I just received a heads up that all of the Zune-branded services from Microsoft (Zune.net,  Zune Marketplace,  Zune Pass,  and the Xbox Zune video store) are scheduled to go temporarily offline this upcoming Monday night (Jan 25) at 10 p.m. PT. The outage should last around 24 hours, during which time Zune and Xbox users will not ba able to browse, stream, or purchase content from Xbox video store, Zune Marketplace, or access Zune.net. The existing content that you downloaded will not be affected, so if you are planning on a raging party Monday night, you should stock up on tunes now.

In case Zune services back online, Zune owners will be prompted to update their Personal Computer  software. If you have an older Zune (any one that is not a Zune HD), you will also be necessary to update the firmware of the device.

If you are consider all these updates must mean that something big is on the horizon, do not get your hopes up. Microsoft is specifically saying that the downtime is focused on actual maintenance. The whole Smart DJ and AVI/XVID video support update is not happening until spring.

That said, I will be curious to see if Microsoft does make any sneaky little changes to the hardware or software. If you guys flip the switch back on spy anything new after, please drop a note in the comments section.