Friends reignited

Microsoft pools its assets with new music venture

What?: Microsoft has launched its Ignition program, which will utilise three of its platforms – Xbox Live, Zune Marketplace, and MSN – to expose emerging new acts. Each artist will feature in a dedicated month long campaign targeting the combined might of Microsoft’s 30 million strong user base. Microsoft hopes to propel the joint services as key destinations for new music.
First up to benefit from this vast potential exposure is UK indie band Maximo Park, who will feature in a host of content – including free videos, downloads and streaming.

So what?: Some nice joined up thinking from Microsoft for a change, showing a cohesiveness of approach by utilising a cross platform campaign. The bulk of activity does however centre around the Zune Marketplace. But then it would wouldn’t it? Microsoft are going to use whatever opportunities it can to drive consumer interest to its MP3 player portal. Zune has notched up 1m MP3 player purchases so far, leaving it lagging behind Apple in sales but not in effort.

Whether consumers are ready to trust Microsoft as a music recommender is open to question, but free content is always a good draw none the less. Microsoft have allegedly demanded exclusive content from the artists involved, which should also give the campaign a credibility boost. “We don’t want the same thing that is going out on MTV,” said Microsoft’s director of music marketing Christina Calio.

Is this a make or break for Zune Marketplace?

www.zune.net