Xbox Music

Not to be confused with Xbox Music Mixer.
Xbox Music

Computer icon and screenshot of Xbox Music app in Windows 8.1
Opened October 16, 2012
Pricing model Paid unlimited streaming in 22 countries[1] US$9.99/month; US$99.99/year
Platforms Web, Windows 8, Windows RT, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows Phone, iOS, Android
Catalogue

18 million+ tracks (US);

38 million+ tracks (globally)[2]
Preview 30 second previews of songs are available for free
Streaming Yes
Burning/copying Yes (With Music Pass)
Trial 30 days for free (renews to paid subscription automatically)
Website music.xbox.com

Xbox Music is a digital music service developed by Microsoft that offers music through subscription streaming and purchase through the Xbox Music Store. It is available on Xbox 360, Xbox One,[3] Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8,[4] iOS and Android.[5] The Xbox Music catalog has over 38 million tracks.[6]

Xbox Music is the successor service of Microsoft's Zune products, because of Microsoft's decision to discontinue the "Zune" brand in favor of the more appealing "Xbox" brand. Microsoft plans to focus the Xbox Music service to compete more directly with Apple's iTunes Store, Amazon Music, Spotify, Deezer and other streaming services.

History

Microsoft had previously ventured into music services with its Zune brand. The Zune Music Marketplace included 11 million tracks. The line of Zune players and Zune music store were somewhat unsuccessful, and the brand was largely discontinued at the beginning of the 2010s, although it continued to exist on different devices and the Zune Music Pass offered unlimited access to songs for 9.99 USD per month.[7]

Meanwhile, Microsoft had been emphasizing the strength of its Xbox brand because of its appeal to consumers. It had been expanding the multimedia services available through its Xbox Live to include services such as a video store and online game marketplace. It decided to introduce a new music service to build upon these existing features.

Microsoft introduced the new service at its press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012 on June 4.

Xbox Music was launched along with Xbox Video service on October 16, 2012.

Features

The service provides a variety of methods to access content: via subscription (Xbox Music Pass) and through an online store for permanent purchases.[7] The service offers 18 million tracks.[7]

Free streaming

Xbox Music offered ad-supported free streaming on the web, Windows 8 and Windows RT devices (computers, laptops, tablets) in 15 countries. There were no duration restrictions during the first 6 months of Free streaming. After that there was a limit on the number of hours of free streaming allowed per month.[2]

Free Streaming ceased on December 1, 2014, in favor of a subscription based streaming model. The 30 day free trial will still be available after this date notwithstanding.[8]

Xbox Music Pass

It also offers the Xbox Music Pass which is a pay subscription service (formerly Zune Music Pass) that allows users to listen to their subscription music on any Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone, iOS, Android, Xbox 360, and Xbox One device. The pricing in US includes monthly and annual subscriptions.[2] A one-month trial offer is available, but those who previously tried the Zune Music Pass subscription prior to the rebranding are ineligible for this offer.

The Xbox Music Pass is available in 22 countries.

Xbox Music Store

For those who prefer to own their music, the Xbox Music Store is a MP3 marketplace where users can purchase single tracks or entire albums.[2]

Catalog

The service offers 18 million tracks (in the US) and 30 million tracks (globally) from major as well independent labels.[7] The number of tracks as well as the ways in which they can be used (free streaming vs subscription streaming vs purchase) differs per market depending on label agreements. Users can find music by searching an artist, album or song. They can also browse per genre featured new releases as well top artist, album and songs on the service.

Cloud Collection

Xbox Music lets users create a collection of songs and playlists that roam through the cloud on all the supported devices.[9] The songs can be added from the Xbox Music marketplace or matched (within the Xbox Music Catalog) to songs either saved locally on the user's machine or uploaded to the user's Microsoft OneDrive account for the country the user is in.

Radio

Xbox Music enables discovery of new music with Smart DJ which creates custom stations based starting from a user chosen artist and navigating through related and popular artists. The user can also create a station with the top songs of any given artist. Users can enjoy unlimited skipping when listening to any of the stations.[10]

Offline listening

Xbox Music Pass allows you to download DRM protected songs from the Xbox Music Catalogue to Windows Phone, iOS and Android devices.[10]

APIs for developers

The Xbox Music API provides access to RESTful web services for developers to leverage the catalog and features of the service in their application or website.

Platform availability

Xbox Music is available for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles, Windows Phone 8 smartphones, Windows 8 PCs and tablets. The service is also accessible using the Zune clients on Windows XP SP3 (and later) machines as well as Windows Phone 7.x smartphones. Since July 1, 2013 Xbox Music is also accessible on the web at music.xbox.com for Music Pass subscribers. [11] On September 9, 2013 Xbox Music launched iOS and Android clients as well.[12] In this way, Microsoft aims to offer presence and integration of their service on many types of devices.

Geographical availability

Countries where Xbox Music is active include:[13]

Xbox Music Pass is not available in Japan.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Microsoft Xbox Music takes on Spotify and iTunes Cloud". slashgear.com. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Xbox Music API – Music for Every App" (Press release). Microsoft. April 4, 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Xbox One: Xbox Music". winsupersite.com. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "Xbox Music service announced, coming to Xbox, Windows Phone, and Windows 8". theverge.com. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  5. ↑ "Xbox Music launches on iOS and Android, free streaming on the web". theverge.com. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "Xbox Music API – Music for Every App". Microsoft. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Brodkin, Jon (4 June 2012). "30 million-track Xbox Music service coming from Microsoft". Ars Technica. Condé Nast Digital. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  8. ↑ http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-on-other-devices/windows/free-xbox-music-streaming-retirement-faq
  9. ↑ "Digital Music: To the Cloud". winsupersite.com. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Xbox Music". Xbox. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  11. ↑ "Xbox Music Is Now Available on the Web". Mashable. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  12. ↑ "Xbox Music goes head on with Spotify: web streaming now free, iOS and Android apps out today". Endgadget. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  13. ↑ "Xbox on Windows feature list". Xbox. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  14. ↑ "Xbox Music in Japan". xbox.com. Retrieved 20 December 2013.

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