Bump. This string is a great read about the music Experience on our Windows devices. Please read the comments, learn, think, and VOTE for improvements.
MS not listening to Xbox music users
- Thread starter deezus
- Start date
Jack Janik
New member
I have two phones. A Lumia 520 and a Lumia 920. On my 920, it's usable, but barely. It takes a long time to load, gives me black screens, is sluggish, and so forth..
On my Lumia 520, it won't even load my artists..
Long Nguyen Huu
New member
lumia 920 app startup lag and a lag when opening a quick look at the song list . this does not happen on 520 630 . why?
when using bluetooth to share the music . pull list music was serious lag .
load not fast music .
I do not like the black background , so I want to support my self- image instead of background singers .
ms , Did that too difficult .
poor music xbox can not satisfy me . and its singers picture background is very bad and no Asian singers .
xbox if music does not do that let users do .
Besides music without information nor edit the song information . inside this androi not happen .
wp8.1 not livetile. too bad compared to zune .
no eliquaze .
can not list all the new songs added .
programming team to listen and bring users what they need . but do not make it worse
when using bluetooth to share the music . pull list music was serious lag .
load not fast music .
I do not like the black background , so I want to support my self- image instead of background singers .
ms , Did that too difficult .
poor music xbox can not satisfy me . and its singers picture background is very bad and no Asian singers .
xbox if music does not do that let users do .
Besides music without information nor edit the song information . inside this androi not happen .
wp8.1 not livetile. too bad compared to zune .
no eliquaze .
can not list all the new songs added .
programming team to listen and bring users what they need . but do not make it worse
missionsparta
New member
I seriously doubt that anyone that worked on the Zune has anything to do with this mess, or they would know exactly what we are talking about. Its like we are speaking Chinese to them. For the last time, CONCENTRATE ON HOW IT HANDLES OUR OWN PERSONAL LIBRARY!!! This isn't really that hard.
tapehead
New member
They gave the Xbox Music project to their remote location in France for reasons I'm not entirely sure off.
Just give Rudy Huyn $50,000, Microsoft. He'll have the app done in 3 days, released in 4, and then 60 updates over the course of 90 days.
Just give Rudy Huyn $50,000, Microsoft. He'll have the app done in 3 days, released in 4, and then 60 updates over the course of 90 days.
missionsparta
New member
Bump. Re: Windows Phone music. This string is a great read about MUSIC app on our Windows devices. Please read the comments, learn, think, and then DO something and VOTE for improvements and advocate for a great and innovative experience possible for everyone.
tapehead
New member
I've been on the Z1 for music for a few weeks, and it's been pretty solid. In that time, I see Microsoft still hasn't made a single improvement to the Music app. Kind of pathetic. This has the potential to destroy the brand.
hotphil
New member
They've released updates every 2 weeks (as they said they would), but it's far from being a marketable app. If 8.1 gets a proper release with media playing in this state, my handsets are going back - they can't advertise a feature that simply doesn't work as a reasonable consumer might expect.
Don't know why the updates aren't showing for a Z1 though.
Don't know why the updates aren't showing for a Z1 though.
missionsparta
New member
Yep . This and the video app need to jump bounds in each update. Not baby steps. Three latest update came out.... No live tile still (is our considered "still" when we originally had out but taken away?)
At first I was convinced that the metadata processing algorithm that xbox music uses was just plain faulty, but after some tests I realized that whoever is coding this app should be dragged out back due to the results of my little experiement: I synced my music after resetting my L925 and almost EVERYTHING came out perfectly. Except, there's always a problem when I sync Metroid's Original Sountrack, it changes it to John Carpenter, and when I sync Halo's Original Soundtrack, the artist becomes "Sluts of Trust." Interesting and quite annoying, considering I've tagged and retagged and retagged my music with media monkey time and time again.
So, I deleted the music off my device and resynced it all. Lo and behold, about 40% of album art synced as opposed to the near perfect success rate of before. What was different this time was it split up Halo's soundtrack into "Halo" and "Halo: Original Soundtrack" when I clearly have all 150 songs tagged as a simple "Halo." There's no hope for Metroid, which is a shame.
So I tried it again. The success rate was even lower this time. This time, however, full albums went missing. From albums and artists that I thought synced perfectly, there were tracks missing. Checking storage proved that they were indeed on the phone. Another update on Halo: upon selecting, the artist changed to Martin O'Donnel... That's technically correct, I'll concede, but the way I organized the music was so I wouldn't have albums split by composers. Metroid is still screwed up.
Compared to Nokia MixRadio, this app doesn't even hold a candle to it. Xbox Music has so much potential but my question is why must the app try to edit metadata on its own? Why can't it just read what's given to it like the original Music+Video Hub?. Zune worked flawlessly on WP7, save for the live tile being almost useless and changing like once a week, but it handled metadata with about 99.9% accuracy, and whatever was not correct, you could easily edit and resync. Come 8.0, Music+Videos had lost zune functionality and metadata wasn't really a trainwreck, it's just that it never read anything. Period. The only real problem for me was the lack of album art. The induction of MPAtool solved this immediately and all was right with the universe.
So, I hope Lumia Cyan or whatever associated firmware fixes this problem.
tl;dr: Microsoft, get your sh*t together.
So, I deleted the music off my device and resynced it all. Lo and behold, about 40% of album art synced as opposed to the near perfect success rate of before. What was different this time was it split up Halo's soundtrack into "Halo" and "Halo: Original Soundtrack" when I clearly have all 150 songs tagged as a simple "Halo." There's no hope for Metroid, which is a shame.
So I tried it again. The success rate was even lower this time. This time, however, full albums went missing. From albums and artists that I thought synced perfectly, there were tracks missing. Checking storage proved that they were indeed on the phone. Another update on Halo: upon selecting, the artist changed to Martin O'Donnel... That's technically correct, I'll concede, but the way I organized the music was so I wouldn't have albums split by composers. Metroid is still screwed up.
Compared to Nokia MixRadio, this app doesn't even hold a candle to it. Xbox Music has so much potential but my question is why must the app try to edit metadata on its own? Why can't it just read what's given to it like the original Music+Video Hub?. Zune worked flawlessly on WP7, save for the live tile being almost useless and changing like once a week, but it handled metadata with about 99.9% accuracy, and whatever was not correct, you could easily edit and resync. Come 8.0, Music+Videos had lost zune functionality and metadata wasn't really a trainwreck, it's just that it never read anything. Period. The only real problem for me was the lack of album art. The induction of MPAtool solved this immediately and all was right with the universe.
So, I hope Lumia Cyan or whatever associated firmware fixes this problem.
tl;dr: Microsoft, get your sh*t together.
tapehead
New member
Zune = Core functions of player worked; minor bugs did not prevent users from getting the music on the device and enjoying it; only issue I encountered was the lack of artist artwork when syncing with a Mac (remedied by MPATool if on an unlocked phone OR adding a Marketplace track). Synced with Mac and Windows flawlessly. Beautiful design language. Unfortunately no drag/drop capabilities (AFAIK?). Based on some severely sexy and well-built mp3 players I would still use today if they were capable of downloading subscription music services like Spotify or Xbox Music. Not particularly robust, but as this was really Gen 1-type software, that could be forgiven.
Xbox Music+Video Hub = On a good day, worked as intended. Major bugs began cropping up with duplicate tracks when trying to sync songs (rather than drag/drop). Very finicky on Mac and Linux. At times finicky with Windows. Just as speedy as Zune post GDR3. Hideous design language with that terrible green branding. Good store integration. Tried to change tags if you let it, but could easily be switched off. The Hub after GDR3 with a clean SD card worked enough to pass the time. Nothing so blatantly terrible as to cause me to think of leaving Windows Phone. Very few improvements made over Zune. Most are cosmetic, such as the scrolling lists of recently played/added albums and tracks. Terrible playlist support. MPATool improves experience 10x.
Xbox Music 2014 = Slow. Crashes on many WP8.1 devices regardless of RAM. Does better with smaller libraries as opposed to anything over about 5GB. Lags when scrolling quickly through long artist or song lists. Covers ID3 tags with new (mostly incorrect) metadata that at best will only add "(Album Version)" to the end of the song and at worst will entirely change the artist and break up one album into two or three. Scrub bar finally added. Significant improvement on the layout of the Xbox Music store, and the lack of duplicates is nice. Still hideously green. No live tile. Still does not play nice with Mac. In fact, doesn't play with Mac at all. Does not read album art correctly. No longer sorts albums by year, but rather alphabetically. Does not always read tracklists correctly (a nightmare for concept albums). Still no gapless playback. MPATool not compatible. So bad that they left the only music app in the background.
Xbox Music+Video Hub = On a good day, worked as intended. Major bugs began cropping up with duplicate tracks when trying to sync songs (rather than drag/drop). Very finicky on Mac and Linux. At times finicky with Windows. Just as speedy as Zune post GDR3. Hideous design language with that terrible green branding. Good store integration. Tried to change tags if you let it, but could easily be switched off. The Hub after GDR3 with a clean SD card worked enough to pass the time. Nothing so blatantly terrible as to cause me to think of leaving Windows Phone. Very few improvements made over Zune. Most are cosmetic, such as the scrolling lists of recently played/added albums and tracks. Terrible playlist support. MPATool improves experience 10x.
Xbox Music 2014 = Slow. Crashes on many WP8.1 devices regardless of RAM. Does better with smaller libraries as opposed to anything over about 5GB. Lags when scrolling quickly through long artist or song lists. Covers ID3 tags with new (mostly incorrect) metadata that at best will only add "(Album Version)" to the end of the song and at worst will entirely change the artist and break up one album into two or three. Scrub bar finally added. Significant improvement on the layout of the Xbox Music store, and the lack of duplicates is nice. Still hideously green. No live tile. Still does not play nice with Mac. In fact, doesn't play with Mac at all. Does not read album art correctly. No longer sorts albums by year, but rather alphabetically. Does not always read tracklists correctly (a nightmare for concept albums). Still no gapless playback. MPATool not compatible. So bad that they left the only music app in the background.
hotphil
New member
I can't comment on Zune stuff as it never got released outside the US, but Microsoft - the above comments are spot on.
I'm kind of thinking that maybe iTunes terrible performance wasn't all that bad - at least you could get music to a device, sort it the way you wanted, have it display art, update smart playlists and just, well, work. Luckily I'm in no contract with my WP handsets.
I thought I'd come back to WP after leaving it at 6.5 for being too antiquated. Perhaps I need to leave it another few versions.
I'm kind of thinking that maybe iTunes terrible performance wasn't all that bad - at least you could get music to a device, sort it the way you wanted, have it display art, update smart playlists and just, well, work. Luckily I'm in no contract with my WP handsets.
I thought I'd come back to WP after leaving it at 6.5 for being too antiquated. Perhaps I need to leave it another few versions.
It was available outside the US, it was also baked into WP7. Anybody can still download the Zune desktop app I believe.
Music seems to have become a complete afterthought in the MS ecosystem. No standalone music device or service would ever survive on its own in the current state of XBM. They only have customers because it's pushed as the default via the current platforms.
Can you imagine anybody buying an mp3 player that had such quirky functionality!? No recent played list, dodgy playlist support, DRM bugs, making it a PITA to manage your own music collection forcing you to cloud match songs to a limited online repository and be subjected to stream first ideology (requiring a 3rd party dataplan!?). It just wouldn't happen anywhere else - it's an absolute crazy mess now!
Music seems to have become a complete afterthought in the MS ecosystem. No standalone music device or service would ever survive on its own in the current state of XBM. They only have customers because it's pushed as the default via the current platforms.
Can you imagine anybody buying an mp3 player that had such quirky functionality!? No recent played list, dodgy playlist support, DRM bugs, making it a PITA to manage your own music collection forcing you to cloud match songs to a limited online repository and be subjected to stream first ideology (requiring a 3rd party dataplan!?). It just wouldn't happen anywhere else - it's an absolute crazy mess now!
Cole G
New member
I love Microsoft's new direction but I won't be buying another Windows Phone until they bring back the Zune Desktop Software and Sync capabilities or something similar.
"The Cloud" and "Streaming-Services" are over-rated.
"The Cloud" and "Streaming-Services" are over-rated.
tapehead
New member
It was available outside the US, it was also baked into WP7. Anybody can still download the Zune desktop app I believe.
Music seems to have become a complete afterthought in the MS ecosystem. No standalone music device or service would ever survive on its own in the current state of XBM. They only have customers because it's pushed as the default via the current platforms.
Can you imagine anybody buying an mp3 player that had such quirky functionality!? No recent played list, dodgy playlist support, DRM bugs, making it a PITA to manage your own music collection forcing you to cloud match songs to a limited online repository and be subjected to stream first ideology (requiring a 3rd party dataplan!?). It just wouldn't happen anywhere else - it's an absolute crazy mess now!
lol Microsoft gave me a refund on my year subscription because their apps are such a mess.
Use Zune every day; it's available here: Download Zune Software 4.8 from Official Microsoft Download Center
and here: Download and Install the Zune Music + Video Software
and elsewhere...
For past users, the installation package may still be in your Download folder.
and here: Download and Install the Zune Music + Video Software
and elsewhere...
For past users, the installation package may still be in your Download folder.
xandros9
Active member
ZUNE! Yes, Zune is still available and still incredible on the desktop PC. I have it on my SurfacePro2 Windows 8.1. Really, this unknown gem is better than anything else of its type, even though Microsoft has removed some features. I think most people have never tried it or if they did, didn't really look into it. Behind the amazing animated artists photo montages and the "modern UI" is still great functionality for both your personally owned media, Xbox (formerly ZUNE) Music and Video, and streaming too. It still works with WP7.
Once the free install is loaded, it can connect to your personally owned media (music, photos, and videos) and Xbox Music and Xbox Video accounts and will sync up. The movies I purchase on my Xbox, for instance, show up on my ZUNE PC desktop software and I can stream them. The same as with music. The ZUNE marketplace also has a great listing of 1000s of podcasts for one off download or subscription. The ZUNE PC desktop software handles podcast subscriptions better than any other software or lightweight App.
It is currently ranked as one of the most popular downloads.
Please try the ZUNE PC desktop media player, and vote on MS UserVoice to bring it's features, including wired and wireless sync, back to Windows Phone 8 and beyond.
I do like the Apple iTunes Match, it's easily to use. When you play a song on the cloud, it automatically download it. You can also download a bunch of them. Syncing is nice, play counts, favorites are all synced with cloud - smart playlists included.
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