Playlist test (In answer to another thread)

[Bobvfr]

Before I start I have to admit I like Xbox Music as it is, I spent some time to figure it out before I added my local music collection and then took out a music pass and I am well pleased with the service.

But in another thread the issue of playlists came up, something I don't use, I listen to albums, so I put on an album and listen to it in the order as published by the artist.

Last night I made a simple playlist on my 1520 of four songs:

1865 (96 degrees in the shade) by Third World (Dowloaded to my collection using music pass and available to play offline on all devices)
5:15 by the Who (Local track ripped from CD and stored on all my devices and available to stream)
Afterglow by Genesis (Local track but unlike the others copyright withheld by artist so not stream-able)
Afterglow (Of your love) by the Small Faces (Local track ripped from CD and stored on all my devices and available to stream)

The playlist automatically appeared on all devices but played very differently on each, here are the results:

Phone: All tracks played with no problem.
PC: All tracks played with one exception and that was Afterglow by Genesis.
Xbox One: Only 1865 played

All of this makes some sense when you consider why, the playlist was made on the phone so the device already knows I have all the local music so all can play. The PC is a bit odd, you would have thought it could see Afterglow was part of my local music collection, but it defaults to searching the cloud and hits a problem as this track is restricted, maybe that could be improved upon by MS, so that local collections get read before it heads off to the cloud. On the Xbox, which is streaming only it doesn't know about my local music so can only play the one track.

Must add the Xbox One can now play local music using the new Media App (But this isn't part of Xbox Music on the Xbox One) currently using USB devices but after October it will also use DLNA.

So although the idea of having playlists jump across all your devices sounds like a good idea, it maybe needs to come with a health warning just like the "Match my local music to my cloud collection" option should have.

Or when you set up a playlist, maybe give it a name that identifies it to a device so you know it's really for that device only (There may be a setting for this but I haven't found it).

So if I make a playlist on the Xbox One it would be called "Xbox hard rock" or "Xbox soul", again on the phone it would be called "Phone hard rock" or "Phone soul".

As mentioned this isn't an issue for me and I will delete my test playlist, I only set it up to test it for this post. I cannot speak for people who import playlists from other programs and other devices, just what I saw on my very small test.

It does prove one thing, Xbox Music is complex, it's a web based streaming service, an app on phones, tablets and PC's that allows varying degrees of interaction (If you have a pass or not) incorporates streaming, local and cloud based music and also an app on the Xbox, yet it gives a simple easy to use interface (Perfect for me) across each device, but it does need a bit of thinking about before you let it loose on that prized local collection.

As mentioned I really like it, it suits me, works well and I have none of the problems, it's quick regardless of what I play (Local, cloud collection or streaming) on all my devices I haven't experienced a lot of the issues like album art that others have.

But a bit of thought and planning is needed before you jump in especially if you have multiple devices and have spent years micro managing your local collection.

Bob

 

[paulsalter]

This is where the matching of music should come in, like many I disabled this as it screws up the music
Just needs an option for unmatch this album/song when it gets it wrong, if the correct album/song is not in their database then you cant change it

So if this Genesis song was matched, the playlists would see it correctly and play the local copy on both phone and pc

when I tested with the matching of albums, those it got right where great
local music just played locally on the pc
phone would show album in collection so could download straight from music pass to phone (no wires just over the air)

if they could get the matching correct, then local music on pc + music pass + matched songs in the cloud would be very nice

 

[realwarder]

This sounds much too complex. Logical, but users don't care about logic. Usability is what matters and where some companies excel...

If we have One Windows etc., I'd expect seamless playback from any device. The phone and PC should ask if you once if you want a cloud copy kept so you can access your music on any device... and then it should 'just work'. Rip from my CDs once, play anywhere.

 

[paulsalter]

This sounds much too complex. Logical, but users don't care about logic. Usability is what matters and where some companies excel...

If we have One Windows etc., I'd expect seamless playback from any device. The phone and PC should ask if you once if you want a cloud copy kept so you can access your music on any device... and then it should 'just work'. Rip from my CDs once, play anywhere.

Which I think is what is was saying (perhaps badly)
If you turn on the option to have a cloud copy of your music, then any playlist will see this song on any device (as long as it has the rights to stream/download)

I have had the option on in the past to store the cloud copy, works for 90% of my local music, and allows me to play it on my xbox or phone as well as the pc where my local files are stored)

It's very easy to do, turn one option on, unfortunately as others have mentioned before, it doesn't always get it right, and when it wrongly matches it screws up your music