[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Streaming music showdown: Xbox Music versus the world here

[toph36]

"If music soothes the savage breast..."

[BradChacos]

That's the actual line: "Savage beast" is a frequent misquote :-)

[garak0410]

XBOX Music, while good looking, has serious issues it has both with and without Windows Phone 8. Perhaps we can get someone at Microsoft to notice and get this fixed. In my experience, here are the problems I've encountered:

Syncing To Windows Phone - A lot has been said about syncing. Most of us were focused on the "Modern" Windows Phone App and how it would simply transfer music and not sync it. We also tried Windows Media Player which did a good job except it would not sync XBOX Music Pass songs. The Desktop Windows Phone app does a better job but it is still quirky. We need something built into XBOX Music itself for music syncing.

Album Art - When I use the desktop app to sync music, album art is hit and miss, and more miss. The artist picture is in the background but over 60% of my album art is missing. I believe all music I've downloaded from XBOX Music pass have had no problems with Album Art.

Sluggish Performance - When I switch between songs by swiping over the album art, it will pause while moving and then settle down and play the song after 2-5 seconds. Also, when I go to play all my music or a playlist, there is a good pause before music starts at at least 10-20 seconds before the song info appears.

Streaming Playlists - I was a long time Spotify user and I decided to embrace XBOX Music and give it a chance (especially since I had to buy seperate XBOX Music passes between my wife's and my phone.) I loved having my streaming playlists available between PC's and devices (when I was on Android). I'd love to see the same thing with XBOX Music and it acts like I can do it. However, if I create a playlist either from my PC, Surface or XBOX, it never appears on either device. Just the one it was created on. This needs to be fixed because streaming is ideal for XBOX and low storage devices like the Surface.

XBOX Music Cloud - Wow! This is a mess! What is all of this info? I see playlists with various amounts of music in them, some maxed out at 1,000 with saying no more can be added, a mess of playlists and autoplaylists. Right now, with the exception of the XBOX, I have this turned off. Mainly because I can't sync streaming lists and all of this data is messy and all over the map. Is there a way I can get into this "cloud" an clean this up and start fresh? I'd like to see them perhaps get this setup like Spotify and Google Music. Would be a good combo. Most of all, I want streaming playlists to sync between ALL my devices.

Music Management On The Windows Phone - I'd like to see the ability to make playlists from albums and not just single songs (one song at a time)...and deleting music is also just one song at a tile, though you can check off what you wanted deleted and then delete them all. Both of these functions could be easier. Would also like to be able to check multiple playlists and then play them. The XBOX Music app on the PC or Surface will do so and that is nice.

[kingpcgeek]

I'll take the granddaddy, Rhapsody.

[GerryAllenkkbk]

This article completely ignores the best on the planet...MOG.

[happyman0fqwz]

What about Grooveshark? I could not live a day without that service, I absolutely love it. Free, no ads to interrupt music, awesome interface and device browser supported.

[Chris2]

Quote

XBOX Music, while good looking, has serious issues it has both with and without Windows Phone 8. Perhaps we can get someone at Microsoft to notice and get this fixed. In my experience, here are the problems I've encountered: Syncing To Windows Phone - A lot has been said about syncing. Most of us were focused on the "Modern" Windows Phone App and how it would simply transfer music and not sync it. We also tried Windows Media Player which did a good job except it would not sync XBOX Music Pass songs. The Desktop Windows Phone app does a better job but it is still quirky. We need something built into XBOX Music itself for music syncing. Album Art - When I use the desktop app to sync music, album art is hit and miss, and more miss. The artist picture is in the background but over 60% of my album art is missing. I believe all music I've downloaded from XBOX Music pass have had no problems with Album Art. Sluggish Performance - When I switch between songs by swiping over the album art, it will pause while moving and then settle down and play the song after 2-5 seconds. Also, when I go to play all my music or a playlist, there is a good pause before music starts at at least 10-20 seconds before the song info appears. Streaming Playlists - I was a long time Spotify user and I decided to embrace XBOX Music and give it a chance (especially since I had to buy seperate XBOX Music passes between my wife's and my phone.) I loved having my streaming playlists available between PC's and devices (when I was on Android). I'd love to see the same thing with XBOX Music and it acts like I can do it. However, if I create a playlist either from my PC, Surface or XBOX, it never appears on either device. Just the one it was created on. This needs to be fixed because streaming is ideal for XBOX and low storage devices like the Surface. XBOX Music Cloud - Wow! This is a mess! What is all of this info? I see playlists with various amounts of music in them, some maxed out at 1,000 with saying no more can be added, a mess of playlists and autoplaylists. Right now, with the exception of the XBOX, I have this turned off. Mainly because I can't sync streaming lists and all of this data is messy and all over the map. Is there a way I can get into this "cloud" an clean this up and start fresh? I'd like to see them perhaps get this setup like Spotify and Google Music. Would be a good combo. Most of all, I want streaming playlists to sync between ALL my devices. Music Management On The Windows Phone - I'd like to see the ability to make playlists from albums and not just single songs (one song at a time)...and deleting music is also just one song at a tile, though you can check off what you wanted deleted and then delete them all. Both of these functions could be easier. Would also like to be able to check multiple playlists and then play them. The XBOX Music app on the PC or Surface will do so and that is nice.

My frustration with Xbox music seems like a small one to me. I'm a former Zune enthusiast. I was excited that Zune would continue to xbox music. However I soon discovered that Windows 8's performance differs from different mediums and Xbox music app just isn't as fine tuned like Zune software or Itunes. Its main focus is streaming. I had a hard time syncing playlist with songs on my harddrive and songs purchase from other sources like amazon and Itunes mp3. When previously they worked fine with Zune software. But I solved these issues by just downloading the songs again through Xbox music. After getting a WP8 more frustration problems aroused. I found it easier to create playlist through the phone however the playlist never synced. Xbox software on my desktop does sync playlist to the phone however. Usually takes 15-20 minutes for about 200 songs. What angers me so much is that I can't sort songs by rating. Nor can you select a group of songs to add to playlist. You can only select individual songs or whole albums. HOW IN THE HELL COULD THEY MISS THAT?! I have notice some small changes to the features of the xbox music app since the launch of Windows 8. But for Windows 8 software based on the early Zune metro interface and software, its disappoint to see the basic and essential qualities missed.

[counterblowb49r]

I'd also like to mention that the System Music Player in Xbox works GREAT now with DLNA devices since the fall update. I'm glad to see MS embracing DLNA finally. I just access all my music on my NAS and can even create playlists with the player.

[nightwng2000]

Here's ANOTHER apparent problem with XBox Musc:
Even if you're a Family Gold member, the Child account can't sign up for the service and the Parent account can sign up but not give Child Account access to the service. We've looked. there is NO way for the Child Account to make use of the service, even if the Parent Account owner wanted to grant permission.