I present to you the smartphone where the music player does not work!

[Ed Boland]

No this is wrong you can stream songs from your pc, that you OWN for free, but you can pay the $10 a month to stream any song and also download to your collection to listen w/o streaming and play artist radios and stuff, but idk why they don't just make it free like xbox music on the laptop and tablets. Edit: Forgot to say, in the radio playlists you make, if you choose artist radio it will play songs ONLY by that artist(that is a pretty good feature) and the other radio plays songs similar to what you like.

I've tried numerous times, but only end up getting a sample (15-20 seconds) of each song, IF the songs actually show up. Most of the time it doesn't work at all and it can't find my shared music anyway. Your post seems to go back and forth, and doesn't make any sense.. much like Xbox Music lol

 

[tapehead]

I've had just about every single problem with Xbox Music you could think of on both Win 8 and Win 8.1 including:

Duplicate songs with Windows Explorer.
Duplicate songs with Mac sync.
Duplicate songs from downloading from Xbox Music Store.
Xbox Music changing metadata to incorrect information.
The app not opening.
The app crashing upon loading my local collection.
The app not being able to search for music based on the artist in my collection (error message).
Artists not showing up in actual alphabetical order.
The app can't read ID3.4 tags, so longer titles get cut off and Asian characters won't read properly (all tags must be converted to ID3.3).
Right now, I can't get the phone to connect to Windows Phone transfer, meaning I can't put new music on my phone.

I'm literally counting down the days until I can afford to get something else, because I don't understand how Microsoft (even for a DP) could make sure the phone, texting, customization, all settings for location and wifi, email syncing and video playback aaaallllll function. But not the music player. It's embarrassing for them. They knew people were putting a lot of stock into the preview, and not just us. 8.1 has already been reviewed by a lot of high profile tech sites. I honestly don't know what they were thinking.

BTW, most of the above issues all happened with 8.0.

 

[rex.reyesiii]

hopefully music player is top notch already by.... October this year LOL.

 

[borasar]

Same here. I've never had an Xbox.. (PC gamer here!) in fact, the last game console I owned was a Super Nintendo if that tells you anything. I have been a gamer though.. on the PC since way back in the DOS days.

Nope, you're not missing anything. Except for an awkward service that tries to lure you into signing up for an "Xbox Music Pass" for $9.99 a month to be able to stream music (that you already own) to all your devices. I guess if one has an Xbox, it has it's perks though. A lot of Xbox users (360 and One) have purchased tons of music through the Xbox music service over the years, so the service and it's consumer base/ecosystem isn't going anywhere... kinda like iTunes and it's customer base; People have a bunch of money and time invested in their iTunes music collections. It makes sense that the Xbox music users want these apps, and want it to be an integrated part of Windows Phone (if only they could work out the kinks I hear), but that doesn't mean WE have to use it. There's always been other methods of obtaining music...

Some of us Windows Phone 8(8.1) users have huge collections of music that we'd like to listen to every now and then... Without getting involved in all that Xbox Music business.... thank god for Nokia Mix Radio!

Nokia Mix Radio (formerly Nokia Music) on the other hand is awesome! With NMR, you can play all your local music (mp3 files on your phone) and you can also create artist "mixes". By entering up to three artists, NMR will play music from your favorites and similar artists (think Pandora or iHeart radio) or for even more diverse mixes, you can have it do a "computer scan" on your PC, and let it find all your music files/folders and it'll generate mixes (which are downloadable for offline play) based on your entire collection.

The only thing I've been worried about really, is the Microsoft/Nokia acquisition, and what happens to Nokia Mix Radio. I really hope we get to keep it... Because with Microsoft and their pushing Xbox music, NMR's days may be numbered...

Oh and sorry for the long post (I'm highly caffeinated!) and I don't mean to hijack the op's thread... Just seemed relevant to me.

Long live NMR!!!

I have zero issues streaming songs with Xbox music or downloading to the collection and no issues with my own music either (that wasn't provided by xbox music service). I've started with a free 1 month trial and continued to a monthly subscription, no issue with either one.

Did you actually sign up for a free one month trial?

 

[borasar]

I've tried numerous times, but only end up getting a sample (15-20 seconds) of each song, IF the songs actually show up. Most of the time it doesn't work at all and it can't find my shared music anyway. Your post seems to go back and forth, and doesn't make any sense.. much like Xbox Music lol

Not sure what's not clear with what he said. He's described the features fairly well I think.
The song playing for 15-20 seconds is a free preview, you should be able to stream the full song or download to your phone if you're under the trial or a paying subscriber

 

[berty6294]

I've used the subscription service for over 6 years and I haven't second guessed it once! For $99 a year, I have had unlimited music on my phone, Xbox, Zune, PC, tablet without having to worry about managing any of it. It is cheap and easy! Oh and the music is legal.

Now as far as the new app, its been working much better than it was before the last update. Nokia Music is out of the question because I want to take advantage of my Xbox Music Pass!

 

[Laura Knotek]

Please see the following thread for questions and answers about music in WP8.1 Preview: http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...eveloper-preview-everything-music-thread.html