More Free Content For Zune

[Aaron Roma]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0135003720070602' target='_blank'>http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0135003720070602</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>&quot;Microsoft is introducing an initiative on Monday to promote emerging music acts across its entire digital footprint, Billboard has learned. Called Ignition, the program is designed to expose new artists and their music to consumers for an entire month by featuring exclusive content through Microsoft's multiple services -- including MSN, Xbox Live and Zune.&quot;</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Exposure to new music and artists AND more free content for my Zune?&nbsp; Microsoft has started up a new program this week, Ignition, to promote new artists on the scene.&nbsp; What does this mean for you?&nbsp; More free downloads from Zune Marketplace!&nbsp; Hooray, I say.&nbsp; I usually try to download most of the free content I can get my hands on.&nbsp; Sure, 99% of the time, after a quick listen, it hits the recycle bin, but I have been able to discover a few new artists that I would have never known about otherwise.&nbsp; What about you?&nbsp; Do you give the free songs a listen?</p>

[Jason Dunn]

If it's free, absolutely, I'll download it and give it a listen - I enjoy discovering new music. Sometimes I'll listen to a whole album of 30 second samples on the Zune Marketplace, several times over, to get a feel for the music.

[Talyn]

I get the free songs from both Zune and iTunes marketplaces. A couple years ago I set up a script that would parse a couple MP3 blogs for links and auto-download all the songs for me. Discovered quite a few good bands that I would never have learned of that way. In fact, I just might try to do something like that again...

[bleeman]

I always grab the free downloads for the same reasons as the others stated. It exposes me to other artists that I may have overlooked. I don't rely on it as much as I used to as I took the plunge and signed up for the monthly subscription service so I've been busy with a combination of reliving my youth (playing all the songs I grew up with and considering I'm 54 that's a lot of songs to go through :)) and checking out the new releases each week.

Now if I could just find a job that paid me to do nothing but this, I'd be all set! :D