New Microsoft Xbox Music Service to Challenge iTunes, Spotify, Pandora
By Rob Scott
October 16, 2012
October 16, 2012
- Microsoft is taking another stab at digital music with a new service that runs on Windows-powered PCs, tablets and the Xbox game console. The Xbox Music service will offer unlimited streaming of about 18 million songs in the U.S. (30 million globally), although Microsoft could limit usage in the future.
- “The service is part of a broad set of bets Microsoft is making this fall to help regain ground it has lost to competitors, especially Apple and Google,” reports The New York Times.
- “In addition to Windows 8, a major new version of its flagship operating system that will start shipping October 26, the company is close to releasing a new version of its Windows Phone operating system for mobile phones and its first Microsoft-designed computer, a tablet device called Surface.”
- As part of this wider initiative, Microsoft will package Xbox Music software with Windows 8 — which could raise “antitrust concerns about Microsoft’s use of Windows to gain toeholds in new markets,” notes the article.
- Xbox Music incorporates elements of other services such as iTunes, Spotify and Pandora. There are radio stations built around similar-sounding music, an option to purchase songs and another option to listen free from a computer, but with audio and visual advertisements.
- “Like Spotify, Xbox Music offers a $10-a-month ad-free service that includes many other features, like the ability to listen to music on smartphones and the Xbox 360 game console,” explains NYT.
- Also launching in late October “is Microsoft’s Smartglass app that lets you move music from Windows computers, tablets and phones to the Xbox 360 to see on the TV and hear on a home stereo,” adds USA Today in a related report. “The tablet then offers a second screen experience with artist information, art, photos, lyrics and related artists. Microsoft plans to develop music apps for iOS and Android devices, too.”
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