Xbox Music: Microsoft Kickstarts New Service to Compete with Amazon and Apple

Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s Cloud Service have been two most popular online music streaming services available across the world. Microsoft has been working on providing an alternative music service to compete with Amazon and Apple for some time now. Microsoft has a vision of making Xbox not just a gaming console, but an entertainment hub for homes. There are currently 67 million homes which use Xbox. 

Finally it has come true. The company sources confirmed that their music service will first come for their Xbox gaming consoles. The music service is expected to come to Xbox devices from tomorrow. Microsoft new Xbox music service will replace Zune, their digital media brand which failed to compete with Apple iTunes. 

Microsoft has also confirmed that this service would be soon made available in Windows based laptops and tablets. This would include the Surface tablet which will go on for sales on October 26 along with the launch of Windows 8 OS. There are also plans to make this music service available in smartphones too in the near future. 

Microsoft will be offering ad funded free music streaming service to Xbox users. There would be a premium version too which is free of any ads, but users need to shelve out 9.99$ (approx Rs 510) for subscribing to that. Xbox music library claims to have more than 30 million downloadable songs as compared to around 25 million in iTunes. In addition to that Microsoft music service will also have around 70,000 videos which can be played on Xbox only as of now. Xbox music service would be made available in around 22 countries.