Microsoft reported to be prepping Xbox Music locker service

By Derek Kessler
last updated

Coming soon to Xbox Music: OneDrive Music Locker for streaming your tunes from the cloud. Right now Xbox Music lets you stream music through the Xbox Music Pass, but that's only the songs that Microsoft has. Listening to your indie punk rock baroque fusion band tracks, however, has so far necessitated storing those tracks on your Windows Phone. That will change with the addition of OneDrive Music Locker, as found in the code for OneDrive.

The spot by LiveSino indicates that the integration between OneDrive and Xbox Music will allow users to upload their own files to their personal OneDrive cloud storage space and then stream them through the Xbox Music app as if they were any other song in the service. And this is said to be compatible with any device that supports Xbox Music. Organization within OneDrive will be straight forward, with a dedicated "Music" folder to keep everything straight.

We don't yet have an estimate for when this OneDrive + Xbox Music integration might happen, but it's an interesting find nonetheless. The cloud music locker solution echoes similar services offered by Google, Apple, and Amazon, though in this case integrating with the wide world of Xbox Music.

Source: LiveSino; Via: The Verge

Derek Kessler
Derek Kessler

Derek Kessler is Special Projects Manager for Mobile Nations. He's been writing about tech since 2009, has far more phones than is considered humane, still carries a torch for Palm, and got a Tesla because it was the biggest gadget he could find. You can follow him on Twitter at @derekakessler.

170 Comments
  • Awesome! Can't wait!
  • They'll fuck it up
  • lol Have we learned nothing. Hope for best, expect the VERY worst.
  • No.. No, no....
    ...................XBM is horrible right now, but we can expect it to be awesome in the future... It will be awesome because of the foundation that the WP8.1 XBM app is built on, and MS's goal, and need, to make it awesome...
    ........................
    So, the question isn't whether it will, or will not, become awesome, rather its WHEN will it become awesome... And I have two awnswer for you that you can count on... If they continue with the bi weekly updates and add in, or fix, at least 3 major features, or bugs with each update,, we could have an awesome XBM experience by August... If they continue with adding only one new feature, or fixing one major annoyance, per update, then it could be early 2015 before XBMOWP is nice... So, there you have it....
    ..........................
    Keeping in mind that this service, which is listed in UserVoice, will be added in one of those biweekly updates...
  • LOL!
  • It's funny because it's true.
  • Haha. I cant help but laugh at this. You are probably right.
  • Truly, LOL!  What can I say.  You're probably right.
  • No they won't. Look at WP 8.1 it's not f*cked up
  • WP 8.1 is great but Xbox music is FUCKED up
  • but they keep updating the app...
    you know it's not a final official 8.1 release and they are updating it when 8.1 officially launches... you decided to install a beta, developer, non final or whatever you want to call it version?
    then, if you have a nokia, go back and wait for final release... still is like almost 1.5 months from release... so they will keep updating apps especially xbox music to be ready for that day.
    well, I must say in my phone xbox music works better than when I installed 8.1 preview so it seems they are doing it.
  • Being in beta is not an excuse to being so lame. Cortana for example works perfectly fine even though it is still in beta
  • What I don't seem to understand is how Microsoft with all their coding powers cannot make one little music app and do it right.
  • No one understands that. Someone over there should be fired.
  • They could have just ported Zune to WP 8 and rename it to Xbox music instead of forcing us to use this piece of junk
  • While I agree they should have kept Zune, the music player could not be ported and had to be build from the ground up in windows phone 8
  • Yes, they could have just done that. Apparently you know their code base forwards and backwards. I'm astounded by the number of people who don't understand the concept of UNRELEASED SOFTWARE. Nobody forced this on you and you certainly didn't pay for it. Don't like it? Wipe your phone and go back to 8.0. Problem solved.
  • Your so called ' unreleased software' has been available in the store for months now.
  • <sigh> First of all, you have to be a registered Windows Phone developer in order to get it; you can't just be ANY WP user and get the update. UNRELEASED means UNRELEASED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC shithead. Jesus, you really believe that software released to devs is the same thing as software on a store shelf? Holy fuck you are naive. Secondly, it was released TO DEVELOPERS on April 14th, which is hardly "months", at least not in the universe the rest of us sane people live in. But with all those voices in your head I can see how you might be confused.
  • Retard I'm not talking about WP 8.1, I am talking about Xbox music which has been available for WP 8 for months now. Next try to read the fucking comment before replying
  • the app for xbox music on 8.0 was ALSO a developers preview, AND they quit developeing it at that point to focuse on other things like cortana, thats why we have the bi weekly updates, now that the busy work for 8.1 is done, they can afford to allocate resources back to XBM
  • Maybe they're robots?
  • Go fuck yourself
  • LOL. Do you know what Beta is?
  • Xbox music doesn't even deserve the beta title it's more like an alpha build which wasn't even tested before being published to the store
  • In answer to your post, No.
  • The app is still BARELY usable at BEST... even after the most recent update. I'm glad they're working on offering this service but very skeptical they'll do a good job at it... I want an automatic upload from iTunes like Google Music offers - I don't want to have to think about my music being available. Google Music is such a seamless and great experience - I sincerely hope Xbox Music ever gets to half as good...
  • Yeah but its not because it's just bad, for some reason they just needed to redo it for a certain thing that was way too specific and less than what we were used to... BUT since they are adding this now perhaps it will make up for the gaping hole in our music. They don't always ruin everything, just the one thing you always happen to like. Everything else around it though comes up roses... =/
  • I don't think anyone in the WP team actually use a WP to listen to music, because Xbox Music has been in the store for months now and it's still crap. The music player in S60v3 phones is still years ahead of Xbox Music (performance wise and media management)
  • Exactly. You're gonna get people saying 'It's Beta' until they're blue in the face, but this App has been out long enough. It's so awful it's more like Alpha software.  
  • Do you have 8.1? If so, is it buggy? Are they noticeable enough to not install it? I heard buttery life sucks.
  • Well for my 521, the first couple of days, it was very buggy, now it seems alot more stable
  • Yes I do and no it's not buggy. Battery life use to suck for the first few days but know it's back to normal which pretty odd. 
  • Mmmm... Buttery....
  • Meant battery XD
  • Buttery life rocks.
  • when talking about bugs, butterfly life seems more relevant.. :P
  • Not sure about the buttery life but I get a lot of random restarts and sometimes complete lock ups. Now my phone did occasionally lock up but it was rare now it can reboot and less often lock up almost daily.
  • Hi this is Mackelmore, and you're listening to Xbox Music.
  • Now yocan use http://10tracks.com/
  • Sweet, been waiting for something like this
  • Holy crap yes! I have been waiting for this for what seems like forever. I have all my music in OneDrive already. Super excited.
  • Same, i listen to my music through OneDrive via various pcs of mine, you can launch your albums straight from xbox music app on pc if you linked OneDrive folder to it
  • Probably soon - I've had a Music folder on my OneDrive for about a week now (created by Microsoft, not by me).
  • Seriously? I haven't seen that yet. That would suggest it's very close to happening then.
  • I can confirm the same. I had previously deleted everything in my OneDrive -- so, my storage was empty save for the default folders -- and noticed that "Music" has been added as a default folder (along with Documents and Pictures). I've copied some Beatles music up there to see what happens...which is nothing (yet). Once the locker service is enabled, I'm expecting to see that music showing up across all my devices. This would be a big feature for me and *may* be enough to pull me back in from Spotify. We shall see (soon)!
  • As of now the new OneDrive Music folder is limited to 50gb.  
  • Thanks. That answered the only question I had.
  • I just saw the same folder.
  • Can confirm that. A new folder called "Musik" (german) appeared on 05/07/2014 on my OneDrive, too.
  • Dude, you're in Germany. They probably won't be able to offer it there thanks to GEMMA and their insanity.
  • I am already using XBOX Music Pass. As much GEMA sucks, Microsoft somehow managed to settle with them.
  • You don't think they're going to want even MORE money for you to be able to upload your music? Clearly they need to apply the you must be a pirate tax to all of the storage they have for German customers. Can't be more than a few hundred million euros, right?
  • Must be some sort of staggered rollout. I just checked and don't have a Music folder.
  • I got the Music folder as well, created 2014-05-08 and I run WP 8.1 (may be this is why some did get it yet)
  • I don't think so - I don't (yet) own a Windows Phone.
  • I think it will be only for Windows phones.
  • Great. I hope this will work worldwide. Unlike xbox music, which isn't available in many countries, including Czech Republic, where i live.
  • Finally.
  • YESSSSS waiting for this for a long time!
  • This is amazing news. Most of the storage on my phone is used up by music. I'd love to be able to stream new music over OneDrive. I have about 65 GB available and I have no idea what to do with it all
  • This will definitely help me out on my 925 with only 16gb storage space. :) wont need a phone with an sd slot ever again...
  • wrong, have you ever tried to stream music with no cell signal or wifi?
  • Who never has a cell signal or WiFi. Do you live underground?
  • I've been in plenty of places that don't have reliable cell or Wi-Fi signals and aren't located underground.
  • Rural areas, some health clubs, mountains. You have heard of those havent you? also large cities with spotty reception. Im not saying its not a good idea, its just not a reason to not have storage locally.
  • Do you seriously expect all countries to have cellular or wifi at all times? Not to mention the speed that it would have to be delivered...
  • Many people around the world don't always have Wi-Fi or cell signal. I myself always turn off my cell days to prevent additional charges.
  • Why have a phone?
  • Or just buy a phone with a storage card slot, e.g. Samsung ativ or Nokia 1520, insert a 128GB card and load all your tunes locally. No need to pay Microsoft to access what you already paid for.
  • How do you do playlists?
  • Are you sure they paid for that music? lol...
  • and what told you this will be a paid version?
    oh yeah nothing... you are just making crap out of nothing, nobody has said it's paid or free. (and OneDrive is free, and music apps are free too so... I guess we can assume that)
    but hey at least it's funny you say "just buy a phone with a storage card and 128 gb blabla"... I mean, look at the price differences of those phones, and the 128gb sd card... and then compare all that to what you would pay for xbox music pass or spotify or whatever other music service you use...
    oh right, but sure it makes sense... in your super intelligente brain..... but of course I would rather give my money to Samsung for a new phone, than just paying couple dollars for a music pass. yeah yeah.
  • Ever get so angry about nothing, that everything you say is unintelligible? $10 a month, btw, is not a 'couple dollars'. Calling out BS with more BS is ineffectual. For every year of paid Music Pass, you could buy another 128gb card. Also, EXCLUDING temporary promotions, what is free after 20gb? Is the original OP painting a specific picture? Sure. But you did the same damned thing.
  • Weird, didn't know the Xbox One had a storage slot.   (Obviously it has its own internal storage, but the point is that there are plenty of situations where just storing things locally isn't ideal, since for example, the Xbox will only play stuff from the cloud.)
  • I don't think they will charge for the music locker service.
  • Holy bejeepers, I hope this works.
  • OH MY GOD!!!!!! I want this!!!
  • Now THAT is what I'm talking about.  I have most of my library already on OneDrive and can listen to individual songs directly from it.  And since Xbox Music does such a horrible job of streaming from their service and the Music Match is abysmal, if I can simply stream everything directly from my OneDrive, then this will be the perfect solution.  Nearly 50% of my music library is music digitized from old albums and cassette tapes---stuff that hasn't been in print for decades.  You'll never find it in any online store, much less Microsoft's, so the only way I could listen to it was either have it on the OneDrive or on my phone.  Now there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
  • This already works in the Windows 8.1 Music app: music in your OneDrive music folder is automatically incorporated into your collection. Glad they're doing the same for Windows Phone.
  • Bad idea. I much prefer having audio local on the phone because I can listen to that anywhere. If it all has to go in the cloud I can only access it where I have WiFi access or my data allowance will be fried. Why did I just KNOW MS were going to attempt to get rid of local media files at some point? I am going to really hate the Xbox music app when they do this. I'm really hoping they won't block other apps from playing local media, but somehow I suspect it will be another 'security risk' and the shutters will come down.
  • If they do it right, you should have the option to toggle between both seamlessly. Google Play Music is the best I've seen so far managing local and cloud collections. Microsoft would be smart to copy that implementation.
  • Tin foil hat much? Where was it EVER suggested that they're going to get rid of local media files? Believe it or not, a lot of people actually LIKE the streaming from a storage locker option. Many of us have music that isn't in the Xbox Music collection that we don't necessarily want to have to load to our phones either because there is too much of it or we don't listen to it enough to make it worth putting on our phones. Or, you know, you want to listen to it from another device (PC, Xbox, or whatever). 
  • They haven't said anything about blocking local music files. It's an addition, not a replacement feature.
  • What would be great is if you had the option to download the tracks from the storage to your device. If they then created a decent app to manage the metadata in the cloud storage they might be finally on track to something comparable to the Zune experience.
  • Blasphemy, this music app and experience with Xbox music is nowhere near Zune. Cloud storage will not fix that.
  • Haha, don't get me wrong, I'm not holding out hope, but they *could* use the cloud storage to then download to the phone (or other device) rather than stream it would be equivalent(ish) to wireless sync.
  • Yes I agree, wireless sync is not needed in that way anymore. What they need to do is allow opting out of thier cloud matching of my collection and sort my music by what i own personally and by what i bought from them and what i downloaded without buying....my music collection is a huge mess because of xbox music.
  • You know that you can down load your OneDrive files to whatever device you're using right?? =/
  • Is this something new in WP8.1?
    So in Xbox Music phone app you can choose between streaming a track from OneDrive or downloading the track via OneDrive to the local music collection already?
    Do music files already automatically download to my phone storage when I add it to OneDrive elsewhere?
    This functionality isn't available in my phone as far as I'm aware. It only seems to download files locally when you specifically open them, where it loads it on demand and checks for updates. Where am I going wrong?
    Also, the article specifically states streaming from OneDrive. Streaming may be suitable to some, but for the majority local storage is the way it should be.
  • Ref: Simon Gregory,
    I agree with you.
    A sync solution with all our OneDrive connected devices would be headed in the right direction. (Adding some features similar to Zune.)
  • You're right, you can't DL on WP. You can open files from the cloud assuming you have an app for the file type, bit you can't save the file unless the app has that function. but the one drive app itself, no download abilities.
  • Yeah, I'm here. I'm sure all of you will be glad once this rolls out so I'll finally shut up and get off my cloud locker soapbox.
  • Well I'm sure we all have you to thank for this development then... =D
  • I felt like John the Baptist screaming in the wilderness for the past two years.
  • If Xbox Music has matched songs I own to theirs in the cloud, then why can't I stream them without having to BUY an Xbox Music subscription? I already OWN the sing and they know it cause they matched with my local library! Really pisses me off!
  • Indeed. And those licensing deals don't just happen. Microsoft has to pay a pretty penny to allow users the right to stream and download music without limit.
  • you can with Xbox Music Cloud Collection under music+video settings, cant you?
  • I just want to use music player that running in reasonable speed. That's all. Cloud thing is meaningless if the music appis horribly slow.
  • Hopefully I won't have to pay to access my music
  • Now already - please ??
  • I did notice an undeletable folder called music in my onedrive appear recently
  • Hey Yeah! I have this too!
  • Great to see they're expanding services/capabilities for this app, but I think they should concentrate their efforts in making it better first, kind of like a Zune 2.0. Then this could be the icing on the cake.
  • This is amazing!
  • Already have a folder called music on OneDrive
  • Please don't mess it up! :D
  • As other's have said, I've had a Music folder on OneDrive for a week or so and I didn't create it. So.......
  • Omg can not wait for this
  • Finally!! I swear this was something they said Xbox Music would have when it was first announced to be replacing Zune.
  • And here in Australia my data limit weeps. Oh wait, nevermind it probably won't be a feature here for another five years anyway.
  • What a bunch of poopsters the first few reply's. OneDrive works perfect. Xbox Music is still getting updates before official 8.1 launch.
  • About freakin time
  • My thoughts exactly! Why wasn't this in there to begin with??
  • Wait a minute, you havent even fixed your crappy music app in the 2 plus years its been out an now on top of that your gonna add cloud storage to it? Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.....   They should first fix WHAT IS BROKEN BEFORE ADDING FEATURES LIKE THIS. The only hope I have is a total redesign of the music app that will actually make me forget about the Zune client software, but ive been hoping for this for over 2 years.
  • File Managers, more and more official apps, this. They are finally making some progress.
  • My OneDrive music folder still is named SkyDrive Music.  Will watch for a name change.
  • Nice. BUT why not make the basics of the app work perfectly before adding stuff?
  • Ever heard of feature groups in a dev team? One is working on general stability while the other works on this.
  • I'm sorry, but this app needs more than bug fixes. They need to put everybody on this immediately. This app should have been fixed a month ago.
  • "This app should have been fixed YEARS ago"  , there i fixed it for you. ;)
  • THIS
  • This will be great. I had been waiting for amazon support but this will be better the way OneDrive basically gives away storage.
  • Thank You Thank You! Been asking for this for a while now. My music experience will almost be complete :)
  • Been waiting for this for a long time! I have a pretty large music collection. And while some of it is available through the XBM library, a lot of it like my Beatles collection is not. Not to mention this will be a great backup of my music so I don't have to worry so much about my music HD crashing.
  • This is fantastic! I hope it also works via the XBox Music app on Android.
  • A "Music" folder magically appeared in my OneDrive a few days ago. Maybe that's it.
  • Thank flipping god. Not to be a negative Nancy though, but this will turn sour quickly if there isn't a way to edit your music (artist, album, art, etc). Right now Xbox music has made a mess of the same library that the Zune handled perfectly. Hopefully they are smart enough to make it so you can sync your library from any device with it, so you don't have to manually move the files yo every device if you don't want to.
  • This is what im going through....i have to get out every cd ive ripped so i can figure out what music ive ripped, what music i bought from Zune/Xbox music, what music I bought from amazon and what music i downloaded from the xbox music pass.....this is the biggest issue with xbm. that and the 1997 buy one song at a time garbage.
  • wow, i sent a tip to wmpoweruser about this a couple months ago. The Xbox Music app for Windows 8.1 Update 1 already has a preloaded folder named Music in the Onedrive folder, but the folder is not available on Onedrive yet.
  • It's available in the Windows 8.1.1 App. I loaded up about 10gb of music on it and it doesnt get counted as used One Drive space so that's good news. Also you can upload folders now. No more having to zip files.
  • Hopefully it's not just streaming. We need this to sync the files locally if we want.
    Streaming music on a mobile can be expensive and unwieldy.
    We are not living in the age of homogeneous free wifi. Downloaded music local to the device is the de-facto way to listen to music on a mobile device. People should be able to listen to music while in cars, busses, underground trains, planes (where spotty or non-existent cell coverage is to be expected). People should also be able to listen to music on holiday and not have to worry about roaming charges or whether they can get a spot on the beach within WiFi range. Hopefully these people will not remain forgotten! :)
  • Don't even mention the name 'WP Sync Tool'! Haha.
  • Ref: Simon Gregory,
    YES.
  • Removed.
  • Must be soon as today I had a music folder automatically created.
  • This needs to happen ASAP!!
  • I hope this is a sync solution with the local files on all my devices, when the internet is available. Primarily my edited playlist files and newly purchased music files, all migrating to all my devices. The internet is not everywhere nor is it reasonably functional all the time. Then there is the cost. There is no reason to stream files you own. Memory size available is growing and getting cheaper all the time.
    Best Wishes, No Worries
  • Dear Microsoft: FIX THE CURRENT APP AND THEN WORRY ABOUT FANCY GIMMICKS. Thank you.
  • Me LoveThis post longtime.^^^^^^^
  • I hope this comes before my free year of 100GBs is up. I need something to do with all that cloud space besides just back up my computer files to it.
  • This is the best news ever for Xbox Music! Now I don't need Xbox Music Pass to listen to my own collection on my Xbox One or even my Windows Phone, great! Hope it comes soon!
  • If it messes up my metadata of songs on OneDrive, then not a sure win for me.
  • So now i will let Xbox music destroy my hard worked mp3 tags? I think not. It sounds lovely but Xbox Music is a failure and that's all there is. I wonder if Microsoft ever can get a music player right.
  • They did, its called ZUNE MUTHAFRIGGIN SOFTWARE.
  • The ZUNE software is still great and is connected to Xbox Music & Video services. For instance, movies purchased on my Xbox shows up for streaming on ZUNE on my SurfacePro2 and my WP8. Sadly, ZUNE doesn't connect to WP8. The Zune PC software is beautiful and amazing.
  • Every time i hear about how bad the new music app is, in windows 8, 8.1, i'm glad i still have a windows 7.5 phone, and never had any issues with music playback, tracks, etc. i also used to have a ZUNE HD, so i really don't feel like it's missing much from that.
  • Ref: negative1ne,
    Very nice. I wish WP8 would have the features of WP7 and ZUNE too instead of having to use iTunes.
  • It's legal red tape holding it back.
  • I already had a Music folder in my OneDrive so it created a Music1 folder. This is great news. I have a lot of music that is not in Xbox Music. 
  • YES! Now let's finally get some good local (okay, cloud, but you know what I mean) music management!
  • Huh cool. Updated my phones OneDrive and I can stream my large digitized vinyl mp3's. Tested with a 20mb Eno & Byrne 45 and it streamed nicely! Makes me happy
  • Good reason, to leave Spotify
  • LEAVE SPOTIFY FOR XBOX MUSIC???? THATS CRAZY TALK.
  • I feel like this is because of uservoice. It was a requested feature, of which I requested too on the site. I would love to see this succeed but that means I would need alot more space and faster uploading, downloading of songs to and from Onedrive.
  • wait... then what is xbox music cloud collection?
    I thought that it synced all your music to the cloud, then you could cache it locally when you play it. I used to use it all the time...
  • You're referring to the existing Xbox Music Pass, the successor to Zune Pass from the days of yore.
  • No, because you don't need music pass, and it lets me stream music I have on my computer but isn't available on Xbox music pass.
    I have Xbox music pass, and I used this before I got it.
  • Hmmmm I'm looking at it now and it seems like you need an xbox music pass to use Cloud Collection on certain devices, and the songs need to be in the marketplace for your country...
    I'm pretty sure that wasn't always the case... back when it was still branded under zune, I used this feature to stream a bunch of local bands to my phone which weren't in the marketplace. :/
  • I hope they adopt the Google Music model of it being track count, rather than the space taken by them.    
  • Just hope it's free for all. At the very lest, it should be included with Music Pass. Nonetheless, hope it's free for everyone. It's using our personal OneDrive storage, after all. Of course, if it is free, then the incentive of using Xbox Music Pass because my music follows me easily and everywhere would die, and I'd go back to downloading MP3s from YouTube. So we'll see, but I suspect that legal red tape and business pursuits will ensure this will only be for those on Music Pass, or worse: Cost extra.
  • Finally!!!
  • Google does this for free with the Google Music app.  Upload 12,000 songs or so, then download the CloudMuzik app for your Windows phone and you can stream your library with your phone.  I've been doing this for over a year to be honest.  I'm not going to upload my music to my OneDrive if MS is going to make me pay for storage, that's for sure.
  • Actually Google gives you 20K of songs to be uploaded free of storage, i.e., doesn't weigh in your Google Drive and it does count individually, not by file size. The crappy thing is that you have to use some crappy tool made by Google. By I think Xbox Music fits my needs perfectly, has much more sounds that I like and it's wonderfully integrated on Windows. OK, WP has its issues, but it's doing fine for me.
  • Sa-WEET!!!!!
  • Um, with the latest Music app update, my phone streams my entire music collection. I don't have a subscription to Xbox music and I don't have a "music" folder on SkyDrive. All of my music is on my laptop hard drive and it all streams through the Music App. You just have to turn it on in music app settings, then look at artist and albums and select streaming, or all music. You can look at music on phone, on sd card, streaming only, or all. Of course, I am running 8.1 on my laptop, with my music library setup on there, so it all shows up in the RT music app. I didn't do anything else, I just updated to the latest music app on my phone and on first run all my music showed up on my phone for streaming.
  • I have 12000 songs, and it is 150 gig, so no way it is caching on my OneDrive or phone. Also Google play works great at this too, you just have to use third party apps to play it.
  • will they hustle me for my pirated music?  I mean, that was one thing i feared about amazons locker.
  • I wish I could change the background with a picture of the artist on xbox music, also add album covers. In Windows Phone 8 I could do this with MPATool app, but on wp 8.1 i cant do this.
  • Lady's calm down......its only an app! Go down the park and have a play.