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.

Hitting rewind

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, 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, if 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 make Zune - dare we say it? - cool.

The relationship between Zune and Common began last summer, when the rapper performed a set at a Microsoft-organised 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 extra to place a Zune in Common's music video.

Progressive and fresh

In an interview with the Chicago rapper, 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 between artists, turning up new sounds for him to explore.

For now, iPods remain dramatically more popular.

MP3 player sales

Apple snagged 71 per cent of MP3 player sales from January to September of this year, to Microsoft's 3.0 per cent, according to market researcher NPD Group.

Apple says 160 million iPods have sold since their 2001 launch, while Microsoft reports 2.5 million Zune sales since the 2006 debut.

To put it more starkly, some 23 million iPods are sold on average annually; and 1.25 million Zunes.

The Zune's distant runner-up status aside, Chris Stephenson, a marketing general manager, said the Zune has found better-than-average success among blacks, Hispanics and 18-to-24-year-olds, though he wouldn't go into specifics. Encouraged, the Zune team has sharpened its marketing to those constituencies.

- AP