I suppose it was inevitable. Every company can see the potential for big bucks in it. They all want a piece of the streaming music pie. To get the greatest piece possible a company must offer their product to as wider range of users as possible. Microsoft have moved in this direction with the release of Xbox Music for Android.
Xbox Music is yet another streaming music service that, like most of the others, brags of having a catalogue of tens of millions of songs. The service is also available on Windows 8 PCs, Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets, Xboxes, Windows Phone devices and now, of course, Android devices. The coverage across platforms and devices is quite extensive with an iOS app planned in the future as well. There is also a free version that allows you to stream unlimited music for free via the web interface. To listen on your Android device you will need to purchase an Xbox Music Pass for $10 per month, although the first month is free to try it out, as is the standard offer that most of these streaming services provide to new users.
At this stage the app is in its infancy, still lacking an ability to play music offline and the use of the Xbox Music “SmartDJ” function which is similar to the Radio function in Google Play All Access Music. Microsoft have promised updates to the app coming every 4-6 weeks which means we should expect to see major changes each time. The app has already been updated since it was released a few days ago though- it seems they forgot to add in support for the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4 which doesn’t bode well for future successful updates, although the bug was fixed quickly.
The app itself seems well designed and follows Google’s design guidelines well, although at this stage there is no support for landscape viewing nor is there a specific tablet version but as I said above, the app is in it’s infancy and I am sure these things are in the pipeline.
For those that already have a Zune or XBox Music Pass this is a godsend, allowing them to enjoy their music across all of their devices but for those of us who already have a MOG, Google Play All Access, Pandora, Rdio etc subscription I doubt it is likely to tempt us across. All those listed already have web interfaces so there isn’t much to be gained by switching to Microsoft’s offering.
What do you think? Will you be switching your streaming music subscription to Xbox Music? Does anyone here even have an XBox Music Pass? James?
