What happened to XBox Music -- it used to be free?

[Windows Central Question]

What happened to XBox Music -- it used to be free!

I haven't gotten into my xbox music playlists for a while now. When I opened it just now, I can no longer freely add songs to my playlist . I must now pay for them? What happened? What did I miss?

 

[Bobvfr]

Re: What happened to XBox Music -- it used to be free!

You missed the announcement that Xbox Music would no longer support free streaming as of the start of December, this was announced some months ago and there have been reminders on Xbox music for a while now.

MS said it was so they could improve the service for paying customers.

If you think it through, every time someone streams for free, MS have to pay a small fee to the music companies, over time this small fee multiplied many times adds up to lots of pennies, so the people who actually pay for the service end up subsidising those that don't.