XBox Music - Enough is enough...

[Simon Gregory]

By far the best music concept there is, with some glitches that need to be ironed out. I don't understand all the moaning - it sounds like a 'change is not good' mentality, but I guess we all use these apps in different ways so some might find the glitches more severe than others. I suspect that if you have a vast music collection of your own prior to using xbox music then there might be more problems.

Haha, it's got nothing to do with people opposing change, that's just a lazy argument. XBM works ok in the scenario if you want to rent music on subscription. But, as you allude to yourself, the problem is that they extended this feature (that Zune already did) at the expense of breaking functionality for people who have already bought music. Why should these people pay a subscription to get the functionality (that used to work) to just allow them to listen to music they have already paid for?

The glitches and comparatively poor interface (compared with its predecessor) are just an additional 'kick in the nuts', on top of having basic functionality removed or severely broken for the thousands of users who relied on it.

They could have just added the cloud stuff to Zune, enabled the drag and drop option to the storage and tidied it up a few other things. But the results of some self defeating internal politics have meant they are starting all over again. There's not really been any public acknowledgement on these issues and they are making the necessary updates at a snails pace. This is why people are (IMO rightfully) moaning!

 

[Ruined]

XBOX music is a joke. it needs to be dumped ASAP. Bring back Zune.

Or simply, re-skin Zune and make it the "xbox music desktop app," and let the metro app be the current simplified version. Although to be honest, I like the skin of Zune better than XBOX music, too. XBOX music looks dark and depressing compared to the rest of Windows 8.

All that aside...

Wasn't it a bit shortsighted to put all of your eggs in the streaming basket when the most popular carriers have metered data now? A week of XBOX music can eat up a month's worth of data easy. Combine this with the utter failures XBOX Music has in local file management and there is your big problem. Going back to Zune, what is odd is that Zune had both streaming and local management down - you could stream albums from the marketplace in full even with WP7. Sure that's not as intuitive as streaming with XBOX Music, but Zune could do it. That is why I think it is odd that they flushed Zune down the toilet when it could have been tweaked for the ultimate.

The ultimate would have been:
-Zune desktop app reskinned to Xbox Music
-Xbox music metro app
-Finally eliminate Windows Media player!
-Use explorer for everything else

Instead we have:
-Zune desktop app needed for usage of xbox music subscription on desktop with a fully featured program
-Xbox music metro app
-Windows media player to make up for the shortcomings in Xbox music
-Sync tool because the whole situation is a giant slomo trainwreck

Don't know how a company with such fantastic tools in front of them could butcher it all so badly.

 

[dmmontal]

Looks like the XBMusic master list of issues thread is now going to get closed off, to be split into more specific mini threads. WPCentral also had a post today highlighting a puny update to the W8 sync app. The comments of which are filled by fellow disgruntled people who know what has been lost with the axing of the Zune app.

Who else would like to join with me in asking WPC to do an article highlighting the issues we're all having?

It's been months and MS have announced nothing. A little tinkering with these apps isn't going to fix the issue, MS needs to know how badly an acceptable syncing and management solution is required by WP8 music lovers.

While I have not posted on the WPCentral forums before, I just came across this thread and wanted to add to this. My name is Darren and I started and maintained the Master List Of Issues With XBox Music On WP8 thread. I have not been very involved in discussing these issues over the last few months as I have been a bit burnt out, however I had a rather terrible experience giving XBox Music another go and I decided to post a bit more.

I really hope more people speak up about these issues, and yes I agree it would be very nice if there were more press coverage on this. It does seem baffling to me how little actual coverage there has been on what is a very deep, multi-faceted issue with what was previously one of the strongest points of this platform. When I was approached by Microsoft about closing down the Master List thread, they were very friendly, said they wanted to know how I thought it was best to proceed, etc. They said their main issue was that they weren't getting enough "useful feedback" any longer, and that breaking the thread down into separate posts by issue would help that. I told them I didn't think that would make a difference, but that I did want to help and I couldn't realistically manage a large number of individual posts by myself, so I gave them my "blessing" to lock the thread.

I strongly regret doing that. I feel a bit like I was duped, and at this point I really think the real reason they did that was to nip any further backlash in the bud. It has been months and there has been no response or updates since they closed the thread, and the individual posts are pretty much dead.

I have a new post in which I complained of my terrible experience earlier tonight: Disastrous Music Sync Experience - Microsoft Community - I don't expect this to be a major deal or anything, but just wanted to express my frustration to them once more. If anybody has a similar complaint I suggest you stay vocal.

 

[bguy_1986]

Feel like I was duped as well. It's a shame there isn't blogs or news articles putting pressure on Microsoft. I really don't see how anybody can use it. So many things you can't do!

 

[spaulagain]

I use it all the time, not as good as Zune, but it works.

 

[Simon Gregory]

Interesting article on more flaws on th XBM service:

http://mobilitydigest.com/xbox-music-under-fire/

C'mon WPC, pick this up and hold MS to account!

 

[bguy_1986]

The Microsoft support threads are picking up some steam again... hopefully everybody keeps it up and gets them large enough again that Microsoft has to do something about it..

 

[Piratelooksat40]

I am getting to my wits end around music. I used to have a workable solution, and now for some reason it does not work. I am assuming it is because I have added an SD card to my Lumia 820. When I try to sync play lists only about 1/2 of the play lists show up and each has a total of 10 songs.

I would like to say that I am going to hold out for Microsoft Blue and hope for an update. The problem is that that we hear NOTHING about a fix. It would be nice to have any kind of communication. Does anyone know who is incharge of Xbox Music? I know it is a team out of France. I am trying to find an e-mail address. If someone has it or a twitter account it would be great.

 

[Simon Gregory]

Wow, and now MS are trying to get iTunes on the Windows 8 platform. Who is in charge of MS music strategy priorities!?
http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-wants-itunes-windows-8-app-apple-isnt-liking-idea

 

[phonohead]

The only reason I am using Xbox Music for audio streaming/downloading is the fact that it allows me to save offline content to my SD card. Had other, similar, services offered this option I'd be sailing a different sea.

 

[wpcautobot]

There is good news... But there are no details. According to Paul at the Windows Supersite, an Xbox Music revamp is coming soon. See below for the quote and link reference.

"By June, we should have a ?Blue? public preview that speaks completely to what Microsoft plans to do, and in June/July other updates, like a complete revamping of the Xbox media services and apps, will occur as well"

http://m.winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-8-six-month-report-card

 

[Piratelooksat40]

Wow, and now MS are trying to get iTunes on the Windows 8 platform. Who is in charge of MS music strategy priorities!?
Microsoft wants an iTunes Windows 8 app but Apple isn't liking the idea | Windows Phone Central

I have avoided iTunes since it came out. However, if there were an iTunes app for Windows Phone 8, I would jump on it and never look back. Just spent another 2 hours trying to get playlists to sync on my Lumia 820. Another epic fail.

 

[Bandersaurus]

I don't understand the fuss to be honest...I'm a long time zune pass holder from my zuneHD days...
There really isn't a need to sync with software...The only time I sync'd with my old Focus and the Zune software was when I was downloading an XAP file as my focus was hacked so I had some nifty non-marketplace apps installed...
Outside of that there was not much reason to be honest...

With my 920, all my music is listed on my phone and I just play the songs from the cloud...I guess I could download them through the app but I don't see the need....

Consider yourself lucky I suppose, because my transition from the Zune HD/Windows Phone 7 days to this... this... XBox Music bullcrap has been frustrating enough for me to really want to go to something else from scratch.

I'm on vacation in Croatia right now, trying to use my Lumia 920 to entertain my wife and I on our hotel balcony. I'm connected via WiFi and tried to create a Smart DJ playlist from a My Morning Jacket song, something that used to work awesomely via Zune. Not anymore! It just creates a playlist of a bunch of My Morning Jacket songs. It's basically the same as selecting all the content from one artist and hitting shuffle.

Remember the days when you used to be able to create these Smart DJ lists and actually discover new music? And then you could choose to like or dislike a song and it would take that into consideration in future playlists and recommendations? And your mp3 collection on your computer would actually sync with your phone and then reflect these rankings? This is not some idyllic future I'm talking about. It was in the past!

What a downgrade. And I'm not even getting into the "media usage rights" error that still occasionally rear its ugly head to this day.

 

[dawindbag]

Wholeheartedly agree that WPC needs to be more vocal about how bad this is. If they want to push the MS platform/ecosystem, it needs to get better. By ignoring how flawed and backwards the music experience in on WP/Win8 they are doing the entire brand a disservice.

 

[WhyFiNYC]

Having just come from WP7.5 to WP8, I've gotta say - XBM is a steaming pile.

The little WP sync program is a joke - every time I fire it up it scans, from scratch, the 300GB music library on my server, which takes so long that it's not even close to being a feasible solution. Even creating a local music library didn't do any good - it still wanted to scan the big library, too, and I can't find a way to tell it not to.

Dragging and dropping files shows that the phone app is hypercritical of tagging; heaven forbid if the 'album' tag on a particular song isn't capitalized - it'll just have to be split off as a separate album. Even if you do get everything right, the phone app may check against the cloud and decide that your rip of an imported CD should match the track listing of their domestic CD database, leaving the extra tracks out in cold, in a phantom album of their own.

It's just ridiculous what a step back this is from Zune/WP7.5.

 

[wpn00b]

Remember the days when you used to be able to create these Smart DJ lists and actually discover new music? And then you could choose to like or dislike a song and it would take that into consideration in future playlists and recommendations? And your mp3 collection on your computer would actually sync with your phone and then reflect these rankings? This is not some idyllic future I'm talking about. It was in the past!

I remember it well... I really hope they go back to that model.

 

[Simon Gregory]

Interesting snippet regarding XBMusic in Windows 8.1:

"Xbox Music

We suspect Microsoft is going to do a deeper dive on this at Build, but for now, here's a primer. All you need to know is that the Xbox Music app has gotten a big makeover so that the emphasis is more on your existing collection, rather than discovering new tracks. By default, your music is organized by artists, albums and songs, though you can, of course, still discover new content if you so choose. In particular, Microsoft said Xbox Music is getting a "Radio" feature, which is said to be like Smart DJ, only better. That's all we know for now -- and it's really not much -- which means Microsoft will almost certainly need to follow up at Build with more details."

http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/30/microsoft-windows-8-1-unveiled/

 

[Simon Gregory]

As details of the Xbox blue update are slowly emerging, I've not yet seen one thing on addressing the WP8 sync experience. Has anybody else?

While there are starting to be more mentions of the Xbox Music blue update in articles such as this:

http://m.winsupersite.com/windows-8/blue-xbox-music-20

Some screenshots emerging:

http://microsoft-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Xbox-Music-Radio-1.jp

http://microsoft-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Xbox-Music-Radio.jpg

and even discussed at the end of this video:

http://youtu.be/tN10FQR7uKA

Call me pessimistic, but I fear that extreme disappointment is on the horizon, as there is absolutely no mention on a syncing solution whatsoever yet.

 

[Trainwreck_0532]

As details of the Xbox blue update are slowly emerging, I've not yet seen one thing on addressing the WP8 sync experience. Has anybody else?

While there are starting to be more mentions of the Xbox Music blue update in articles such as this:

http://m.winsupersite.com/windows-8/blue-xbox-music-20

Some screenshots emerging:

http://microsoft-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Xbox-Music-Radio-1.jp

http://microsoft-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Xbox-Music-Radio.jpg

and even discussed at the end of this video:

http://youtu.be/tN10FQR7uKA

Call me pessimistic, but I fear that extreme disappointment is on the horizon, as there is absolutely no mention on a syncing solution whatsoever yet.

I guess you can't polish a ****!

 

[dgr_874]

Well, if that's the case, im going back to Apple. Yes, they are evil and all that, but I can at least sync my stuff with them.