Remember that video for Weezer's "Buddy Holly" that randomly came pre-loaded on your late-'90s Windows PC? Only vaguely, or not at all, because you were too busy watching it on MTV already? You'll soon feel (sort of) the same way about the nine songs, 12 music videos, and assorted other crap that come pre-loaded with your new Zune, which Microsoft is putting on the market Nov. 14 to compete with Apple's iPod. The excitement level of the music content ranges from solid indie rock (Band Of Horses, The Thermals) to asinine (30 Seconds To Mars) to tidbits for the 12-year-olds (three extreme sports videos). You can also customize your Zune with one of 12 pre-loaded "Art Of Modern Rock" posters (Microsoft hasn't specified what those are).
So far, the techies aren't looking favorably on the selection, at least if Gizmodo's post is any indication. As of this posting, a poll on the site finds that 85% of respondents plan to delete the freebies once they get Zune out of the box. And notice how Microsoft's press release doesn't specify how much of a Zune's 30 gigabytes this stuff will take up? Also, Idolator complains, with good reason, of the lack of hip hop in Microsoft's selection.
Of course, even some of the better songs, like Band Of Horses' "Wicked Gil" and The Thermals' "A Pillar Of Salt," are available on MySpace pages and band and label websites, and clips like the video for 30 Seconds To Mars' "The Kill" are available on YouTube and has already been on TV for a while. So it's hard to tell whether the "Zune Experience" will provide that feeling of, you know, getting something exclusive or new with that $250 purchase. Especially if you take advantage of the ease of previewing all that stuff for free (see that Idolator post)–you've got six weeks.