Restrictions on Xbox music pass?

[Snowy Nokia]

Hey all, I've noticed that with Xbox music pass, I can not access "Ministry of Sound" label catalog. Just 30 sec preview.
What else has the community noticed?

 

[paulsalter]

Can't remember the exact tracks, but recently I have notice a lot more of

This Album is only available for download
This track is only available if you purchase the album

 

[RTGent]

The Beatles? Not much else over the years, though I don't know this Ministry of Sound group -nor probably most related groups. If you see this pattern for your tastes, the Pass is probably not for you. For my heavily-jazz, blues, Latin, classic rock, classical, etc., tastes, it has been and is So Wonderful that exceptions are quite meaningless, or inconsequential. Hope you're downloading and enjoying other options.

 

[Snowy Nokia]

For the Beatles I believe its an apple thing exclusive.

 

[RTGent]

For the Beatles I believe its an apple thing exclusive.

Correct; fortunately, I've had plenty of their music to rip and sync.

 

[Bobvfr]

Got to admit I am enjoying my Xbox Music pass, my collection has gone up from approx 1800 (Ripped from CD's) songs to over 2500 in about two months, yes there are some things you can't download, as discussed the Beatles (Already have all albums from Revolver), I noticed King Crimson is completely absent, and you do find odd songs missing from some albums for example on each of the four albums by the Faces the "top song or single" is held back by the copyright holder, but that don't matter because they tend to be the poppy songs of Rod Stewart and not the real gems by Ronnie Lane.

But I have found there is often a way around it, if you look at the complete album listing by an artist you sometimes see what look like two identical copies of the same album, for some unknown reason one will be restricted but the other not, also live albums are often not restricted or the singles are available on a collection/best of album.

What I am enjoying is a couple of things, my ripped collection was pretty much centered on my favourite artists, so Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bowie, Deep Purple and a few others as I ripped all of these when I moved several hundred miles and left another 100 or so CD's un-ripped and they are still in my house (On an island), so the pass has given me a chance to get those albums back.

It has allowed me to meet some very old friends, albums I had on vinyl in the 70's that I had either forgotten about so I have found Sunburst Finish by Bebop Deluxe, Are we not Men, We are Devo by Devo, and the Old Straight Track by Jack the Lad.

But almost more important it has allowed me to explore, for example last weekend I got albums by Neil Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash + one with Young, and Joni Mitchell.

So far this weekend I have been doing female singers so Diana Ross and the Supremes, Edith Piaf, Ute Lemper, Sandie Shaw and Dusty Springfield.

I would not have gone into a CD shop and bought any of these albums, and by Xmas I can see my Xbox Music pass collection easily being double the size of my ripped one.

And as mentioned it's my wife's birthday in a couple of weeks and she is getting a music pass, I could say something corny like "It's the gift that keeps on giving", but it's more to shut her up (She don't talk when she has her headphones on) and it's one less wasted day any where near a shop :smile:

So there are some odd restrictions, but nothing to stop you buying a CD and ripping it, just work around them.


Bob

 

[Snowy Nokia]

Oh im loving my Xbox music pass!! Only side I see down for it is the limited access to house music.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Got to admit I am enjoying my Xbox Music pass, my collection has gone up from approx 1800 (Ripped from CD's) songs to over 2500 in about two months, yes there are some things you can't download, as discussed the Beatles (Already have all albums from Revolver), I noticed King Crimson is completely absent, and you do find odd songs missing from some albums for example on each of the four albums by the Faces the "top song or single" is held back by the copyright holder, but that don't matter because they tend to be the poppy songs of Rod Stewart and not the real gems by Ronnie Lane.

But I have found there is often a way around it, if you look at the complete album listing by an artist you sometimes see what look like two identical copies of the same album, for some unknown reason one will be restricted but the other not, also live albums are often not restricted or the singles are available on a collection/best of album.

What I am enjoying is a couple of things, my ripped collection was pretty much centered on my favourite artists, so Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bowie, Deep Purple and a few others as I ripped all of these when I moved several hundred miles and left another 100 or so CD's un-ripped and they are still in my house (On an island), so the pass has given me a chance to get those albums back.

It has allowed me to meet some very old friends, albums I had on vinyl in the 70's that I had either forgotten about so I have found Sunburst Finish by Bebop Deluxe, Are we not Men, We are Devo by Devo, and the Old Straight Track by Jack the Lad.

But almost more important it has allowed me to explore, for example last weekend I got albums by Neil Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash + one with Young, and Joni Mitchell.

So far this weekend I have been doing female singers so Diana Ross and the Supremes, Edith Piaf, Ute Lemper, Sandie Shaw and Dusty Springfield.

I would not have gone into a CD shop and bought any of these albums, and by Xmas I can see my Xbox Music pass collection easily being double the size of my ripped one.

And as mentioned it's my wife's birthday in a couple of weeks and she is getting a music pass, I could say something corny like "It's the gift that keeps on giving", but it's more to shut her up (She don't talk when she has her headphones on) and it's one less wasted day any where near a shop :smile:

So there are some odd restrictions, but nothing to stop you buying a CD and ripping it, just work around them.


Bob

I hear you! I certainly would not have purchased the Grateful Dead Complete Studio Albums Collection, but I got it from Xbox Music.

 

[RTGent]

Thank you, Bob, for another nice contribution. I'll share two or three aspects of my several-year experience with versions, elaborating on your version discussion. I've never understood the two version offerings that are both fully available. I've run across the availability difference you note occasionally, but more often, I just find two apparently identical versions that sometimes have a label difference, but sometimes not even that. I stopped fretting about it early on and usually just take the first one.

I've found two version-related consequences. Sometimes, the version I've downloaded, becomes unavailable. I ran across this last week when I wanted to purchase a long-ago downloaded album with my original-plan credits. In Zune, I got a message that the track/album was not purchasable. I'll skip other interesting Zune references; in short, I had to delete that invalid version and download and then purchase a new version. Still happy that a version of that old release was still available. The other consequence is a hassle, though no more than that: when a version I've downloaded to my PC becomes unavailable/obsolete, it will no longer sync with any new or "renewed" device I add/re-add to my account, although that album version will continue to sync and update on other devices, and play everywhere. I have this issue with a Zune 80 that I had to hard-reset a few months ago. I've had to search for new versions of about 3-4 percent of my going-on-8000-track collection, which is taking time. Fortunately, the replacements do sync fine and the other devices are totally unaffected by the replacements on my PC.

A final note on actual extinction: Some albums do disappear completely, although perhaps temporarily. Fortunately, that's rare, and the great part is that even those continue to play and rights-renew/update (though they'll be absent from my Zune 80).