On the Windows Team Blog Microsoft has revealed the start of the end for the Zune desktop software.

Mazhar Mohammed, Director of Program Management at Microsoft, revealed today that very soon the Zune desktop software will no longer be able to purchase Windows Phone applications.

The reason for the change is that apparently most software are bought from the phone directly, or from the web marketplace, with Microsoft aiming to optimise these experiences instead of supporting Zune.

The Zune Music Marketplace will remain, and the software will still service the Zune HD.  In addition the software will still be needed to backup music and photos and install updates.

Talking about updates, Mazhar also revealed that phones running Windows Phone 7.0  rather than 7.5 will also no longer be able to purchase applications from Marketplace.

Citing the need for “improving Marketplace performance and security” it is likely that Microsoft wishes to flip the switch on anti-piracy measures enabled by Windows Phone Mango.

This in fact likely presents a bigger problem than removing Zune Desktop, as the people who have not updated to Mango are likely doing so because they do not have easy access to a desktop. Fortunately the number of users not on Mango is now pretty small –our web stats show only 1.23% still on Windows Phone 7.0.

Will any of our readers be missing the Zune desktop app? Let us know below.

Thanks Michael Gillett for the tip and image.

Hey DJ!  - Tell your phone what you want to play

Hey DJ! for Windows Phone allows you to control your phone’s music library using your voice. Just say the name of the song, artist, album, genre or playlist you want to play and it will begin playing right away. Try it while driving or walking, you’ll love it! App is theme aware and it works well with light or dark backgrounds.

Features:

• Voice controlled music playback.
• It allows you to pin “speak now” to start screen for quick access to your music.
• App is theme aware and has a fast and fluid metro UX.
• Trial version: you can only play music by artist.
• Full version: you can play music by artist, album, genre, song and playlist.

Find the app in Marketplace here.

Follow us on twitter for more information at twitter.com/punozapps

Zemote 2.2 has just been released to the Marketplace. Zemote is a Zune remote that allows you to control your Zune player on the PC from your phone. With Zemote you can perform all basic actions on your music collection like play, pause, next, previous, shuffle, repeat and so on. You can find songs in a songs, albums, artists and genres overview, or search songs by typing in (a part of) the title, album or artist. It has recently received an update which adds the following new features:

• Play, create, edit and delete playlists from your phone
• You can now find and play songs by genres
• Albums will now play in the correct order instead of alphabetically
• The Zemote PC Software should load your library up to 2 times faster
• You can now password-protect your connection, so nobody else can connect to your PC.
• Bugfixes

 Free
Zemote is available for free as well. The free version does not offer playlists support, genres, and Zemote DJ. It offers all basic functionality though. You can give it a try here.

Paid
The paid version doesn’t have any ads, and offers you playlists, genres and Zemote DJ. You can buy it for $1.99 here.

You can find all info on our website here.

Tom Warren of The Verge is out with some presumably exclusive information confirming the long-rumored death of the Zune brand, which is going to be replaced with Xbox Live. Not only that, but he says that the Windows Live brand is also going to be phased out, with Windows Live ID being renamed to Microsoft account.

While obviously a rumor, there’s not much evidence to refute these claims – quite the opposite. Since the commercial failure of the Zune MP3 players, it has been speculated over and over that the Zune brand might be killed off, with recent leaks concerning an Xbox Live branded streaming music service serving as the final nail in the coffin. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, however, don’t worry as your service isn’t going away, but will probably be continued under a different name.

As for Windows Live, the signs have been much more subtle, but still visible. LiveSide noticed back in December that the new Hotmail and SkyDrive logos on Microsoft’s press page had the Windows Live branding removed – instead of Windows Live Hotmail, the new logo simply said Microsoft Hotmail. As we’ve gotten used to overly long and complex branding from Microsoft (hey, Windows Phone isn’t that concise either), it’s nice to see that the guys in Redmond are finally getting some sense for the average consumer, for whom such confusing names simply didn’t work. As part of this complete eradication of anything called Windows Live, the Windows Live ID is also going to be renamed to exactly what it is – a Microsoft Account.

There’s even more changes, as the included Metro apps in Windows 8 are also getting new names devoid of any Windows Live or Zune branding. Since all of this information is claimed to be related to the upcoming Windows 8 Consumer Preview, we should find out for sure on February 29.

Meanwhile, read the full details on The Verge.

CNET reports that Microsoft is in talks with some of the major record companies about creating a new music service, utilizing streaming rights, rather than just downloading music.

The service would supply music to Windows Phone and Xbox 360, and would presumably be different from the existing service by not requiring a fee to play, like Spotify or Rdio on the desktop.

CNET also reports that Microsoft may be planning to hook up with Nokia and HTC, both major Windows Phone 7 OEMs, to partner in the deal.

Negotiations are still apparently in an early stage and specifics are not available yet.

Read more at CNET here.

Via TNW.com

Neowin was surprised to discover an icon for a Zune app in the Microsoft store.  The music and video client is rumoured to be not long for this world, and has been speculated to be ripe for replacement before Windows 8 launches.

Neowin notes that rumours of the demise or at least rebranding of Zune for Windows remains, with a dedicated Windows Phone 8 synching app rumoured as a replacement,  so while the client is here today it may still be gone tomorrow.

Read more at Neowin here.

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It’s been rumored for a long time now that the Zune brand would eventually be killed off, considering the commercial failure of the Zune music players. But alas, Zune has lived on as the music service integrated into Windows Phone and Xbox, and the Zune desktop software is used to synchronize Windows Phones with PCs, suggesting that Microsoft was looking to retain Zune as a brand similar to Apple’s iTunes.

In all Windows 8 demos and previews to date, however, the Zune branding was notably absent, and Neowin is now claiming that they’ve seen a possible replacement for it, on Windows 8 devices shown at CES, that’s called Microsoft Music.

We do not know yet whether this Microsoft Music app will replace Zune or Windows Media Player, or whether it is just an internal, non-finalized moniker for the music player application. What Microsoft will probably do, though, is to ditch the venerable Media Player and integrate the features of the current Zune software into Windows 8, so Windows Phone users do not need to install another application to sync their devices. The only question now is how that new software will be named – Microsoft Music?

Whatever the outcome, it’s quite frustrating to see the lack of a clear branding strategy at Microsoft. While the application stores on Windows Phone and Xbox are called Marketplace, in Windows 8, it’s called Windows Store instead. The worst case scenario here would be that the same divergence happens with Zune and Microsoft Music – or even that there’d still be a seperate Zune software, in addition to the built-in music app.

Update:  We had an anonymous but seemingly informed tipster who said this:

Zune isn’t going away.  The Microsoft Music app is more a hub.  It will allow users to get to other service like Pandora or Zune, and will also show things like artist information, upcoming shows and lyrics.

You heard it here first

Source: Neowin via The Next Web

The only Zune remote for Windows Phone out there has got a big update on Sunday. Zemote 2.0 fixes some important bugs, optimizes speed in a couple of areas and introduces some new features.

Zemote 2.0 introduces playlists the way it should be. You can browse your playlists on your phone and change the current playing list very easily with the Zune remote now. You can just start playing the list, or you can start playing it with a specific song.

In this update, the album view will work a lot smoother also and jump list is added, so you can easily jump to the albums instead of scrolling all the way down.

And here’s a short overview of all features offered by Zemote:

• Play/pause songs in Zune
• Play next/previous song
• Turn repeat and shuffle on/off
• Change volume or mute
• Browse your collection via albums, artists, songs or a custom search
• Rate songs in Zune
• Automatic PC discovery
• Zemote DJ: create a list of songs you want to hear next so you don’t have to change tracks all the time
• In the application bar you can always play/pause or skip tracks so you never lose basic control over Zune.

You can read everything about the update here.

Zemote is available in the Marketplace here, which costs you $1.99 and has a free trial.

Zemote 1.4 has been released to the Marketplace. This update introduces Zemote DJ.

Zemote DJ
With Zemote DJ you can queue up songs that have to be played. You create a list and those will be the songs Zune will play first. When your list is finished, Zune will continue playing randomly. Simply add all songs you want to hear, reorder them in the order you want to hear them and confirm the list by hitting the back button while going back to the main screen.

Other things in this update:

• Faster search performance
• Bug fixes

You can find more information about Zemote on zemote.dreamdevelopment.be

Zemote is available in the Marketplace for $1.99 and has a free trial which does not include Zemote DJ.