It’s been almost a year since Xbox Music was launched as the official replacement for the Zune music service. The service has been a staple of Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and the Xbox 360. Very early on Microsoft had stated that eventually the service would come to other platforms. Earlier this year they released a web client, but today they released apps for both iOS and Android. They’ve also made the web player free (with ads).
If you’re not familiar with the service, Xbox Music covers a wide area of music service features. Like Pandora it offers radio station-style playlists. Like Spotify it allows you to pick and choose exactly what songs and artists you want to listen to. If you have a Windows 8 PC it will even sync your music collection to the cloud making it easy to listen to your own music on all of your devices. Some of this functionality, like cloud syncing and the web player, are free. If you’re willing to part with $9.99/month you can sign up for Microsoft’s Xbox Music Pass subscription service. This service allows you to listen to any track in their catalog whenever you want, on any device. On the Windows Phone app, and coming soon to the iOS and Android apps, you can download the music so that you don’t need to maintain an internet connection while listening. You can also stream the music in your living room through an Xbox 360 (that does require you to have an Xbox Live Gold subscription though.)
The iOS and Android apps can be downloaded for free today. The web app, at music.xbox.com, is currently free for everyone. In six months you’ll be limited to ten hours per month if you’re not an Xbox Music Pass subscriber. Look for more details, and a hands-on, in the coming days.
Source: Xbox News Wire
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[…] week, Microsoft fulfilled their promise to the Zune faithful with the release of Xbox Music applications for Android and iOS. This release brings them one step closer to being a competitive alternative to Spotify, Pandora, […]