MS not listening to Xbox music users

[vedichymn]

Ugh, this has been hands down my biggest complaint with this 8.x, and the fact that 8.1 just made this whole process WORSE, but in terms of playback and syncing is atrocious.

I was a very early adopter of Windows Phone, I was literally the only non-Microsoft employee in the store when 7.0 came out buying a phone, and at this point I think I'm done with the platform. They've had almost a year and a half to fix this, and they seem bound and determined to keep plodding along the "wrong" direction.

Ugh.

 

[theonedunn]

You clearly know nothing about software development. Zune was built for an entirely different architecture, they can't just copy/paste features into XBM. Yes, the XBM experience should be better and have more of the awesome features Zune had but the Zune software took YEARS to evolve into the awesome music player that was the ZuneHD. The move to WP7 meant they had rebuild it completely, then two years later do it again for WP8, then create it as a separate XBM app and make it universal.

They're clearly committed to adding user requested features with the launch of the uservoice site The current XBM is pre-release (at least until WP8.1 starts shipping) so there's some time for them to get the app into shape.

Where is the user voice site?

 

[Great deal]

I have detested the music app experience on WP and Windows 8 for the last two years. If I had known that the Zune would be replaced by this garbage app I would never have upgraded and purchased, 2 surfaces, 5 phones and 2 tablets. This is and continues to be my only gripe with WP and W8. Its the most frustrating experience I have ever had with any product, ever. You had an excellent piece of software called Zune, you replace it with a featureless frustrating music experience that has no features of your previous music experience and is basic to say the least, and then never add any features to it except voice control? MS, you look very out of touch with the mobile space and that's why no one wants your products except stupid consumers like me, who are heavily invested and not heard by you. I have has lots of patience with this so let me give you some history.
I bought a Zune HD from best buy took it home and started using it, I didn't know I would be falling in love with music again, that's what Zune software did for me.....I started downloading music, using the heart to mark music I liked and later buy, in fact I bought more music with Zune then I ever did by purchasing cds. I would sit for hours and hit the related tab over and over, finding songs and albums I never heard and old favorites. Starting the desktop client up I was always greeted with new music I might like as well as old favorites BASED ON MY LISTENING HABITS. I could sync all music up by connecting my device and I could buy MULTIPLE TRACKS AT ONCE LIKE WHOLE PLAYLISTS. I loved how I could SORT MUSIC BY WHAT I OWNED VERSUS WHAT I SUBSCRIBED TO THEREBY LETTING ME KEEP TRACK OF PURCHASES AND SUBSCRIPTIONS AS WELL AS USING THE HEART TO MARK FAVORITE TRACKS. The point is I had finally found the perfect digital music service that fit my needs perfectly, I could download and stream and BUY TRACKS at my convenience. The only thing really missing was cloud storage of my own personal collection, again, the only thing missing because Zune software was PERFECT(MEANING WHY BREAK SOMETHING THAT WAS FIXED?)
So, along comes W8, offering a touch windows interface with a music app that was so called a rebranded Zune app... well its no where near Zune, not ******* even!!!
I'm trying to understand here, you had perfect piece of software, you replace it with something inferior comparatively speaking and now its been two years and the app was crap before but now its getting even worse? Oh but Cortana support is there **** that, ok, ill play, Cortana sort music by Xbox music pass songs, Cortana purchase my playlist 80s music, Cortana please mark afternoon delight as a favorite, Cortana what kind of music do I like? Cortana answer, heres a webpage for you.
I realize I'm just one guy out here who has thousands of dollars of your products and software so I don't matter but there is a solution, how about calling me up? This way we could sit down, and compare Zune side by side with XBM and I could show you the flaws with this current app. You have my phone number as I am Microsoft everything, I'm an actual user of your products and I feel like I'm not getting heard and that is the most frustrating part of this, I would be more understanding if I voiced my opinion and you told me to pound sand but to voice these complaints and wait for over two years and to have the music app they way it is tells me you guys either don't care about your customers, don't use your own software(Zune or Xbox music) or are just totally disconnected from the mobile space....I'm hoping things change but if they don't this will be my last year with your phone, of which I own 4 and have 3 others that are broken in a drawer. I'm sure this post wont be given a second thought but I feel better. Now if I can just forget about how fantastic Zune software was....

Hitler tries to use Xbox Music on Windows Phone 8 - YouTube

THIS (first time ive said that!)

WP 8.1/McLaren is MS last chance to convince me to stay with WP - I really really want to stay with it, please release 8.1 with an amazing music player, I don't care about third party players. Don't force me to turn my back on you and give money to your competitors...my wallet is open and im willing to let you have it!

 

[Kevin Rush]

Where is the user voice site?

Please add your comments and votes on the MS WP Uservoice website: windowsphone(dot)uservoice(dot)com. Click on "Music + Videos" in the column on the right hand side and search for your issue and vote and comment. I'm going to mention the great discussions here on WPCentral in my comments on user voice.

 

[anon(5383410)]

If you search the user voice forums you'll find the ORIGINAL feature request to bring back Zune. It had A LOT of votes and Microsoft closed it and labeled it DENIED. They aren't going to do it, period.

Best bet is to keep submitting "enhancements" (aka things that should've come out of the box) for XBM and hope they listen. They did respond to the complaints about the "searching for music..." issue by removing it so it seems they are listening.

 

[TechFreak1]

MS right now imo is having an identity crisis, they have removed the xbox branding from the games, video and music apps. All three now nonfunctional remnants of what they were previously.

How hard can it be to get these basic core apps right? (Not to mention the update that broke the Calendar app..).

I feel there is a lot of internal politics at play here and we are suffering because of it.

 

[anon(5383410)]

As of 7/12 Xbox Music still begins to lag and freeze in either "resuming..." or on the green headphone screen after I use it for longer than about 30 minutes. My D Day of 9/21 still stands. If they don't fix XBM by the end of the Summer I'm selling my Icon and buying an HTC One. The contingency plan is already in place. Part of it is because I've been a developer for nearly a decade and there should ALWAYS be a rollback plan. Whatever algorithm worked for Zune can be implemented in Xbox Music unless it's complete spaghetti code. As soon as the complaints about speed and freezing began to mount they could've locked themselves in a room and not come out until they had Zune-like performance (especially with the salaries an MS software engineer commands). So MS either doesn't give a damn about XBM or they screwed up the overall development plan. We don't do that at my job and we have less than 500 employees. We're talking MICROSOFT here, this is unacceptable.

 

[onlysublime]

I just had a pool party tonight and it streamed for well over half an hour without interruption...

 

[loofmodnar]

As of 7/12 Xbox Music still begins to lag and freeze in either "resuming..." or on the green headphone screen after I use it for longer than about 30 minutes. My D Day of 9/21 still stands. If they don't fix XBM by the end of the Summer I'm selling my Icon and buying an HTC One. The contingency plan is already in place. Part of it is because I've been a developer for nearly a decade and there should ALWAYS be a rollback plan. Whatever algorithm worked for Zune can be implemented in Xbox Music unless it's complete spaghetti code. As soon as the complaints about speed and freezing began to mount they could've locked themselves in a room and not come out until they had Zune-like performance (especially with the salaries an MS software engineer commands). So MS either doesn't give a damn about XBM or they screwed up the overall development plan. We don't do that at my job and we have less than 500 employees. We're talking MICROSOFT here, this is unacceptable.

There is no rollback plan because it was removed from the OS and made it's own app. There's nothing to rollback to, the plan is to move forward with the new app. You're assumption the old code can just be reused doesn't really jive with software development. Building an app on a different set of APIs (internal vs external, 8.0 vs 8.1 universal) isn't going to give you a lot of reusability. They messed up the schedule something awful and I have no doubt that with bi-weekly releases they're working hard on fixing things.

 

[gerbir21]

I hope that every forum participant that has complained here has taken the same time (if not more) to voice their concerns on the Xbox User Voice site and user their votes. It worked for many of the new features in WP8.1 and some of the updates/fixes for Xbox music. Coming from iTunes to this hot mess called Xbox music has been a painful experience.

And with that said, hope some of you can throw your votes of support for this desired improvement to Xbox music:

http://xboxmusic.uservoice.com/foru...stions/5362019-introduce-a-user-rating-system

 

[WP userrr]

There is an app which allow you to control the web version of xbox music from your phone "mMusicRemote xbox music" search for it!