A video for the title track on hip-hop veteran Common’s forthcoming album, “Universal Mind Control,” begins with a digital music player pulsing to the beat. The viewer is pulled through the screen into the gadget’s guts, where the cool, collected rapper lets loose an easy stream of lyrics.

It takes hitting rewind a few times to notice that the music player isn’t one of Apple’s slim new iPods. It’s a Zune, and it’s made by Microsoft Corp.

Since it first landed two years ago, the Zune has been the butt of many jokes, like how its wireless music sharing feature would be great, whether only a second person would buy one. But while Apple Inc. has counted on the sex appeal of its ever-thinner devices to keep consumers turned on, the Zune team has been beefing up its software and courting artists like Common, a dashing MC with mainstream appeal who might just help construct Zune — dare we say it? — cool.

The relationship amoung

Zune and Common began last summer, when the rapper performed a set at a Microsoft-organized concert in Los Angeles. Zune sponsored Common’s latest tour and is kicking in posters, T-shirts and other materials to promote the new album, though Microsoft says it didn’t pay additional to place a Zune in Common’s music video. Now, the Chicago rapper on Monday became the latest face in Zune’s national TV ad campaign. Neither side disclosed financial terms.

In an interview, Common described Zune as “progressive, fresh, innovative,” a far cry from critics’ refrain that it’s an also-ran in a race iPod has already won. When he’s pressed to explain, it becomes clear that Common is hooked less on the device than the way the Zune’s software makes connections amoung artists, turning up new sounds for him to explore.

In the Zune program…

Original post by Mike

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