Can't believe I ditched Spotify for Xbox :(

[Jcmg62]

Two weeks ago I jacked in my subscription with Spotify and moved my money over to Xbox Music, primarily because I have the whole Lumia 1520, Surface Pro 3, Xbox one, Windows 7 laptop ecosystem going on and figured it would make more sense to keep my music within that ecosystem.

Damn, I really wish I hadn't bothered.

I'll start by saying that on the Xbox, Surface and Laptop it works pretty well....it's not OMG, where have you been all my life amazing, but it's pretty decent and does the job.

But on my phone.....holy hell, who designed this thing?? It's a complete mosh pit of songs that lack any coherency at all.

I'm really struggling to know where to begin with this, but I guess my biggest annoyance is that it's mashed up all of the songs I own and have downloaded from other sources with songs from it's own streaming media content and created (all by itself) duplicates of dozens of songs, which has totally wrecked my playlists.

The other thing I can't figure out is exactly what I've bought...it's really annoying when sometimes it'll play a full song then other times it'll just play a 30 second sample of the next song on the album....like WTF, Spotify didn't do that.

Every time I open the app it gives me a little nudge to say I should try the paid version....I'm already on the paid version you friggin retards!!! Go and check my account, you'll see the xbox music pass right there next to the xbox gold pass I'm seriously thinking about cancelling!!

And what's the deal with Radio?? How on God's green earth is Sigma and Rita Ora even on the same planet as Sigma, the flute playing trio from Indonesia?? And worse yet, the Goddam thing has downloaded that friggin stupid album and incorporated it into my already totally screwed playlists.

Then there's the error messages...."sorry, we can't play this file on your phone, error code 80070585"....Why can't I play a file that's streaming from a Microsoft server to a Windows phone?? What the hell am I paying ?8.99 a month for if all I get is 30 second song clips and error messages....

Solution time Microsoft.....get one of your tech "geniuses" to purchase a Spotify subscription, take a snoop around at how proper streaming services are doing it and copy them. Because Apple is round the corner with the new Beats service and they're gonna kick your *** if the very best you can come up with is this garbage.

 

[hotphil]

Ah. XBM is in such a state I genuinely don't think they'll ever be able to fix it.
I'd recommend switching back to Spotify, which at least functions on all your devices.

 

[Jcmg62]

Ah. XBM is in such a state I genuinely don't think they'll ever be able to fix it.
I'd recommend switching back to Spotify, which at least functions on all your devices.

Here's the kicker.....my kids were mad as hell that I'd cancelled Spotify but I managed to calm them down and get them to try the Xbox Music app on their Iphone and Android devices....and wouldn't you know it but it works like a charm....they absolutely love it. My eldest has even said it's better than Spotify by far.

Both the Android and Apple versions of the app are brilliant.....they're clean, simple, well designed and integrate perfectly with their devices.

I'm not kidding when I say this but Microsoft's streaming service only sux nuts on a Microsoft phone.....on other devices it's near on perfect.

WTF does that tell you about the state of windows phone???

 

[six6xis]

You're right about one thing. They app isn't perfect but I found that it runs a lot better on my G3 than it did on my Windows Phone. I hope they remedy this in time for Windows 10.

 

[jasqid]

Ive come to the conclusion xbm is not for folks that have ripped their own library or have a purchased music library of songs. If you are then its not for you. Period.

However, if you don't mind pay as you go it is really good.

I gave up on my 6gig library of tunes. Still have them, but don't use them. Almost all of it is in my collection and in playlists. Using their library I don't have album art issues etc. It just works.

 

[Yazen]

Ive come to the conclusion xbm is not for folks that have ripped their own library or have a purchased music library of songs. If you are then its not for you. Period.

However, if you don't mind pay as you go it is really good.

I gave up on my 6gig library of tunes. Still have them, but don't use them. Almost all of it is in my collection and in playlists. Using their library I don't have album art issues etc. It just works.

I do not have a single track on my Lumia 925, which apparently seems to be an issue for me. Xbox Music likes to default to saved music when searching, when I explicitly bought a playlist to stream music! Unintuitive imo.. But this is not my only issue, very disappointed with XBOX Music in its current state.

I feel like I have an enlarged sense of entitlement .. Used to buying quality services. Not going to consider Xbox ever again. Better off carrying a CD player in my briefcase XD

EDIT: Glad it is working for others. Just wish the app could replace my Zune HD