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I’m on Xbox Music and I still get 10 DRM-free song downloads a month. My plan was granfathered in.

Still, I’m glad they have a bigger library, library matching, and they now have all the downloads sync’d between devices.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 1 reply

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Its not really an anecdote though. sabixx said there’s only once device that can play it, when there are actually many devices that can play Xbox Music.

Chances are most people in the US have at least two devices that can play it, and picking up a Windows Phone is pretty cheap.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 2 replies

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Anyone can make a bomb from almost anything. The question is how big of a bomb you can build.

2 days ago on Arctic oil boom sparks the next great political and environmental battle 1 reply 2 recommends

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Why sell to local groups for less when you can make more money selling to other countries? One problem of globalism is catering to global demand instead of local demand.

2 days ago on Arctic oil boom sparks the next great political and environmental battle 1 recommend

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While they’ve added a ton of ads with the several UI refreshes of the Xbox 360, I can’t say they’ve negatively impacted the performance of the device.

2 days ago on Microsoft planning Xbox dashboard UI and tile changes in preparation for next-gen console 2 recommends

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Xbox Music works on my tablet, gaming pc, home theater pc, xbox, and phone.

5 > 1. Math is hard, I know.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 1 reply 1 recommend

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Nah, they should mention “Microsoft has had an awesome music streaming service for years, but due to articles failing to mention it its been largely overlooked and undermarketed.”

The majority of people I’ve talked to about Xbox Music thought it was awesome. Many people I’ve shown it to have actually picked up Windows Phones for it. Its a pretty sweet service thats really unmatched by anything, save Spofity I guess.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service

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Zune works on XP, Vista, and 7. Xbox Music is on 8.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 2 replies

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Its full streaming, downloading, and matching of your current library to the cloud. It syncs your library across all your devices, assuming they’re running Windows.

Which is great for me, with Windows 8 on my desktop and HTPC, an Xbox, a Surface Pro, and a 920.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 1 recommend

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Well, it is on the biggest mobile phone platform out there, and is on the biggest computing platform: the web.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 2 recommends

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I’ve been using download/streaming services since 2005, and I don’t think I could every switch to buying music a la carte again.

I download 4-5 albums in a typical month. That’s at least $30/month for MP3 album downloads, even more if I’m buying them on CD’s. Sometimes I’m downloading more, and would easily hit $100+ for music in a single month.

So instead I just have Xbox Music Pass, which with my grandfathered Zune Music Pass I pay $15/mo for 10 DRM-free songs and unlimited streaming and downloading. It syncs between my phone, tablet, desktop, home theater pc, and Xbox. I always see my entire library, no matter what is stored locally and what’s “in the cloud.”

Most of my music discovery comes from hearing music at friend’s places, on the radio, or playing at some club/bar/restaurant/whatever. I can easily find the song that is playing with Bing on my phone, it directs to me to the marketplace, and then I download it. I don’t have to think about paying for it, I don’t need to enter in my credit card, I don’t need to tag it to go buy it later. Its just there. Its instantly a part of my music collection.

And the best part is I’m not spending anywhere near as much per month as I would if I was buying each song or album. This is really one of the biggest reasons why I bought a Windows Phone, and was one of the big reasons why several of my friends did as well.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 1 recommend

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Well then Google didn’t beat Apple, as there’s no iOS app.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 2 recommends

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Considering I download at least 4-5 albums a month, $5/mo for unlimited downloads is a steal for me ($15/mo for downloads + 10 DRM-free songs with the old Zunepass). With the size of my collection right now, it would take years for the monthly fee to catch up to the price if I bought everything as CD’s, or hell MP3 downloads. And that’s not even considering all the music I’ll download in the future, and delete all the music I don’t care to listen to now.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service

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Zune/Xbox Music was actually one of the main reasons why I picked Windows Phone. Its seriously the best music streaming service I’ve ever used, and I’ve used pretty much all of them in the US.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 1 recommend

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Xbox Music Pass is the exact same as Zune pass. Actually, its better because it has a larger library.

As for the player on Windows 8 sucking, I just download new music from my phone. From there, my desktop is cloud sync’d, so it automatically downloads the songs as well. It puts it on a network share, which I can then play from Windows Media Player without any issues.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 1 reply 3 recommends

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So, its exactly like Zune/Xbox Music, which has existed for years.

2 days ago on How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service 1 reply 1 recommend

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There seemed to be a ton of people that joined the very little marketed campaign for #ifihadglass…

2 days ago on Will Google Glass create information heroes or new-wave Bluetooth dorks?

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A lot of the phones selling in India right now didn’t exist for the dates in the link you posted. Its also a year old.

I’m sure I could bring out charts from the past that show Android at 1% marketshare in the US. Does that mean Android isn’t currently selling well?

3 days ago on Windows Phone overtakes BlackBerry to claim third place in 2013 smartphone shipments 1 reply