Moonlight Ballroom Blog

In the Zune program that runs on desktop computers — which functions as a user’s music library and a music store, much like Apple’s iTunes — clicking “mixview” brings up a collage of musicians or bands related somehow to the one the user was listening to. Clicking any of those new faces shuffles the six-degrees-of-separation-style interface to show a new round of photos of the artist’s influences or protégés, says zune Blog similar-sounding singers and other related groups. In an interview, Common described Zune as “progressive, fresh, innovative,” a far cry from critics’ refrain that it’s an also-ran in a race that iPod has already won. When he’s pressed to explain, it becomes clear that Common is hooked less on the device than the way the Zune’s software makes connections between artists, turning up new sounds for him to explore.