Is Xbox Music as mind-numbingly awful on newer Windows Phones?

[hotphil]

The issues I've noticed are -

Core functionality:
Frequent error banners when trying to play locally stored file that play fine on any other device.
No working sync with a PC (not transfer, sync - playcounts etc)
Frequent crashes/exits.
On resume it starts a rescan of stored music. Until that's complete you can't play anything really in case it no longer is locally stored and then the app errors.

Bugs:
Cover art doesn't work (again, for files that are known to be OK).
Resuming the app takes a long time.
An audible click between each track.
Duplicate playlists appear on other devices with no way to delete them.

 

[dlalonde]

I wonder if most of the users who are having issues with the Xbox music app are those who changed their settings to install WP 8.1 for international users. I'm here in the US and I have several buddies who have WP 8.1 & none of us are having issues with our music app. My friend and I live here in the US state of Florida. I don't doubt the fact that there are issues with the app, there is no perfect app/OS, however in my job,I problem solve and diagnose all the time, albeit non computer related.

Nope, not for me anyway. That trick doesn't work on my phone.

 

[Justin276]

The issues I've noticed are -

Core functionality:
Frequent error banners when trying to play locally stored file that play fine on any other device.
No working sync with a PC (not transfer, sync - playcounts etc)
Frequent crashes/exits.
On resume it starts a rescan of stored music. Until that's complete you can't play anything really in case it no longer is locally stored and then the app errors.

Bugs:
Cover art doesn't work (again, for files that are known to be OK).
Resuming the app takes a long time.
An audible click between each track.
Duplicate playlists appear on other devices with no way to delete them.

Don''t forget that it has problems with playlists over 100 songs.

 

[paulxxwall]

Huh?

Separating the app from the OS enables them to make updates independent of updates to the OS. The OS gets updated once every 4-6 months at best. By separating the App it can now get updates as often as needed which has been every two weeks so far.

This seems pretty self explanatory.

Why did the app need an update?

 

[loofmodnar]

Why did the app need an update?

XBM is a separate group from Windows Phone OS. I'm sure they wanted to retain control of when they could update the service, make changes or add features without having to rely on the OS group.

For example, if MS announces music cloud storage. The XBM team could release an update for WP immediately because of a separate app rather than waiting until Oct/Nov for GDR1 to enable the feature.

 

[loofmodnar]

I wonder if most of the users who are having issues with the Xbox music app are those who changed their settings to install WP 8.1 for international users. I'm here in the US and I have several buddies who have WP 8.1 & none of us are having issues with our music app. My friend and I live here in the US state of Florida. I don't doubt the fact that there are issues with the app, there is no perfect app/OS, however in my job,I problem solve and diagnose all the time, albeit non computer related.

I'm here in the US and it's still an awful mess. After the last couple of updates most of the black screens and out right crashes seem to be fixed but it still takes about a min to load any of my artists and another 30 seconds every time I scroll.

 

[Pricey_2k]

It opens up fine for me, but after that I can't do anything, waited five minutes for Artist to show, I gave up, waited some time to search for songs, I gave up after 10 minutes!

 

[fiveaces01]

I have posted more frequently about XBM than any other topic here at WPC. The music is what made me choose the windows os for my phone. It WAS both visually and audio stimulating. The artwork appearing in the live tile on the start screen was cool as hell. Everyone that saw my phones start screen was amazed. Then despite a rocky start the XBM hub on the new wp8 got even better by letting me use MPATool to edit and choose the background art for the artist that would appear on the start screen. I rarely use a playlist but did find out I could create one in Zune desktop and easily put it on my phone (n920) with the windows phone app. This new XBM seems to be starting to work right for me finally but I really want what initially attracted me the visual experience with the start screen tile.

 

[loofmodnar]

I have posted more frequently about XBM than any other topic here at WPC. The music is what made me choose the windows os for my phone. It WAS both visually and audio stimulating. The artwork appearing in the live tile on the start screen was cool as hell. Everyone that saw my phones start screen was amazed. Then despite a rocky start the XBM hub on the new wp8 got even better by letting me use MPATool to edit and choose the background art for the artist that would appear on the start screen. I rarely use a playlist but did find out I could create one in Zune desktop and easily put it on my phone (n920) with the windows phone app. This new XBM seems to be starting to work right for me finally but I really want what initially attracted me the visual experience with the start screen tile.

Same here. I chose WP7 because of how good the Zune experience was, since then it's just gone downhill.

I fail to understand how MS has gone from creating the best media player available at the time (not the most popular) to a nearly unusable mess. The Zune team was fantastic in figuring out what works and what people wanted and providing (most) of that. I don't know where those people ended up but they should bring them back and put them in charge of XBM.

 

[loribinca]

I've dusted off my old ZuneHD and started using that again .. it took me less than 10 seconds to dial into an album and start listening to it ..

Takes me at least twice as long to do that on my phone ... that's pretty embarrassing really..

 

[loribinca]

Same here. I chose WP7 because of how good the Zune experience was, since then it's just gone downhill.

I fail to understand how MS has gone from creating the best media player available at the time (not the most popular) to a nearly unusable mess. The Zune team was fantastic in figuring out what works and what people wanted and providing (most) of that. I don't know where those people ended up but they should bring them back and put them in charge of XBM.

One word ... "POLITICS"

 

[Moiz Mian]

One word ... "POLITICS"

sigh...you may be right, but I just can't fathom in what case, Microsoft decided that they should completely delete the fast and functional zune app and restart from scratch. Like I read someones comment earlier, all they needed to do was find-and-replace the word "Zune" with "Xbox Music" and then use that as their baseline for adding features

 

[loofmodnar]

sigh...you may be right, but I just can't fathom in what case, Microsoft decided that they should completely delete the fast and functional zune app and restart from scratch. Like I read someones comment earlier, all they needed to do was find-and-replace the word "Zune" with "Xbox Music" and then use that as their baseline for adding features

I still think Xbox is an awful brand to use for music and video. People think video games when they hear Xbox. Even I still assume people mean console games when I hear anything Xbox and I've had a music pass since the Zune30 was around.

 

[spaulagain]

I still think Xbox is an awful brand to use for music and video. People think video games when they hear Xbox. Even I still assume people mean console games when I hear anything Xbox and I've had a music pass since the Zune30 was around.

Xbox is a perfect brand. It's their "entertainment and media" brand. Just because it has an existing product association doesn't mean they can't expand it. Zune was good but they couldn't get any traction in the market with it. At least with Xbox, they can have the service piggy back on it's success.

 

[fardream]

Xbox is a perfect brand. It's their "entertainment and media" brand. Just because it has an existing product association doesn't mean they can't expand it. Zune was good but they couldn't get any traction in the market with it. At least with Xbox, they can have the service piggy back on it's success.

Yes, they could, but it didn't happen - heck, the apps are called "music" and "video" now.

But back to the point, the app is awful, laggy, buggy, and lacking features.

 

[X0LARIUM]

I have noticed a lot of people are still trying to defend the current state of XBM and say its not that bad. Well, i hate to break it to you guys but it very much is. I also have a feeling that some of the people that are most angry are the ones that have stuck with MS through the Zune, and one of the main reasons that they made the move to WP was for the music experience, myself included. What we are rewarded with is this sad imitation of what once was an amazing music experience.
So I decided to make of video of a side by side comparison of using the ZuneHD and XBM on my Nokia 810.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_9LjkwQPOM

I will eventually do a another video that better explains some complaints I had, like how the every single pixel of the Zune UI's 3.5" screen is more useful than the XBM's much larger screen. This video was a spur of the moment thing so I didn't address many issues that I wanted to.
Sadly, I can count on XBM to be under perform in future videos.

Hhahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahha.....I died laughing..this music player THE single most ANNOYING thing on WP...

I seriously think this is made by Android developers..

And yes, linking this to the entire dev team at WP..big big thank u for this...

Just one question: how did u get the artist background in the,lock screen..I can't get it..? The settings says it's on..but I can't see it..

Sent from iCeborg's iPad.

 

[xconomicron]

I have about 28Gb's of music on my daily driver 1520. Justin's video is basically what mine does...constantly looking for music. I cannot and will not use this app..I'll give MS a couple of years to see if it improves -but I'm not holding my breath. I'm sorry, but I have to call those who do not have a problem with xbox music freaking lucky. The same happens on my friends' 1020 with about 20Gb's of music. For a fan of Windows Phone, this app is not enough to move me away...but to an average consumer who came over to WP on a whim...this app could potentially be the crux of a decision. Everyone listens to music (some others more so)...an optimal experience music app is considered a commodity these days. It's 2014, if you don't have one...then I think there's something wrong. For those who weren't lucky enough to use Zune before the short run kill switch MS gave to it...you were missing out.

Note: A software giant like MS, should be not using some graduate students group project ... which I call "Xbox Music" -because in the end, that's what it is. -And as Fred, the head of Xbox Music, continues to smoke peyote while coding, I'll be counting the days before someone at MS realizes that going the XM route was probably the wrong idea.

 

[X0LARIUM]

I have about 28Gb's of music on my daily driver 1520. Justin's video is basically what mine does...constantly looking for music. I cannot and will not use this app..I'll give MS a couple of years to see if it improves -but I'm not holding my breath. I'm sorry, but I have to call those who do not have a problem with xbox music freaking lucky. The same happens on my friends 1020 with about 20Gb's of music. For a fan of Windows Phone, this app is not enough to move me away...but to an average consumer who came over to WP on a whim...this app could potentially be the crux of a decision. Everyone listens to music (others more so than another)...an optimal experience music app is considered a commodity these days. It's 2014, if you don't have one...then there's something wrong. For those who weren't lucky enough to use Zune back in the day...you were missing out.

Try the Music Hub Tile app ..brings back the old music app.


Sent from iCeborg's iPad.

 

[xconomicron]

Try the Music Hub Tile app ..brings back the old music app.


Sent from iCeborg's iPad.

Yup, been using that since day 1. I've been thinking of developing a music app myself for the platform...seems like it could do well given that XM is still a PoS.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Microsoft's secret plan...force developers to make several music apps to drive up the number of WP apps