LOS ANGELES (AP) - Buyers of tablets that run
Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 8, are in for a pleasant
musical surprise: they'll be able to handpick from a selection of
millions of songs and stream them for free as long as they put up with
an audio ad every 15 minutes.
The new feature, called Xbox Music, is not on offer anywhere else at the moment.
Sweden's Spotify, for
instance, allows track selection and playback on personal computers for
free - with the occasional audio ad - but doesn't allow you to pick
exactly the song you want on tablets unless you pay $10 a month for its
premium subscription.
Although this is a step
forward for the music industry, its appeal is limited by the expense of
most mobile data plans. Most cost more the more data you use, which can
make streaming music on cellular networks fairly expensive.
The free version of Xbox
Music won't let you download songs and save them for offline playback.
That will require paying $10 a month.
The paid subscription is
also required if you want to use Xbox Music on the Xbox 360 game console
or on smartphones that use Windows Phone. On the game console, an Xbox
Live Gold membership, which costs $60 a year, is also required.
On PCs running Windows 8, Xbox Music will basically match Spotify's offer of free track selection and playback.
In a demonstration on
Friday, Xbox Music General Manager Jerry Johnson showed how one's
playlists are saved online and can be accessed when switching between
the service on the Xbox 360 game console, a Windows Phone and a Windows 8
tablet.
Each iteration looked
similar and had a clean interface with sharply detailed cover art. Xbox
Music will be the default music player on all new Windows 8 devices,
which will be available upon the launch of the new operating system on
Oct. 26.
Current users of the Xbox -
about 66 million worldwide - will gradually be introduced to the
service with a 30-day free trial starting Tuesday.
Courtesy: XBox Music
