This week saw the announcement and launch of Microsoft’s new Xbox Music service. And in typical underdog fashion, Microsoft has taken a long hard look at their competitors and brought the best features together into their new music service. Various analysts were quick to praise it for doing what other services just haven’t been able to accomplish.
Xbox Music will offer a large catalog of music with 30 million songs and you can stream any or all of them to your hearts content. You will also be able to access this from a variaty of devices including Windows RT, Windows 8, Windows Phone, and of course Xbox. But that’s not all, Microsoft is also working on an Android and iOS client as well. Which means you can listen from just about any mobile device.
Now let’s talk about the price, are you ready? It’s free! That’s right, free. You can listen to any song, album, or playlist as much as you want for absolutely no money.
So how does this differ from Pandora, Rdio, or any of the other online streaming music services? Well, first of all there’s the free thing. Second, you can build your own playlist or even share playlists with friends, which means you’re listening to your music when you want.
As expected, it sounds too good to be true. So what’s the catch? It’s actually pretty simple – as long as you’re streaming the music, then it’s free. As soon as you decide you want to buy a song, then you have to pay for that song, or purchase a different plan. Free is a great price, but how is Microsoft making money off this? Again, it’s a simple answer – once every 15 minutes you will hear a short 30 second advertisement. Compare that to the radio and I think you’ll find that 1 ad every 15 minutes is pretty good deal. Not to mention that with Xbox Music, you’re the disc jockey and you pick the tracks you want to hear.
Flexible and affordable, that’s a pretty good start if you ask me. Xbox Music has already launched on Xbox, and will become available starting October 26 with the launch of Windows 8. If you have an Xbox, login and try it out today. Be sure to let us know your thoughts.:)
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