[kiloeightone]

Ok, so most of the music I have on my phone was loaded onto an SD card from my laptop. But, needing a specific track for my kids and having available credit in my Microsoft Account, I downloaded one from the Music app.

But now I discover you cant use MS currency to buy music from the Music app on Windows Phone. I must be the only one not to know this! MS chat support told me that if I redeem a gift card and want to buy music I need to go onto a Windows 8/8.1 PC which I don't have.

So does anyone know the reason it's not supported on Windows phone?

[tapehead]

Because Microsoft doesn't think these things through, unfortunately.

[Desynthesis]

So you can't do it on music.xbox.com?

[mrpuny]

So I don't think you can purchase music on xbox.music.com or any of the other platforms besides Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. And the poster who said the Xbox Music team isn't thinking things through is correct.

I came across this situation from a different path. I was looking to get my son hooked up with Xbox Music, and the first tryout was 'purchasing' some of the free music deals going on. Guess what, on Windows 8.x, anyone under 18 can't purchase music of any kind. Seriously. I don't mean 'explicit' music, I mean no music of any kind whatsoever. Now there's some ambiguity about whether that applies to Windows phone, but on Windows phone, you can't 'purchase' even the free music if you don't have a credit card attached to the account (or maybe carrier billing). So basically my son, under 18, can purchase all sorts of apps on Xbox and Windows and Windows Phone with MS account credit, but can't buy music.

The entire system is crazy. I'm not sure who's ultimately in charge of the service; I don't know if anyone with any authority in the organization has any sense of the details, but it's at the point where MS needs to be publicly shamed over just how messed up it is. The more I think about it, the more it drives me bonkers.