I can't believe this crippling issue, present since the release of WP8, still has not been fixed by Microsoft. Like several of you, I talked with support and after trying several steps that didn't work, they prompted me to delete all my music from the Xbox Music and Subscriptions folder and redownload every single song removed directly on my phone. They admitted it would be a pain, gave me some MS points and said "we're working on it" and that there was no ETA for the fix. I followed the steps and had no problems playing music. After a month of only downloading songs directly to the phone, I downloaded ONE song from the Xbox Music app to add it to a playlist for my workout outside and the playlist worked fine on my computer. That night I synced with the WP app and not only did that one song I added get the usage rights error, but ALL of the songs that I had previously redownloaded have that same error again. Rant warning:
No, Microsoft is not "working on it". If they had been, this issue would have been fixed or made less common after an entire year+ of WP8 being out. I wouldn't be surprised if GDR2, 3, and WP 8.1 came out and this problem still existed. I say this because it's clear Zune isn't being brought back, and they're too busy with their heads "in the cloud" so to speak. They added a new coat of paint to Xbox Music which improves its look and functionality as a music player, but that's it. There is no ability to sync local music and playlists to your phone, and the WP8 apps for metro and desktop still have problems transferring DRM rights. I even tried Windows Media player. The same tracks that don't work on the phone don't work on WMP. I'm echoing the sentiment that if Xbox music worked properly, it would be far superior to all the other subscription services I've used thus far. $10 a month for unlimited downloads that you can sync to your phone for offline use wherever you are? That sounds amazing in theory, but somewhere Microsoft totally screwed up with DRM causing "we are unable to confirm the media usage rights" error messages left and right.
I wish WP Central and review sites out there would stop ignoring this issue. It almost never gets brought up outside of forums. Bring it to light, make a point to Microsoft that this issue is still ongoing after a year and that it is unacceptable. They are not swayed by those suggestion threads on their user voice site, but they will be swayed if the biggest site dedicated to Windows Phone called them out on this problem. If it starts here, it trickles down to review sites adding information about Xbox Music errors. At worst it will serve as a warning to people who love to sync music and are thinking of getting a Windows Phone. At best, Microsoft will step up and finally solve this issue because of the pressure.
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