There's a really good quote by a guy named Mark Kroese (who's apparently in charge of this stuff) in the Seattle PI: "We're thinking about the integrity of the user experience, and the appropriate way of doing this, where it feels like there's value exchange, as opposed to, 'Oh, this is just ads,'" Link: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/139268...
The fact they're even thinking of this means I won't be considering a Zune. So they say it's "opt-in", but if that turns out to be a failure, they might decide well, OK, you know, that one didn't fly but maybe if we just pushed it a little harder, played a small, compulsory commercial before you could listen to the music you downloaded, maybe that would work...
I've been a part of enough opt-in lists to know that, at "least 1-2x a year, the company sends out an email akin to:
Dearest user,
In an effort to serve you better, we have reset your subscription preferences. We have create many new widgets, have a 0% balance transfer option, and would love for you to call us with your home mortgage refi questions.
Thank you -
ACME Corporation."
No doubt MSFT will find a way to lose/reset your opt-in preferences at least 1x a year...
"Welcome to the dystopian nightmare of round the clock policing and advertising, that you are only willing to accept because you have no taste, vision or standards, and you desparetly cling to the past, that we euphimistically call the social."
