In this year’s update to Zune , you’ll find a brand new rating system. We’re moving from the 0-5 star rating to a simpler, more straightforward rating system: “like” (symbolized by a heart), and “don’t like” (symbolized by a broken heart). Now for the backstory: I spoke with some folks on the design/dev team about this and picked up some of the reasoning and thinking behind the new rating system. Last year, we extensively tested the 0-5 star rating system with users – both on the current system and...

Tomorrow, dear blog reader, is the annual Microsoft company meeting. Hence, no posts. Stay tuned Friday for, you guessed it, New Music Friday.

For 24 weeks now, I've been providing links for Zuneinsider readers to download new, free music. I'm sorry to say, dear blog reader, but I'm actually running out of ways to introduce the tracks. Hence, today, I'll just say: have a butcher 's : First up, by request : Stereogum has a Ghostface vs. Spoon Mashup . And a bunch more tracks . Rock out to these three tracks from Rockinsider Also, rock out to this: Mars Needs Guitars has a track from SXSW standouts Bonde do Role . And if you're not quite...

J Allard (my boss' boss' boss - what's up J!) has made good on a bet he lost with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal , resulting in. . . Read more about the bet here . In other rumors news, again, I re-iterate: We don't comment on rumors and speculation - even on those rumors that come with a photoshopped image ;)