I don't understand everyones fuss over this.
Please allow me to explain the fuss. I transitioned from Zune Music Pass to Xbox Music Pass. I listen to a lot of music and I loved Zune Music Pass, which was $14.99 per month including 10 songs I could download and own (I miss that plan). Zune desktop made it easy to organize your music, see which tracks you owned, chat with other Zune owners, etc. So when Microsoft announced the change to Xbox Music I anticipated it would have even more features. Unfortunately Xbox Music app was a step backwards.
- Initially Xbox Music app was unbelievably slow, particularly on Surface RT, and while it is still not fast it has at least become bearable.
- Initially I could not get Xbox Music to recognize my Windows phone and then when that problem was resolved the playlists would not synch properly, for example on my Surface I had playlist "Country Favs" and on my phone I had "Country Favs" listed 5 times with no tracks. I somehow got that resolved.
- Music management on Xbox Music is much more cumbersome than Zune desktop. How do I see a list of songs that I own rather than songs I have downloaded with Xbox Music Pass? How do I identify songs I like? Where are the little Zune hearts?
- The biggest problem I have at the moment is I can't change playlists on my phone and have those changes synch to my other devices.
- The social component of Zune is gone and nothing replaced it. With Spotify I can share songs and playlists with friends or on Facebook.
- Am I the only one who experiences a skip with every song I stream 5 second before the track ends?
I still use Xbox Music and Microsoft has made improvements. They have fixed some initial glaring problems-- I am now able to return to the home screen after exploring artists and they included a "Now Playing" list. I admit that part of my dissatisfaction with Xbox Music is that Zune worked perfectly and I am the victim of my own expectations.