Xbox Music, your concerns and issues.

[Narse77]

Hey all! I am working on a Xbox music guide for WP8 and Win 8 and want to make sure I can help with at least some peoples issues. I only have my current experience getting the service to work for me and my devices and want some input from the community. Please post some items you have had issues with and I will see if I can address them in the guide.

Thanks!

 

[AaHaa]

Music management. Changing album covers and stuff. Zune (heck, even WMP) was awesome at that. As far as I know, Xbox Music can't even change a song title...

 

[Narse77]

Music management. Changing album covers and stuff. Zune (heck, even WMP) was awesome at that. As far as I know, Xbox Music can't even change a song title...

I know that track title and albulm art cover is pulled directly from the tags of the music files you have. Is all your files tagged properly?

 

[thewaterbird]

One thing that drives me nuts, and I'm hoping I'm just missing something- is if there is a song playing and I want to pause it, the only two ways I know how to do this is to turn off my phone and use the pause on the lock screen, or go all through xbox music until i find the album that's playing and then the particular song, and then pause it that way. Am I missing something? A "now playing" screen would be *reallly* handy!

 

[Sari_M]

Press "volume up" and the music controls pop up on your screen, then you can stop the music or go to the next or previous song. If you tap the artist name / song title there, you'll get the "now playing" screen.

 

[Simon Gregory]

Are you doing a user help guide, or a summary of all the major problems and bugs with the service and software itself?

 

[csd_images]

Make it easier to sync your lists and music between devices, the interface and designs are totally different between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Even how you find and play music is obtuse. So I've end up with two lists Nokia Music on the phone and Xbox music on the tablet. Not an ideal situation and I refuse to pay for two overlapping services.

 

[Neil Katz]

I don't know where the blame lies, but I have problems with the audio apps in WP8. If I try to transfer music from my computer to the phone using the Windows Store apps in Windows 8, I get some songs listed two or three times. This does not happen if I do the transfer in my computer directly to the micro SD card. Also, many of the tag items seem to get corrupted - album names are changed, for example. This results in several listings for the same album, each with some, but not all of the songs. This still seems to be a work in progress. Since I see the same problems in Nokia Music and Xbox music, it would appear that the fault is not in Xbox along, but I don't know how this process works. Hopefully, a fix will be forthcoming in the next release.

 

[jasonstatham]

embedded album arts are missing in windows 8 and 8.1 xbox music. That is holding me back from using it.

 

[shreyas15]

The ability to delete entire albums, Artists Or songs should be made available.
Also, an added equalizer option will be great! It's so disappointing when basic java phones have those options and wp8 doesn't!

 

[surfacedude]

The ability to delete entire albums, Artists Or songs should be made available.
Also, an added equalizer option will be great! It's so disappointing when basic java phones have those options and wp8 doesn't!

an eq is must, i agree! nokia windows phone have a great eq program, but xbox music could certainly use one and hopefully a pretty elaborate one. i love being able to tinker. i'm involved in music and would love to be able to go into an eq and adjust the mids, for example, to be able to hear a guitar, for example, a little more clearly if i'm trying to transcript it...or be able to pull back some sizzle (highs) on a snare drum on a hip hop track if it's too much for my ears.

 

[Simon Gregory]

If you want to see the problems then try these links:
Master list of issues:
http://answers.microsoft.com/static...c-on-wp8/b1c64834-de43-4af6-8069-4626090289a3

Master List of Issues (the return)
http://answers.microsoft.com/static...perience/2cc28d2f-d5aa-4840-8cf8-8129f5577546

Zune Uservoice Suggestion
https://windowsphone.uservoice.com/...058-continue-to-use-zune-for-media-sync-in-wp

My WPC Thread (Xbox Music - Enough is enough)
http://forums.windowscentral.com/groove-music/217754-xbox-music-enough-enough.html

The Major Issues relate to syncing and music management

1) Duplicates - there seem to be many causes for this problem, but MS never addresses it.
2) DRM issues - WP8 regularly incorrectly tells you that you don't have the rights to play music (many times the first track of an album).
3) Metadata issues - if it doesn't recognise a track, it won't cloud sync it. You have minimal control of the metadata etc and XBM will have no problems with overwriting your music collection's metadata with its own, and introducing DRM in the process.
4) The syncing situation is totally disjointed. There is no one problem free method of managing your music (many people find the best way is with iTunes!?!?!).
5) The dedicated sync app is a total joke.
6) Managing playlists is a near impossible task.
7) No podcast support
8) The cloud sucks! There's no easy way to manage what's in your cloud music collection.
9) It's bad for pre-owned music. If you owned the music before using XBM, then if you sync from the cloud, then you can only stream it to your WP - there is no download option (this is bad for your dataplan, your battery life, for listening while travelling or if your happen to be in bad reception areas).
10) It gets easily confused with what's downloaded and what is streaming. I've seen it say that the track is downloaded, but in fact it streams it anyway!
11) Lack of wireless sync. Zune had wireless sync, which was completely seemless.

This list is by no means definitive either.

 

[paulxxwall]

Xbox music seem expensive now with all these free option ,Pandora,Nokia music,metro radio,iheart radio Xbox music is 120$ a year vs free service but on PC xbm streams free I don't get it if it were a bit cheaper I might consider

 

[Mystictrust]

Xbox music seem expensive now with all these free option ,Pandora,Nokia music,metro radio,iheart radio Xbox music is 120$ a year vs free service but on PC xbm streams free I don't get it if it were a bit cheaper I might consider

None of those services allow me to pick the exact song I'm looking for to listen to. I can pick an artist or a station and hope to hear the song I want, but it doesn't beat hearing what I want and when I want it. Plus, I can download the songs to play on all my windows devices without worrying about streaming or even having an internet connection (i.e. I can listen to my xbox music songs on a flight, without paying for wifi. If my data connection is struggling - say, I'm driving and listening plugged in to car stereo -, my playlist can skip the streamed songs and play my locally downloaded ones)

It all depends on how you use your music. For some people, such as the ones who subscribe, they see the value in it for themselves over a free streaming service.

Regarding my concerns, I have yet to find a way to remove an album or song from my cloud "collection". Via the Xbox Music app, it seems to load an entire album into my cloud collection when I play just one or two songs from that album, so on my Windows Phone, the list of albums "in my collection" keeps growing and growing... based on what I have been doing on my PC.

 

[berty6294]

Xbox music seem expensive now with all these free option ,Pandora,Nokia music,metro radio,iheart radio Xbox music is 120$ a year vs free service but on PC xbm streams free I don't get it if it were a bit cheaper I might consider

Xbox music is $99 a year.

 

[Troyseph]

If you want to see the problems then try these links:
Master list of issues:
http://answers.microsoft.com/static...c-on-wp8/b1c64834-de43-4af6-8069-4626090289a3

Master List of Issues (the return)
http://answers.microsoft.com/static...perience/2cc28d2f-d5aa-4840-8cf8-8129f5577546

Zune Uservoice Suggestion
https://windowsphone.uservoice.com/...058-continue-to-use-zune-for-media-sync-in-wp

My WPC Thread (Xbox Music - Enough is enough)
http://forums.windowscentral.com/groove-music/217754-xbox-music-enough-enough.html

The Major Issues relate to syncing and music management

1) Duplicates - there seem to be many causes for this problem, but MS never addresses it.
2) DRM issues - WP8 regularly incorrectly tells you that you don't have the rights to play music (many times the first track of an album).
3) Metadata issues - if it doesn't recognise a track, it won't cloud sync it. You have minimal control of the metadata etc and XBM will have no problems with overwriting your music collection's metadata with its own, and introducing DRM in the process.
4) The syncing situation is totally disjointed. There is no one problem free method of managing your music (many people find the best way is with iTunes!?!?!).
5) The dedicated sync app is a total joke.
6) Managing playlists is a near impossible task.
7) No podcast support
8) The cloud sucks! There's no easy way to manage what's in your cloud music collection.
9) It's bad for pre-owned music. If you owned the music before using XBM, then if you sync from the cloud, then you can only stream it to your WP - there is no download option (this is bad for your dataplan, your battery life, for listening while travelling or if your happen to be in bad reception areas).
10) It gets easily confused with what's downloaded and what is streaming. I've seen it say that the track is downloaded, but in fact it streams it anyway!
11) Lack of wireless sync. Zune had wireless sync, which was completely seemless.

This list is by no means definitive either.

I 100% agree with everything on this list.

 

[paulxxwall]

Xbox music is $99 a year.

99$ vs free ?

 

[Kevin Rush]

99$ vs free ?

Read the posts and you would know the "features" you get for only $ 99.00. Everyone must decide for themselves if the features are worth it to them. They are to me. Common mistake to just look at numbers and not compare value.

 

[paulxxwall]

Read the posts and you would know the "features" you get for only $ 99.00. Everyone must decide for themselves if the features are worth it to them. They are to me. Common mistake to just look at numbers and not compare value.

maybe bundle with Xbox live? Xbox live half the price maybe work on a package deal

 

[berty6294]

I still think $99 is worth it! I've had Zune Pass since day one and never looked back. It's so incredibly convenient!