As many of you know, when Zune refreshed the product line back in November 07, we started selling DRM-free MP3s. We’re now up to around two-thirds of our catalog available in that DRM-free format. I’m sure many of you saw the recent announcement from Rhapsody today – with other digital music providers moving toward MP3, it could be signaling even better changes in the industry in the future.

Taken in combination with the millions of tracks you could get with a Zune Pass, and guided by recommendations from your friends in Zune Social, I think it makes for an exciting platform to discover new music. And as many frequent readers know – helping folks discover and get new music is something at the core of Zune. And good thing about all that discovery is that you can take it to go – you can drag and drop both subscription tracks, MP3s you get from Zune Marketplace, and the Zune Cards you download from Zune Social down to your Zune.

We’re working to push the industry to explore new models – the standard $.99/track model is a great start, but there’s so much more we can do there. So for a major player like Rhapsody make an aggressive push into MP3 is a great sign that change in the way that folks get/find/acquire music is coming – more on this as it develops. What about you, dear blog reader – what do you think?

And speaking of Social – add me up as a friend – I can’t handle Jessica having more 1-way friends than me!