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

[dlalonde]

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.

Thank you for doing this! I'm linking this to Joe Belfiore on Twitter!

Although I'll admit it's a bit faster on my phone (except on the first run after a hard reset which is pretty similar to your situation) that's is a big part of the problem!

Looking forward to the next video you said you'd make! I don't know how Microsoft QAed this app but they screwed up big time! Even compared to the Music+Video hub, never mind the Zune!

 

[loofmodnar]

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.

...

That video pretty clearly shows how terrible XBM is right now. Makes me sad my ZuneHD has gone to the junk pile in the sky.

I initially thought that MS would release a decent app before WP8.1 was officially available. The original version was pretty much a direct port of the WP8 app and it was a preview OS. But all the updates since then have just convinced me they've totally dropped the ball on this app and it'll likely be months before they turn it into something usable.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Thank you for doing this! I'm linking this to Joe Belfiore on Twitter!

Although I'll admit it's a bit faster on my phone (except on the first run after a hard reset which is pretty similar to your situation) that's is a big part of the problem!

Looking forward to the next video you said you'd make! I don't know how Microsoft QAed this app but they screwed up big time! Even compared to the Music+Video hub, never mind the Zune!

I sill don't understand what was wrong with music and videos. Add a few UI fixes and playlist functionality and bam. Work done and dusted. Integrate Xbox Videos and make videos accessible via the store. Nothing too major. This is what they call shooting yourself in the head to fix a headache, sure the problem's gone, but then you have much bigger problems

 

[Blacklac]

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.

Kinda looks like you either just loaded a ton of music on it or its the first time you've used the App after an App update. That's why its constantly "looking for music" at the top. I would think if you left the App open and let it sync all your music, it wouldn't happen, but I don't know. I have much less music than you, but my App is so much faster. I also have a 1520, so...

 

[dlalonde]

I sill don't understand what was wrong with music and videos. Add a few UI fixes and playlist functionality and bam. Work done and dusted. Integrate Xbox Videos and make videos accessible via the store. Nothing too major. This is what they call shooting yourself in the head to fix a headache, sure the problem's gone, but then you have much bigger problems

Yeah I actually like the Music+Video Hub. If they'd just made it a tad more responsive, playlists (even though I don't use them they seem to be quite popular) and gapless playback, it would have been great.

 

[Justin276]

Kinda looks like you either just loaded a ton of music on it or its the first time you've used the App after an App update. That's why its constantly "looking for music" at the top. I would think if you left the App open and let it sync all your music, it wouldn't happen, but I don't know. I have much less music than you, but my App is so much faster. I also have a 1520, so...

In my case the app is looking for music 90% of the time. Whether it is a fresh boot or the phone has been on for a few days, granted in this instance the loading was longer than normal( not by much) but this is not the first time I have had to wait over a minute to play an album.

 

[Pranjal Rai]

The ONLY issue I'm currently facing with the Xbox Music is that my created playlist multiplies all the songs in it. Quite annoying. On a side note, I recently found out how to add missing album art and artist images to the music through the forums , so that cured one of my problems.

 

[oviedofreak82]

I must be the only person with WP 8.1 that is not having issues with the Xbox music app. My songs load just fine, skipping between songs is flawless if I was to rate it,I would give it a 5. Xbox video plays the videos on my phone just fine also as well as accessing videos in the store. This isn't good if there are this many complaints.

 

[herbertsnow]

I must be the only person with WP 8.1 that is not having issues with the Xbox music app. My songs load just fine, skipping between songs is flawless if I was to rate it,I would give it a 5. Xbox video plays the videos on my phone just fine also as well as accessing videos in the store. This isn't good if there are this many complaints.

You're not alone. Works fine for me also.

 

[Blacklac]

In my case the app is looking for music 90% of the time. Whether it is a fresh boot or the phone has been on for a few days, granted in this instance the loading was longer than normal( not by much) but this is not the first time I have had to wait over a minute to play an album.

Well, that is annoying. I thought this last update was supposed to make it so it only had to sync if new music was added. And it was supposedly "in the background". Lol

 

[Blacklac]

My only real issue is I had to remake my playlists cause there were so many duplicates. I don't have much music at all, but mine loads instantly and is perfectly usable to play and find music. Not quite as smooth as the old Music Hub, but not bad. I'll have to whip out my 1020 and see how it runs on a dual core device, I guess.

 

[loofmodnar]

I sill don't understand what was wrong with music and videos. Add a few UI fixes and playlist functionality and bam. Work done and dusted. Integrate Xbox Videos and make videos accessible via the store. Nothing too major. This is what they call shooting yourself in the head to fix a headache, sure the problem's gone, but then you have much bigger problems

The main issue was it was tied to the OS. So there was no way to update it without a full WP update like GDR3 or WP8.1. It either relied heavily on internal API calls or needed a complete rewrite to support their long term plans which is why they scrapped it. Unfortunately it seems XBM wasn't a development priority until after 8.1 DP was released and everyone realized what an awful mess the app was.

Hubs we're an awesome concept but I think they ended up being too confusing for new users who expected them to work like iOS or Android apps. I hope they circle back to the idea eventually and allow better interoperation between apps in a future release.

 

[loribinca]

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.

You beat me to it !! I was just thinking about doing this today to show the developers just how much a stinking **** the current music app is.

The sad thing is that they have the code - why not just port the Zune app to the phone - ok I get they want to use the 'streaming/cloud' model going forward, but what we have so far is not even beta code - it's not been optimized at all and it's just plain broken and full of bugs - I have little faith in it being ready in time for 8.1 full release.

​

 

[loribinca]

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.

You beat me to it !! I was just thinking about doing this today to show the developers just how much a stinking **** the current music app is.

The sad thing is that they have the code - why not just port the Zune app to the phone - ok I get they want to use the 'streaming/cloud' model going forward, but what we have so far is not even beta code - it's not been optimized at all and it's just plain broken and full of bugs - I have little faith in it being ready in time for 8.1 full release.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Can someone please remind me...why exactly does Xbox Music need updates not tied to Os updates again? That's pretty much like an excuse for not doing homework by a preteen. "Oh teacher, if I do all my work now, you'll be too busy marking it to mark my new one. So I'll rip the pages out of my book and do it in my diary and stick the pages back in when I'm done".
Good intentions...maybe. Stupid outcome

 

[spaulagain]

Can someone please remind me...why exactly does Xbox Music need updates not tied to Os updates again? That's pretty much like an excuse for not doing homework by a preteen. "Oh teacher, if I do all my work now, you'll be too busy marking it to mark my new one. So I'll rip the pages out of my book and do it in my diary and stick the pages back in when I'm done".
Good intentions...maybe. Stupid outcome

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.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

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.

You're missing the point. The music app is something you nail once and forget about. It doesn't need frequent updates. It can be done with GDRs and stuff. It's being updated biweekly now, but these updates are here to fix the mess up they did. At this point I'm sure we'd be better if they had just ignored the music and videos hub and used the Xbox music app as an alternative player till it was ready

 

[spaulagain]

You're missing the point. The music app is something you nail once and forget about. It doesn't need frequent updates. It can be done with GDRs and stuff. It's being updated biweekly now, but these updates are here to fix the mess up they did. At this point I'm sure we'd be better if they had just ignored the music and videos hub and used the Xbox music app as an alternative player till it was ready

Wait, so you actually think that Google and Apple released their music app and haven't touched it since?

Whether their updates are for fixing issues or making improvements/advancements, separating the app to allow for more frequent updates is better.

There are always ways to improve the Music app, and other apps as well. If you link the them to the OS, they are restricted by the release schedule of the OS.

Again, this self explanatory. Regardless of what the updates are for, its better this way. And it's ridiculous to think that any app is perfect when it's first launched or ever for that matter.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Wait, so you actually think that Google and Apple released their music app and haven't touched it since?

Whether their updates are for fixing issues or making improvements/advancements, separating the app to allow for more frequent updates is better.

There are always ways to improve the Music app, and other apps as well. If you link the them to the OS, they are restricted by the release schedule of the OS.

Again, this self explanatory. Regardless of what the updates are for, its better this way. And it's ridiculous to think that any app is perfect when it's first launched or ever for that matter.

I'm tired.
Apple updates its music app once a year. WP gets 3 GDR and one major release. That's four opportunities to add features to the app per update while letting it be as fluid and fast and stable as it was. "Can does not mean should", comes to mind here.

 

[oviedofreak82]

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.