[Ebuka Allison]

Let's start with some numbers.

68.% 10 seconds. 625. 47%

In January 2013, PEW researchers discovered that 68% of smartphone users use their phones to take music. That was nearly two years ago and I suspect that number may have grown. 10 seconds is the amount of time it took me to start the stock music player from a fresh boot on my Lumia 625. 47% is the number of Windows phones currently running 8.1 at the moment.

This is simply unacceptable.

From the moment Windows Phone 8.1 was released, threads sprung up on several fan forums complaining about the music app. Cooler heads popped up and advised that as Microsoft was shipping a dev preview, while the OS may have been finished, some apps were yet to be updated to support Windows Phone 8.1.

Joe Belfiore himself popped up and said as much. This was fine, we all knew that Microsoft would ship a much better Music app if we gave them enough time. So we waited for the first update.

Numerous stability fixes, including many of the reported black screens

Full Cortana integration including playing Playlists by name

UI Polish to improve animations and transitions between UI views

Improved messaging for encountered errors, such as unplayable content in collections

Then the second update:

Audio scrubbing is now supported! Slide the track progress indicator in the Now Playing screen to advance to the spot you like.

Smoother FFW and REW animations.

UI fixes to improve visibility of content.

Bug fixed where songs are incorrectly removed from playlists.

Fixes for unexpected app exits.

Then the third:

Swipe the album art on the Now Playing screen to change tracks.
UI layout changes to make more room for content.
Minor bug fixes

Then the fourth:

Our fourth update to the Windows Phone 8.1 Xbox Music app is almost ready. We have a few tweaks we want to get in this one, so expect it early next week. This next release will continue to deliver on feature requests you are providing through the User Voice forum. So please, keep the feedback coming.

It all went downhill from there. The updates then became inconsistent, and most of them full of bug fixes.

In the meantime, the Lumia 630 and 930 had been released as well as several other Windows Phone 8.1 devices. All shipping with the same atrocious Music app. Microsoft had dropped the ball here several times over.

First of all, they had a music player that worked fine. They could have kept that in use and then swapped it out for the new Xbox Music app in Windows 10. Let's face it, the music app is never going to be as good as we want it to be before that ships, and that's a shame.

Secondly, the music app that Joe Belfiore deceptively referred to as associated with the dev preview had been released in 2013 December . This was four months before Windows Phone 8.1's release and almost a year ago.

The Xbox Music uservoice service is filled with requests that date from the release of Windows Phone 8 an have yet to be added to the product and remain perpetually under review.

The mantra remains as always, wait for it. It'll be here soon.

Wait for Mango. Wait for Apollo. Wait for 8.1. Wait for GDR1.

Windows Phone users have endured a lot of waiting.

Simply selling devices is not merely enough, if something as core to the mobile phone experience as music is botched by Microsoft, then those 10 million sales could turn to 10 million customers who will simply have the perception of Windows Phone being bad at music. They will tel their friends. And their friends will tell their friends.

I'm not writing this because I'm angry, I'm past angry. I'm apathetic. I don't care anymore. I'm wondering why the Xbox Music team haven't been fired. Sometimes I wonder why Joe Belfiore still has a job. Now, I'm waiting for VLC to be released and see if it lives up to its hype. Otherwise I'll simply try my best to get on with it.

I like Windows Phone, I like the UI and the way the OS works.

I also like listening to music.

Please don't make me choose, Microsoft.

[omer620]

My thoughts exactly

[elwin lobo]

Yeah I too agree with this... Infact I've accepted that I've got to learn to adjust for most of the apps on the platform... It's just the way it's going to be until developers including Microsoft's or excluding Microsoft's take this platform seriously... Windows 10 maybe the last option and even after that if the devs don't pay much attention to this platform then I don't think anything that Microsoft does will convince them from the point of view for mobile devices

[SammyD97]

The music app is usable in it's current state. Yes, it's not as fast as the 8.0 app and it's ugly but it gets the job done. I don't get the constant complaining. The app has improved and continues to improve.

Edit: Lumia 625 here. Less than two seconds to open the app. Just tried to reproduce your 10 seconds and couldn't.

[Ebuka Allison]

The music app is usable in it's current state. Yes, it's not as fast as the 8.0 app and it's ugly but it gets the job done. I don't get the constant complaining. The app has improved and continues to improve.

The 8.0 app wasn't winning any speed records either but I think you may be on to something

[Boris NevermorE]

Samsung ATIV S i8750, WP8.1.1 (not PfD), Music App opening time 1,6 seconds (just measured, lol), just to add my experience. Altho I am not using my phone to listen music, I have my own compact mp3 player for that.

[Nicholas Maguire]

About 2 seconds for me. I actually enjoy the current Xbox Music app, hell, I even like the UI. I only dislike the noise between songs.

[jmshub]

Had this been written a few months ago, I may understand some of the anger. But I gotta say, since the last few updates, I can't find anything to complain about. The app starts quickly, and it always plays my songs, whether I play an album, playlist or tracks at random.

[Ebuka Allison]

The music app is usable in it's current state. Yes, it's not as fast as the 8.0 app and it's ugly but it gets the job done. I don't get the constant complaining. The app has improved and continues to improve.

Edit: Lumia 625 here. Less than two seconds to open the app. Just tried to reproduce your 10 seconds and couldn't.

It's vastly inconsistent. Sometimes its relatively fastr, sometimes everything has to load fully. I.e Splashcreen rist, then black screen, then panorama, then recent plays, then player.

[Nicholas Maguire]

It's vastly inconsistent. Sometimes its relatively fastr, sometimes everything has to load fully. I.e Splashcreen rist, then black screen, then panorama, then recent plays, then player.

It hasn't been slow for me for a long time. It's a good app, could use a little improvement, but experiencing where it came from, they've made great progress. Keep it up Microsoft <3

[anon5997296]

It takes 1.5 seconds to open and then other 1.5 seconds to show the album art. While you may say it as fast, I see it unacceptable. It should load everything right away when I touch the music tile. It's a damn music player, not Microsoft visual studio to take some time for loading. Also the stutter in now playing playlist screen, what about that? IMO, it's pathetic!

[Nicholas Maguire]

Mine does not take 1.5 seconds to show the album art, maybe about 0.6 seconds. I see that as okay.

[realwarder]

Is your music on an SD card? Are the performance issues with that scenario?

[squire777]

Isn't this a piece that was posted on WMPU?

[Boris NevermorE]

Isn't this a piece that was posted on WMPU?

Yes, i noticed the same

[TheJoester09]

Yeah. You can't just copy and paste someone else's work without providing a reference. Even if the source is garbage.

[Boris NevermorE]

Yeah. You can't just copy and paste someone else's work without providing a reference. Even if the source is garbage.

Xbox Music still sucks, and that's a shame

Actually the article is written by some Michael Allison. The opening post of this thread is from some Ebuka Allison, so, either is the same person or some brother or cousin of the writer of that article :)
EDIT: Nope, it's the same person Michael Ebuka Allison
Michael Allison

[TheJoester09]

Xbox Music still sucks, and that's a shame

Actually the article is written by some Michael Allison. The opening post of this thread is from some Ebuka Allison, so, either is the same person or some brother or cousin of the writer of that article :)
EDIT: Nope, it's the same person
https://www.facebook.com/michael.allison.986227

Ah, good call. My mistake!

[lovenokia]

I also have a very annoying experience with the xbox music app even with the lumia 1520 which is one of the best experiences in terms of performance that windows phone has to offer. The app has not been written with the WinRT api as one can tell that when you back out of the app it closes and does not say in the multitasking screen. Like others have said, it is unoptimized for the lumia 1520 screen size and resolution and I have little hope of this improving. All windows phone users can do is wait, or switch. I found a great alternative to the xbox music app with an app called Quickplay. Do check this app out it is windows phone 8.1 optimized and seems to perform very well. An awesome app to use for music and video collection.

[Boris NevermorE]

Ah, good call. My mistake!

No worries, it happen to all of use sometimes :)

[fiveaces01]

try using the music hub app. It just got an update today that enables the start screen tile to show the artist now playing like it used to on wp8. I mean it will show the art I picked thru MPATool. Also I am no longer getting the popping noise we were all familiar with. Am running 8.1.1 DP on a nokia 920 with the cyan update thru the Italian country variant

[F3rzz]

I will use that app again, that live tile feature is really interesting, seems more "buyable" now.

Today has been a bad day for Xbox Music in my phone, it kept crashing, but i hope tomorrow is Xbox Music Update day.

[Ebuka Allison]

Isn't this a piece that was posted on WMPU?

First. Check the times.
Second. That was me

[TechFreak1]

What about MixRadio?

[Ebuka Allison]

Yeah. You can't just copy and paste someone else's work without providing a reference. Even if the source is garbage.

Yeah and while WMPU may be garbage at times, well I don't work for them.
About the names, my email account was once called Ebuka Allison and while I do prefer Michael, I haven't found an option to change my username yet :P