Microsoft Corp. is introducing Xbox Music to the masses. It is a music service, that will be going head to head with music services like Spotify, and Pandora (for the radio based streaming if you are lucky enough to be where this is available)
Xbox Music will work with a whole suite of devices, including PC, phone, tablet, and TV through the Xbox 360, all possible through the power of the cloud, giving you access to your playlists wherever you go.
30 million songs will be available in the global catalogue when it rolls out tomorrow on the Xbox 360, and later in the month on Windows 8, Windows RT PCs, phones, and tablets, starting of course with the Windows Phone 8, which will then roll out to other platforms later.
“The launch of Xbox Music is a milestone in simplifying digital music on every type of device and on a global scale.
We’re breaking down the walls that fracture your music experiences today to ensure that music is better and integrated across the screens that you care about most — your tablet, PC, phone and TV."
said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.
The service is available free, but is ad supported, and will have some limits if you go this route.
For ad-free, unlimited playback of tracks in the catalogue, from all devices, it will cost £8.99 per month. The Music Pass also brings to you access to tens of thousands of music videos straight to the Xbox 360.
The Xbox Music Store is the place you will go to if you want to truly own the music offered from the service, which will offer single tracks and full albums in MP3 form (Most likely 320kbps, and not lossless however)
Smart DJ is an artist-based personalized radio, which will offer new ways to listen to your music, allowing you to find new artists based off the artists already in your collection (Rather like Pandora or Spotify's Radio function). It will allow unlimited skips, and a view of the full stream heading your way next, and in the future.
Cloud Storage coming in the next year is a scan-and-match service which will allow you to add all the music you own, including those from other services. This will allow for seamless managing of tracks, on all devices.
Social Music, will also be coming in the following year, letting you share your music with friends and family (…)
Xbox Music, will also have visualizations, with artist photos, bios, cover art and discography popping up on the screens as you listen. Of course, unless you like to waste power, you most likely won't have the screen on when using portable devices to see this.
Free Streaming on Windows 8, Windows RT tablets, and other PC's will launch on the 26th October in 15 markets worldwide.
Xbox Music Pass will be available tomorrow (16th October) in 22 markets worldwide.
Microsoft is committed to offering the services in new regions around the world throughout this year and the next.
What do you think of Microsoft's Xbox Music?
Personally, I think it offers exactly what Spotify offers right now, and I'm not going to be jumping ship anytime soon. Spotify does exactly what I want, on any device right now, for £9.99 per month.
I'm seriously hoping Microsoft don't dominate the market, but offering the service with Windows 8 could cause problems, and no doubt, lawsuits, like when they had IE installed from the get go.
