming an artist now more reliably keeps the change
* Two different copies of the same album no longer get duplicated down to one when it shouldn’t
* Access violation no longer occurs when checking song properties in the burn list
* Multi-disc albums imported from iTunes no longer show in the client as a single disc album
* Thumbnails for video content now extract on XP properly."