I have insisted for nearly two decades that the Zune was an incredible line of devices. The brand’s potential was squandered by executive mismanagement: a combination of a botched launch, a forced rivalry between music departments within Microsoft, a weak marketing campaign, and failing to support/continue the brand as a competitor to the iPod Touch and iPhone before Android filled the gap.
When the original device released, it was a chunky block of plastic with an ugly desktop companion that was a thinly reskinned version of Windows Media Player. But within a few years, Zune had one of the earliest and best online music subscription services, and the Zune HD’s interface was vastly superior to Apple’s equivalent music devices in both aesthetic and function.
Even after the brand was discontinued (initially replaced by the weak Xbox Music, then Groove Music, before being abandoned by Microsoft altogether), I continued to use the desktop app. It struggled to keep up with larger resolution screens, and has limited filetype accessibility, but it is still a good-looking app.
I have since replaced it with MusicBee, a music player with tons of features that was loosely inspired by Zune, but its slow development and sparse customization options prevent it, in my opinion, from truly excelling.
Inarguably, it has better function than Zune did, but it feels inferior. The UI is cramped, the typography is less important to the design, and switching tabs is very slow.
It’s just not the same.
Now and then I trawl the internet, hoping to find something better. And I just discovered that the Zune will soon be reborn, via a fan project called Xune.
Its creator (username TheMagicIsInTheHole) is essentially remaking the app completely from scratch for new computers and with contemporary features. I am really hoping it lives up to my now immense expectations.