Digital

Xbox announces new content partners, confusion over Zune

By | Published on Thursday 6 October 2011

Zune

Microsoft has announced new partnerships with just under 40 entertainment companies who will be bringing their content to the Xbox Live service for the first time. On the music side, the two main new partners of interest are Sony/Universal owned music video platform VEVO and iHeartRadio, the recently revamped interactive music service from US radio giant Clear Channel.

In other Microsoft news, there has been much confusion this week about the future of the Zune player, the IT firm’s iPod competitor that never really took off, and which was never launched outside the US.

The product disappeared from Microsoft’s Zune website earlier this week, leading to speculation that the company was phasing out the standalone device to concentrate on Zune services for the Xbox and Windows-powered phones. Then Microsoft denied that the Zune HD was being axed, then confirmed it was, then said it wasn’t. So who knows? Either way, Zune software will still be supported so even if the players are discontinued, those with them already should still be able to use them OK.



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