MTV, VH1, CMT... coming to Zune Marketplace?

[Zunerama Ed.]

From the Zunerama blog:



I was doing some spelunking through some Zune software executables this weekend, and stumbled across some interesting internal code in ZuneMarketplace.dll.

The DLL's resource area contains text strings - apparently unused at present - for "MTV on Zune", "VH1 on Zune", and "CMT on Zune", along with references to related help text. (You can click on the graphic for a shot of the full screen grab.)

Now all this, of course, is distinctly reminiscent of URGE - the music offering integrated into Windows Media Player 11. With URGE, Microsoft partnered up with MTV, VH1, and CMT for music downloads and for related content such as playlists and recommendations.

Given the URGE partnership, it seems that music videos from MTV et al would be a natural offering for the much-anticipated video portion of Zune Marketplace.

So I'm wondering... is this Marketplace DLL snippet just a vestige from WMP 11 and its URGE integration... that accidentally got carried over into the internals of Zune software?

Or is this a sign of things to come in Zune Marketplace?

[ronaldmonster]

Oh my >__> maybe you never know.

[Sw0rdf1sh]

Thanks for the ray of hope that MS is getting it's collective asses together on video content.

I'm beyond enthused at their effort and lack of media for Zune.

(yes, this topic has me slightly ticked)

[pulse]

Nice find, but I think know Microsoft is going to have to do alot more than put a few music videos in the Marketplace to compete with iTunes.

[coot66]

"MTV on Zune"

Where's it say that one?

-The MTV Coot66

[Zunerama Ed.]

"MTV on Zune"

Where's it say that one?

-The MTV Coot66

Here's a screengrab of the MTV text string:

[JohnCz]

It seems that "...On Zune" was intentionally written in so it doesn't look like a WMP sourcecode search/text replacement.  I'll conclude Microsoft must be or were considering some sort music video content partnership.  If it happens, MTV/VH1/CMT will be happy to distribute their content through another channel.  Probably the only difference between Urge and Zune will be the exclusive content available in each.

Now that Spring has past..no Spring Update like XBox     when do you think we will see our 1st major update...

Summer? or Fall?

[thenumberdevil]

It seems that "...On Zune" was intentionally written in so it doesn't look like a WMP sourcecode search/text replacement.  I'll conclude Microsoft must be or were considering some sort music video content partnership.

Don't read anything inbto this. Everyone knows that Zune Software has its origins in Media Player (which has MTV Urge) and there are remnants in the code. This could just be the case of a programmer doing search and replace in their code (sometimes it much more of a bother to remove code as you can cause unintended consequences and adding later is more of a pain) ... and if you are technical minded read on ...

A look through your registry will reveal interfaces like ZuneMNLib.MTVNMusicNet.1
A study of the MTV Urge Music Net typelib (MTVNMNLib.dll) and Zune Music Net typelib (ZuneMNLib.dll) reveals similar interfaces.

However, MTVNMNLib.dll is 411,152 bytes whereas ZuneMNLib.dll is 159,272 bytes. This lends credence to the theory that the Zune version has bares bones interfaces [and its undisputed origin from Media Player source code.]

[JohnCz]

TheNumberDevil, with the MTVNMNLib.dll comparison you did...you've convinced me this isn't much of anything.  I guess its a sign of desperation when users are fumbling through typelib files to extract any product roadmap information.

[Zunerama Ed.]

The existing partnerships sure do seem like a relatively easy way to get *some* video content out on Marketplace.

I'd be pleased if Microsoft rolled out even just music videos to Marketplace, and then expanded to movies and TV shows after that. IMO it doesn't have to happen with one massive launch that encompasses everything...

[Cochell]

street cred!!
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/18/zune-marketplace-to-get-mtv-vh1-and-cmt-content/

[Zunerama Ed.]

street cred!!

  Thanks Cochell

[thenumberdevil]

TheNumberDevil, with the MTVNMNLib.dll comparison you did...you've convinced me this isn't much of anything.  I guess its a sign of desperation when users are fumbling through typelib files to extract any product roadmap information.

My interest was strictly technical API information. I just happened that someone reported the contents of the STRINGTABLE in ZuneMarketplace.dll about the time I was looking into the Windows Media interfaces. What are the odds of that?

BTW: The MTVNMNLib.dll happens to have extra interfaces for Akamai caching but I don't expect that to account for the size differences!

Disclaimer: I don't work for Akamai, Microsoft or MTV Networks.