EMI & Microsoft team up to put videos on Zune

The Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI Group), the world’s third-largest music firm has signed an agreement with software giant Microsoft to preload music videos onto the software company's unreleased portable Zune digital music player.

Under the deal, EMI will provide preloaded music videos for the Redmond, Washington-based software giant’s soon to be launched portable Zune media player.

The Kensington, London-based music company confirmed that Microsoft would preload tracks from American actor Jared Leto’s rock band 30 Seconds To Mars, as well as British electro-pop band Hot Chip, among others.

EMI said it believes that its content would be preloaded on the Zune player in addition to videos and tracks from other record companies like Universal Studios, who is in discussions with Microsoft.

Universal Music, owned by France's Vivendi said it is in discussions with Microsoft on Zune however, it did not give any details.

By showing its true abilities as a supreme marketing company, Microsoft has managed to keep its much-anticipated Zune digital music player, which is expected to launch before the upcoming holiday season, in the limelight ahead of its release before the end of the current year through a combination of promotion and strategically placed leaks.

As compared to its rival Apple’s iPod, apart from FM radio, Zune's much touted edge over iPod is its Wi-Fi capability. A number of sources, including record industry representatives, bloggers and industry websites, have speculated that two more Zune features that will give it a win over most popular iPod device are firstly its ability to transfer music files to and from Zune wirelessly and secondly the ability to share content with other Zune users, even if only temporarily.

However, it remains to be witnessed whether intending iPod users will be influenced by the additional features of Zune.

One more impediment on the way of Microsoft is the gigantic installed base of tens of millions of iTunes and iPod consumers who are effectively locked into their music playing systems by Apple's DRM which will not permit iTunes music to be played on the Zune music player.

Nonetheless, Jeff Kempler, executive vice president of Virgin Records America, a division of EMI, said, however “Apple has been an important partner in building the digital music market, but any well-funded serious entrant has got to be good news for the artists and industry.”