Microsoft (NASDAQ:
MSFT
) announced Monday morning that its new Xbox Music service will
make its North American debut on Tuesday. The service -- which
offers more than 30 million different songs -- will first launch
on Xbox Live, the online service for the company's popular video
game console. Xbox Music is also slated to come to Windows 8,
Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT.
Similar to Spotify, users will be able to stream free
ad-supported music on tablets and PCs. For $9.99 a month, users
can eliminate the ads and stream music on smartphones and the
Xbox 360. Microsoft is expected to offer a free trial period to
allow Xbox 360 users to try the service this week.
Xbox Music will also sell full albums and offer a
cloud-matching service for music that users already own, just
like Apple's (NASDAQ:
AAPL
) iTunes. In essence, this is the service that Google (NASDAQ:
GOOG
) had hoped to create when it launched its music initiative in
2011. If Xbox Music can successfully merge the worlds of Spotify
and iTunes, it may be hard for other music services to compete.
It may also inspire Apple to push ahead with its rumored plans to
acquire Pandora (NYSE:
P
).
By coming to Xbox 360, Xbox Music will be exposed to a market
iTunes and Spotify cannot currently reach. As one of the first
music apps available for Windows 8, Xbox Music will easily gain
more publicity than if it were simply another Spotify competitor
entering the crowded marketplace. In time, it could follow in the
footsteps of Internet Explorer and become the default music
service for many users simply because it is built into Windows
8.
There are still many questions surrounding the service. First
and foremost, Microsoft has not detailed the frequency of ad
plays for the free version of its service. According to
The Huffington Post
, ads will play every 15 minutes -- roughly the same as
Spotify.
While the paid service is referred to as "unlimited," the free
version is not. This indicates that Microsoft may eventually
apply a limit to the number of tracks that users can play per
month. According to
IGN
, this will not be the case at launch. But remember that Spotify
initially planned to limit the number of hours that American
users could stream free music. That limitation has yet to go into
effect.
Currently, Microsoft has no plans to give Xbox Live users a
discount to Xbox Music. This is a strange decision considering
the fact that Xbox 360 users must have Xbox Live (which retails
for $60 a year) to stream music online.
Last but not least there is the issue of software
availability. Xbox Music will not come to Android and iOS before
2013. According to
The Verge
, Windows 7 users may never gain access to the service. While
Spotify is popping up on every device available and iTunes has
been on Windows from day one, it seems that Microsoft is hoping
to win this battle with a degree of exclusivity.
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@LouisBedigianBZ
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