Crashing the Zune Party

Last night, I and three other DefectiveByDesign members from Seattle met up for a dinner and a beer and then headed over to the launch of the Zune at the War Room on Capital Hill. This being a Microsoft town, I expected a huge crowd, even if it was just Microsofties. We were surprised by the turnout, maybe 150 people waiting in a line snaking around the corner for the doors to open. Almost all were MS people, but we talked to them none the less. The responses were interesting ranging from disgust with out message, to bemusement to outright support.

Every person I asked on line said they had an iPod (interestingly) and the few people who were not directly affiliated with the Zune or Microsoft were in complete agreement with us that DRM should be ditched and that they would avoid services like Zune Marketplace (if they bought a zune) and already avoid iTMS.

Interestingly, the band headlining the party, Blond Redhead, has music available on the popular subscription based eMusic which eschews DRM!

Check out our press release about the Zune