Microsoft keeps promise, updates Xbox Music for Windows Phone

By Sam Sabri
last updated

Microsoft is keeping their promise of bi-weekly updates for Xbox Music on Windows Phone. The app was last updated two weeks ago and is now again picking up an update. That last update saw stability fixes, completed Cortana integration, UI polish and more. Let’s head into the Windows Phone Store and see what’s new with this version of Xbox Music.

You’ll find Xbox Music now sitting at version 2.5.3884.0. Today’s update lists the following as new:

  • General performance improvements
  • Bug Fixes
  • Background initial sync of local and cloud content
  • Slider to scrub now playing track

Those two bullet points were listed in the last update two weeks ago. We obtained a detailed changelog from the new Xbox Music UserVoice page. We’re still hunting for the real changelog for this update. Do let us know if you find it.

In the meantime, we’ve poked around the app briefly and have found one thing that was different. After updating we were greeted with a new page that said ‘Completing the update’. Other than we’re going to need some help spotting what’s new and improved. That's probably the initial background sync of local and cloud content Microsoft wanted in the last update. 

Update: Thanks to you all we're finding out new features in this update. Not only does it seem faster (haha), but a slide to scrub the track has been added. You can see it below. 

Update 2: And Microsoft has finally provided the full changelog on the UserVoice site. Here's what they detail in this release of Xbox Music:

  • Audio scrubbing is now supported! Slide the track progress indicator in the Now Playing screen to advance to the spot you like.
  • Smoother FFW and REW animations.
  • UI fixes to improve visibility of content.
  • Bug fixed where songs are incorrectly removed from playlists.
  • Fixes for unexpected app exits.

You can download Xbox Music from the Windows Phone Store. 

Thanks for the tip everyone!

QR: Xbox Music

Sam Sabri
Sam Sabri
557 Comments
  • Needs swipe
  • Yes, I used to use that to skip through tracks whilst driving without taking my eyes off the road. Trying to hit any of the buttons whilst driving is near impossible.
  • Not to boast, but I do it all the time.
  • swipe to change is necessary.  i ride a bike.  dont have time to look for a tiny button.
  • yes. even if the phone is locked too. just press the unlock button, then swipe the area of the album cover to skip or go back on the music. that way i can do it while im sleeping (trying to sleep-closed eyes).
  • Yes. Thank you. Hitting those tiny arrows while driving is a hazard. Please bring back swipe. I have no idea why we keep going backwards on this app.
  • +920 This is an essential function that needs to be returned, especially for driving, but like to use it all times.
  • If you go to Xbox Uservoice, Swipe is the second-highest voted suggestion and it is labeled as "Planned," today. :) So, it will come. I was up on the "scrub" slide-seek for skipping around on my music, that's all. (Top #1 most voted on, so far)
  • Guys got this from xboxmusic: http://xboxmusic.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/360852-xbox-music-... Some things to look forward to in future releases:
    ◾Continued focus on stability and performance improvements.
    ◾Initial sync of local and cloud content happens in the background.
    ◾Usability improvements in Now Playing screen.
    ◾Support for greater than 100 songs in Now Playing queue.
    ◾Faster loading of long lists.
    ◾Swipe gesture to advance songs on Now Playing screen.
    ◾Transparent Tile support.
    ◾Live Tile support.
    ◾Design and layout changes to get you to your content faster.
    ◾Kid’s Corner support.
    ◾General UX improvements. We will regularly update the status of popular requests on UserVoice. Thanks again for your feedback! Expect our next release in two weeks! Thanks, The Xbox Music Team
  • This was there once on wpc too.
  • yeah, this was tweeted today by joe belfiore
  • What's with artist artworks DL?
  • I miss that too, this app sucks so much ass... they need to scrap it, cuz the old one plays, fast-forwards, and rewinds tracks better, had recently played, didn't crash, loaded every artist, album, and song, and had a live tile... this not better in any way shape or form... well creating playlist, but the what's the point when u dont even want to use it...
  • +1520
  • THE PLAYLIST. Even creating a playlist and using it is buggy. After creating a playlist for some odd reason it duplicates all of the tracks over and over and over. An 18 track playlist turned into a 144 track playlist. Super weird, hope this fixes that.
  • Your own duplicates?? My own deletes the songs in the playlists!! Seriously I'm contemplating on going back to Itunes if this doesn't get fixed asap.
  • Yeah, for Christ's sake mine does BOTH. Sometimes the playlist self-duplicated, sometimes the playlist is partially or completely wiped. What are they even doing?...
  • Same here. Microsoft make the most used operating system yet they can't make a dam music player. Incompetence!
  • Same for me. This sucks!!! My playlist are almost completely wiped. Loosing all this time creating list for my 50 GB collection to find out that this buggy app erased playlists songs everytime.
  • Why are you complaining here? There's a user site for that.. Not saying not to state your feelings,but if you want Microsoft to know what is desired.. Tell them,they gave you a way to reach out.
  • It's a comments section to comment on an article, why not voice our opinion here? And why assume that this topic hasn't already been added to their uservoice site.
  • Hmmm.. I stated "not saying not to voice your opinion" perhaps I should have been more clear. As in "not saying not to voice your opinion wherever you'd like,but in addition to this comment section,you might also want to try the user voice site if you haven't already done so. Would that long ass run on sentence have been better for you? Besides I was replying to James. I'm not necessarily assuming that he hasn't done anything on the voice site. Just asking a question,and making a suggestion. If he already has,then perhaps he can say so if he wants to even entertain my comment. No harm,no foul.
  • Your initial comment contradicts itself. Lol there are definitely more considerate ways to make a suggestion.
  • I've used the site, never stopped...
  • Good going man..
  • Yes, why are people giving their opinions on windows phone features on a windows phone site?! THE INSANITY!!!
    Sure, there is the uservoice site, but building outrage is the best way to affect change.
  • Perhaps it is.. Just as long as you're being heard by the right people. *shrugs*
  • Mine duplicates every playlist every time I sync with my laptop, I have 10 copies of some playlists. It's absolute madness.
  • Is it bad that; in the midst of all this - I would've stuck beside Xbox Music if they didn't kill the live tile? I have not yet seen a sexier live tile on Windows Phone than what XBMusic used to have.
  • It was the best live tile hands down...not sure why that hasn't been fixed yet.
  • My beautiful music Live Tiles turn into dumb Android icon :(
    Hope Microsoft fix the bug and bring more Live Tiles features.
  • THE BEST! Now it sucks.
  • Bear in mind this is not even out in any consumer device. Us developers :P should appreciate that point... :D
  • i know, I love how everybody seems to forget that we are using the developers preview....AKA "Beta"
  • this app sucks, no forgetting about beta, no need to reiterate preview status, still sucks... o and look, they had a great one to start with... but still sucks... better now after this update tho
  • It is next week in the 630...
  • I had the same thought yesterday, but realized that they STILL released the app without the beta tag. If this app was released without any of our voices or opinions the general public would have been shafted when 8.1 becomes widely available.
  • Why dont you use the old hub? There's an app to access it.
  • I do, just for playback, doesn't have all the old features
  • I got it to fast forward and I normally never need to do that. It rewinds and plays too.  Are you using some thrid party utillity to do all that or in the app itself?  Note: This damn thing sound GREAT with my Purity Headphones.  Oli Silk sounds awesome.
  • ??? it just used to do I better, lags when u play and pause, the skip takes way to long at times, and and when u down the skip button to rewind and fast forward, it used to go second by second then speed up as u held it down longer, now it just flies thru
  • Everything you said is so so true. This new version sucks
  • At least it isn't that horrid beats music
  • Joe Belfiori knows that we want swipe to change track. In his reddit session he answered that 'swipe to change track' is on the list for coming updates.
  • Come back in two weeks.
  • Just received an email in my Hotmail account saying that is was high enough on the user voice list to be an upcoming feature(again).
  • Purchasing a song is a freaking ordeal as well. 10 free downloads a month and it's a birch to tag and buy the damn song. You can easily download all damn day though.
  • Really. Not me. Pathetic, even for a dev preview.
  • what is slide to scrub? I thought that was it.
  • +1
  • Yup it does, I don't that WP8.1 is in preview form. There's no excuse as to why this app sucks. I mean come on its a separate app and has been out for a while. MS is pretty slow for being the largest software company.
  • Don't like it? Then dont use software before the official release date.
  • ^^This
  • 630 coming out next week. Stop defending crappy software. Next week music app won't be totally fixed!!!!
  • For a while? I thought it's only been a month.
  • Also needs full size album art & artist picture behind it. Also on lock screen.
  • About fucking time!
  • If you guys want swipe back, go to the store and search "music hub". There's an app that acts as a shortcut to the WP 8.0 music app which in my opinion is still better than the current music app for 8.1
  • Guys how would it be if they allowed swiping up or down to change tracks ? Does the job, looks cool and unique, and they wont have to make a new now playing screen for that,
  • it will be coming in the next update probably. they sent this mail.... "Thanks for the feedback! We are planning on bringing back the swipe gesture to advance songs in an upcoming release!"
  • I hope they'd let us swipe up and down. That would be great to show to google play music fans..
  • Yup
  • I couldn't even update it - error 80070127
  • Awesome, hope this improves things!
  • Seems faster. :P
  • It not only seems faster, it is faster... It resumes much faster (without the horrid black screen) and it loads all your music during the "Completing the Update" phase... No longer do we have to constantly wait for all our music to load...
    EDIT: The Downloads page is also redesigned with smaller images to enable you to see more of the list and not have to scroll for miles...
  • Indeed, I'm very happy, and that's why I made that comment, because it's legit faster, but people on this site are sick of the stale joke. Finally done see the horrid "Loading..." just when I'm casually scrolling through my music. Also love how it resumes almost instantly, like any proper app should.
  • Not only is it faster but it just feels more stable all round as well, I currently have it updating my collection at the moment though. It does need a UI overhaul to give it more of a WP8.1 look.
  • I'd prefer a ZuneHD faithful looking music player
  • Zune rules!
  • Take a look at the Games and Video Hubs and you'll see what I mean, the UI of Music sticks out like a sore thumb!!!!
  • I agree. The old app's grey theme looked beautiful. This is a very minimalistic metro app. I'd expect this from a beginning developer, not the major tech giant that made the entire OS.
  • thats the thing though.. they made an entire OS, just because microsoft is huge, doesnt mean the WP dev team is huge, more than likely they stopped working on the app after the preview was released on WP8.0 and focused all efforts on WP8.1 it self, and now that 8.1 is out of the way, they are working on it again, it looks like a beginner app, because it is, its basically an app that was brought to a working phase with a basic cocnept, in time I think it will be beautiful, i prefer the pivot setup much more, and as for the xbox app, I hope they overhaul that too... it looks pretty ugly (that grey background honestly doesn't look good to me.. especially it being a gradient, as that generally fights the whole modern ui language)
  • I had suggested that 'completing the update' phase to cache the library. Seems they had it in mind.. Anyway nice to see they finally got some sense,
  • It did not. I still get a whole lot of 'loading...." going on.
  • Only when I'm rapidly scrolling... Even then, it's only a fraction of a second now.
  • Yeah, but it doesn't make it feel like a polished or professional product. The old app was very snappy and did things the second you clicked it.
  • I'm well aware, but improvement is improvement.
  • Nope.black screen black screen black screen. What are you guys on? It still sucks. Maybe that's because I use cloud collection?
  • I'm using Xbox Music Pass too. The music I've downloaded to my phone works fine, but music being streamed is slow to respond. Very annoying.
  • If i were you id do a hard reset, something must be messed up because most people don't get black screens.
  • Search seach search
  • Off topic, does Xbox video app automatically close itself while opening, anyone? Lumia 620,WP 8.1,India.
  • Yup. Impossible for me to open.
  • Jup, it always crashes when playing local content :)
  • I would hate that if it was crashing. Lucky it isn't I guess.  So just playing a loaded song and it drops?
  • +620
  • Nope not with my NL620. Running Lumia Black with Windows Phone 8.1
  • Note a slider to scrub the now playing track.
  • Yes that is waaaaayy over due..
  • What you talking about way over due, you could scrub the track before by holding down the |<< or >>| buttons.
  • Yes and that was the biggest bullshit ever! Sorry but with that I can finally like this app. This is the way to jump to a precise position right away.
  • No, that's not good enough, and is super unintuitive... We need modern scrubbing not hold then release scrubbing.. That's why it's grew that MS finally, after almost 4 years, added this feature.. That's what he's talking about❕❕❕
  • I agree Rodney Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • It is not hold and release.
  • How was it not hold and release?
  • Thanks
  • Agreed
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrubbing_(audio)
  • This!
  • Finally!
  • Awwwwwew yeaaaa
  • Yeah, I thought scrubbing was new.. It took almost 4 years!! Good addition, but the app still is terrible... Hopefully the next update will bring it closer to the last experience,,,,, that wasn't that great either...
  • At this point, I'll be excited if it doesn't give me a black screen 2 out of 3 times that I start it.
  • Haha yea....
  • I hope you're not using a transparent tile created from another app. I used "Transparent tiles" app to make the tile and that created a black screen everytime I opened it.
  • Already installed, its a great improvement!! Shuffle now shuffules infinitly!!! WOOHOO and they have added scrubbing throuhg the track... no swipe to change track yet though
  • WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Finally.  How they manged to screw up nextTrack = playlist[floor(random(0, playlist.size()))]; I will never understand. 
  • Because they don't want the same track to play before all tracks have played, something I appreciate.
  • Well, it should have been easy anyway, something like:
    *shuffle begins*
    alreadyPlayed=[]
    while True:
    index=floor(random(0,playlist.size()))
    if index in alreadyPlayed:
    continue
    newTrack=playlist[index]
    alreadyPlayed+=[index]
    break
    Or they could have created a list with all the numbers from 0 to the playlist size, do a random choice for the new song from the index list, then remove the current index from the list, that'd be better.
    And then clear the index list when the user exits from the shuffle mode, something like that :)
    (This code is in Python, of course WP8 apps run in C#, this was just the idea)
  • Not as simple as that. First, they have to map out a randomised playlist up front, one that never repeats a track like a simple random number would do. This is so you can seek forward and backward within the randomised playlist. And then if you have repeat enabled, it has to regularly add randomised tracks to the end of the playlist ensuring that none of the new ones appear in the last n songs, where n = t ÷ 2 (or thereabouts) and t is the total number of source tracks available.
  • Ok fair enough.  :D   15 lines of code.  But just taking the current playlist and randomizing it into a new list would be 100x better than the status quo.  From there I would be pretty patient with tolerating dynamic playlist expansion and contraction.   
  • What was it doing previously?
  • Seems faster!!!
  • When the official music app is bad to the point where you can't even listen to your music when you're on the go, the least MS can do is keep their promise... Hope this version makes it better.
  • It made if slightly better... Still not there yet... Maybe after 10 more updates.
  • When the official music app is part of a preview update...
  • Will stick to the older WP8 version for a while. Good to see them working on it. :D
  • Scrubbing and it does seem slightly faster. It would be nice if it didn't have that splash screen every time I opened it but whatever. Keep bringing on the updates, this app really needs it!!
  • Agreed, apps don't need splash screens, it's not even a third party dev requirement. If your app needs a splash screen, then you need to seriously look at refactoring your startup code.
  • That's an RT thing that seems to have come across as part of the API merge as even the Calendar app has a splash screen.
  • Nope, it's not. I have a few WPRT apps (one of them released) and you don't need a splash screen.
  • Is there any option to jump between seconds in xbox music? Lets say if I want to listen from a specific second and not to play it all over again?
  • you can pull the slider to move to a specific point in the track
  • yup, i saw it now after the update. thanks.
  • I hope the black screen of death is gone
  • Nope still around:(
  • Lmao. It really is a black screen of death
  • Tried to play an artist three times now and it doesn't even start....this app is crap.
  • Lol. Right? And would you look at the ridiculous header still sitting there taking up 20 inches of space? Talk to me again in about 20 updates the way this is going.
  • The header's fine. It's a landing page. I hate it when things are up high on a screen where it's hard to reach.
  • Not a landing page really, its got the player UI right there. Rather than looking at "Xbox m" taking up 20% of the screen, I'd like bigger album art maybe. There are any number of possibilities that would be better than "fine" (or, in my book, better than "lame.")
  • Tap the name to see albums by the artist. Tap the arrow to play the first album by the artist. Not crap
  • Nice to see an update on a Friday!
  • "After having reneged on the overall promise of Windows Phone, Microsoft keeps their promise of regularly delivering small updates to the hugely important feature it recently completely ruined."
  • Haha so true. Goes a log way to explain their miniscule market share despite a product that should, in theory, be awesome.
  • Well I can't quite get on board with that... The market share never took off and 7.5 & 8 were excellent releases that everyone in the community can go on and on easily about. Reviewers were never impressed tho, and usually managed to find things to complain about that they overlooked on other platforms, or else found fault for missing features that were actually there already (hi, Molly Wood.) This release is pretty much universally acclaimed by reviewers for... well, adding a notification center. It really shows you that reviewers don't use the phone for more than five minutes. That's why they didn't appreciate the grace of WP before, and why they haven't complained yet that Music is completely unusable. Although you can ask Cortana to play you a playlist, which is a good option because really who wants to touch this app? Windows Phone 8.1 ultimately brings WP closer to being the same as other platforms, and ironically though that takes away from what makes it so enjoyable to use, it might actually increase its popularity.
  • +620
    +HD7
    +Zune Have to say the notification center was highly needed and much appreciated though. But otherwise you nailed it, the grace that it used to have is missing.
  • It's like taking the grace of a galloping horse and putting it on a donkey, because every one needed to show that they have a fancy donkey!
  • This comment is so accurate, it's sad. It reminded me of all the messaging they did around the ethos of windows phone and how they focused their efforts in the beginning. I found this quote from the 2010 launch release: “We had this list of things we knew we wanted – e-mail, a browser, games, a MUSIC PLAYER,” says Myerson. The team knew that they wanted the phone to be versatile and deliver exactly what the customer wanted out of a phone. But its greatest asset is something less tangible than a single feature or access to a program. “Using this phone is truly a DELIGHTFUL experience,” says Myerson." Now it would be silly to say that WP hasn't come a long in features since launch; it truly has. But how far has the core smartphone activity of music gone back with Xbox music, and now with this pitiful excuse of a music app? Does it deliver what loyal users, average users; non-Xbox subscribers or Xbox subscribers want? Is it versatile? Is it delightful? And before anyone dismisses this as a beta, I'll counter that app's problems go beyond bugs to a deeper problem of the people responsible for this app losing sight of providing a high-quality, thoughtful, delightful experience to the user. They really mucked up one of the most important every day experiences.
  • Exactly. UserVoice suggestion: "Make delightful." Status: "under review"
  • Delightful, beautiful and unique this and the Photo app. They both have lost this! But, hoping they come back with the original awesomeness?
  • You can now fast forward or rewind through a song by dragging a little dot back and forth which is cool.
  • Scrubbing and it doesn't lag when I scroll through songs means I can use it as a music player again. Is there a Transparent Live Tile Yet? I'm not getting rid of the transparency tile until that happens. I really want that. Both transparent and live like in wp8
  • The transparency tiles app has a transparent tile for xbox music. You should check that out when you can.
  • All I know its that this app will never be fast and responsive as the music hub on windowsphone 8.
  • You got all the coming updates on your phone already? Mind you, WP81 is even still a DP..
  • I know that, but even in final release of 8.1 it will not be fast as music hub, especially for 512mb ram devices.
  • Nope. But Id put up with slower if they'd even have bothered to try to make the app graceful and well-designed. Then we could say, ok, good foundation, now they can iterate on performance. But this?
  • you know, all you guys ar ejudging an app that is barely out of preview state and just entered beta state, all in all, yea, this app has a great base, its lacking features that the original had yes, but its catching up pretty damn fast, and whats more, it will get updated more, the whole reason the old player was abandoned was because it was baked into the OS, which required full OS updates to make any chnages to it, so they built a new one from scratch that would be independent from the OS. you are using a pre release verison of WP8.1, and while the OS itself is considered "finished" that doesnt mean all the apps are, wait until WP8.1 officially releases before you judge anything in based off of bugs/incompleteness.
  • Well I understand your argument. My disagreement is that unfortunately I do that think there is a great base. It is not the bugs, nor the lack of features, that are so annoying to me. It is the sub-par base design. Perhaps this will be sorted out in the update process but it would be a very unusual process to do so. Moreover, the design choices are sometimes so bad as to.leave one scratching one's head. Sometimes, they violate Windows Phone's own published best-practices guides for developers. The high bar they always set for these things leads to worry, disappointment, and annoyance when confronted with this. Do I hope that will be corrected? Yes. My expectation instead is that performance will get fixed, requested features will get added, but in that process things will continue to feel and look tacked-on... kinda like Android.
  • I dont see that at all, I see a raw base template, one thats very clean, ready to be expanded on, a very flexible one, I think they can easily make that template work very well, my only real issues with it at the moment design wise are A) showing a download button next to every song thats being streamed.. very ugly and unecesary and B) showing songs that you have on your computer but not on your phone even thought you cant play them, then proceeding to tell you they cant be played (rather they not be in there at all if they cant be played!) maybe im biased because of my love for the old ZuneHD, but I think this apps beginnings look to be following it more closely, which is a plus for me.
  • As i tough, for at least 1 or 2 monts, Xbox Music Updates will be only lame bug fixes and other minimal things. And even after that, we are not sure they do a great job with the app. I hop they separate all the local stuff with the Xbox Music subscription, because I don't have a pass and I will never buy it. I don't want reminders of new artist in the homepage, just wasting data, or locked features that are only available for those who have a music pass (like smart dj, why they even put that thing as an option if it will be locked?).
  • YES!!!!!! All I want is a LOCAL music player that gets its album art and track information from the endless amounts of time I spent configuring it for every other device I've ever owned.
  • That's cool. I want a beautiful player that surfaces my local music, my subscribed music, and also includes new artist discovery and a music experience. There is no, zero, nada reason why all of those things can't be in the player. It just requires good design. Which is now realllllly lacking.
  • And I still can't get it because of the 80070127 error :( pls help
  • Still didn't fix the bug where Cortana will not find any of your streaming music. When I use the "Play [artist name]" voice command, She always says I have to turn on Music Streaming when it's already on :(
  • I will feel like my phone is broken until they fix this.  Why don't they at least change the message to say "I'm sorry, I'm not smart enough to find cloud music in your collection yet."  Since not many people mention this problem I'm wondering if some people are able to play their cloud collection from Cortana.  I've been waiting for this feature since WP7, and now that it's here, it is broken.
  • I've read that this is supposed to work with your streaming music collection. I read a thread on reddit somewhere that stated that this is actually a WP8.1 install bug and if you wipe your phone and start over, it will actually work with streaming music. But I haven't been able to confirm that otherwise. And I haven't tried it.
  • Hmm.  I have a spare Lumia 521 that I haven't upgraded yet that I was keeping around to compare WP8.1 with WP8.  But now I'm tempted to upgrade it so I can try this out.  I don't want to wipe my Lumia 1020 or else I'll lose my saved game on Spartan Assult (WP is the only platform I haven't finished it on).  If I update the Lumia 521 I'll report back my findings.  Until then, it would be nice if one person could speak up if they have streaming music working from Cortana.
  • It actually works on my Lumia 521 after upgrading!  No need to reset after upgrading.  Rediculously, Cortana will even play streaming music even when streaming music is turned off in the Music app!!!  I'm wondering if the difference between my Lumia 1020 and my 521 is that I had previously installed the Xbox Music beta app on the Lumia 1020 before upgrading to 8.1.  Hey Microsoft!  Your code to check whether streaming music is turned on is broken!  Please do us a favor and search for "when streaming music is turned off in the Music app" in the resource strings.  Then right-click on the string constant and choose "Find All References".  It should take you to the code that is incorrectly determining if streaming music is turned on.  It should be an easy fix!
  • They fixed it!  They fixed it!  Version 2.5.3965.0, released yesterday has resolved this issue on my Lumia 1020!
  • Y they still updated with just general fixes. They were going to give us new features with bugs fixes.
  • The scrubbing is a new feature.
  • gotta fix the bugs before you start adding a lot of new stuff. and the bugs are numerous in this thing.
  • But still it loads for music takes time finding music
  • loading the artist list on each open is still stupidly slow.
  • No lag at all for me. Swipe from side to side and it is there.
  • Seems music-ee-er
  • Saw what you did there lol
  • Does it still crash when you try to select multiple songs? this is really annoying
  • They wanted our reviews and most of ppl have requested Microsoft to bring back the Zune.
  • Zune was their best music player. It hardly had any big bugs it was fast and was extremely organized compared to the current Xbox music piece of crap. Plus it had its own software with probably the most beautiful UI ever. And it was very easy to sync your music collection WITH album artwork.
  • 100%
  • Speak on it brutha, not only that, the color of the app, the color beats used on thier app.
  • ZuneHD was by far the most beautiful mp3 playing experience  ever had, the only thing i would of preferred to be changes was a dedicated volume button and play/pause button! the ui was amazing, and id love to see a mpore refined verison of it on WP8.x
  • True dat 1000%
  • Performance upgrade
  • I will not be opening the 8.1 app again until it becomes decent like the old one. Maybe this update will fix the app to actually load when starting... Tip: If you don't let the 8.1 app to sync your cloud collection (that's if your cloud collection is a mess like mine -music junkie here w/ 80Gb's of music)...the old music app becomes WAY more functional for just localized music. -or you could just use Nokia Mix Radio...
  • I just opened it just to see if it got better UI proformance. Still crap. Back to the old music hub.
  • This doesn't help me.
  • Fixed my issue of not being able to delete several "phantom" playlists.  The "infinite shuffle" as someone else has stated is not fixed for me, it is still only shuffling A's-B's.  Seems faster thankfully. 
  • Anyone else notice that it is a "Universal app"? Does that actually mean anything on a free app that requires a MS account anyways?
  • Dan did a good job explaining that whole universal Windows app thing recently. Check it out: http://www.wpcentral.com/what-is-a-universal-windows-app
  • Thanks Sam, I did read that article. My point was more along the lines of is there really any point? I love that with Universal Apps you can buy once, share IAPs..... With Xbox Music there is no benefit to the end user so I guess it is now a Universal App to make things easier on MS's devs.
  • It's just a nice indicator that it's the same app built for all Windows devices. It's important because when WP and WinRT eventually merge, we know our apps are still there. The weird thing though is that the Windows 8.1 Xbox Music app has more features than this crappy one for WP.
  • Thats probably because not all of the code base is shared between the apps. I think I have read it is somewhere around 80% is shared.
  • Anyone else hearing popping noises when using the scrubber without headphones in?
  • I get popping noises between each track, its quite upsetting.
  • Yea, the absurd, amateur, incompetence that it takes to not only release it with the popping noises between each and every track but to allow it to stay this long. . . smh. . . Just incredible, makes me wonder if they they have ever used it. .
  • Mind blowing. It is so bad, it just cannot be said enough.
  • This is a known issue due to firmware, which will be updated before any official release. jeez, you guys are jumpy.
  • Well okay, like I said earlier in the thread, I'm fine with bugs. Bugs are great. I want more popping sounds in fact, if they would just redesign the app from the ground up otherwise. Lol.
  • Yea, it's been crap since it replaced Zune, sure it was Beta then, now its regressed to ALPHA we should cut them some slack... It's always some excuse but its now going on years since Zune and at some point you would expect your mobile media consumption device to actually play media without ruining the experience.
  • I get that with all kinds of stuff on my 521, noticed it mostly with videos. Im pretty sure its a driver issue.
  • Yeah getting that annoying voice while  using scrubber as well as on press and hold rewind / forward button. Sometimes pressing hold rewind goes crazy and keep rewinding across the tracks forever (in which case, I found closing and opening app is the only way out to get the tracks playing again)! TBH, TubePro is better than XBM in audio experience ATM; except it pauses audio for a second when you lock screen.. XB Music's image was destroyed as soon as it arrived. Hope Microsoft is not doing hard to add insult to the injury, but working aggressively on the damm fixes. Collective feedback from users: "Replicate Zune experience and don't invent anything new in XBM unless it is 'in addition' to what we had in Zune and not replacing the existing functionality." ^^This is what we want^^ Please don't complicate it and hence screw it!! TIA.
  • I'm glad someone said this. I was very close to hard reset to try and fix. It drives me crazy! It seems they were trying to get the songs to play closer together but forgot to clear the buffer completely. Ugh!
  • Much faster, and it has the slider for scrubbing! Love it so far!
  • Not available in Czech republic, Europe yet
  • I know, why the heck is this limited to only select markets?  If this is going to be the default music player app then it should be out for everyonw who has 8.1, not locked to specific markets.  This is what makes me angry right now, not only is the app bad but since I'm on the 8.1 preview I CAN'T EVEN UPDATE THE DAMN THING!  I keep getting the message in the store saying it's not available for me.   WTF Guys?
  • Available only in USA, change your region in settings
  • Yet. The same was the case in the Netherlands. It's available now. Just got the update on my Lumia.
  • Same to Greece. I think ms doesn't give a s...t outside US.
  • Cant download. In India. I know changing the region in my phone should work but this a basic feature of the phone ... a music player ... why do i have to change the region to get an update on something the Microsoft screwed up ???
  • Sweet, any albums that I added through windows media player that had various artists won't show up unless I rename them, it wasn't a problem in 8, I hope the final version sorts it out
  • The various artist albums show fine in Nokia Mix Radio. I have albums that only differ with the date in the title but album art shows the date. Now album art is gone and it's nearly impossible to discern what album is what because there isn't enough characters displayed per title to know April is different than May.
  • Hopefully one of these updates will give us a decent sync experience:
    http://xboxmusic.uservoice.com/forums/209733-xbox-music-suggestion-box/s...
  • They've yet to update the Music and Video apps for countries where Xbox Music and Video isn't available...
  • Yeah, what's going on with this?  Why not upgrade for everyone on 8.1 and only limit it to places where they offer Xbox Music Pass?  If this is the default player for 8.1 EVERYONE NEEDS TO GET IT!
  • Sometimes it takes a little time. It was in the Netherlands. Try again. Probably you'll be able to get the update now.
  • You can have mine! Every time I open the app I'm pretty sure a baby is killed.
  • Needs WiFi to update. Must be a huge update
  • Just 11MB and yes you can download without WiFi.
  • They should remove the splash screen tbh, is this 2010?
  • I wish they'd remove that ridiculously large and unecessary 'xbox music' header. I find the UI of the Music app so offputting, and when they've reduced the size of all the other headers across the system (like People, even Xbox Video) it'd make sense to fix this one too.  
  • We need a UserVoice suggestion for: Fire the people who designed this UI. Although it was more likely Microsoft design-by-committee awfulness. What about the ugly, unneeded download buttons next to every cloud track in a long list? Really?!?! You can just put that button on the taskbar when a track is checked? Someone, somewhere on the team has got to have eyes enough to look at this and say, damn, oops, we made something UGLY. But, all the new apps are ugly so, its got to be a deeply-ingrained problem.
  • +1520. I heard this is on the pipeline as well, realigning with Blue UI or whatever.
  • It is more responsive but still a long way to go. Look forward to a full accounting of what has been updated. I note my album art still major screwed up on my Beatles albums.
  • Slightly better but still crap, sorry. What is Microsoft thinking? They want WP to strive but we don't even have a decent music player
  • You realize this is all in beta, right?
  • Oh Yea, Only Been in BETA since Zune, cut them some slack already, geez, smh. . .
  • If you genuinely think there was something wrong with Zune, then maybe you ought to take your own advice.
  • I think you missed my point as well as my sarcasm, Zune was awesome and was replaced by this crap that's been in perpetual BETA ever since.. Really more like it was in BETA, and now regressed to ALPHA, HaHa
  • Well, you do realize that the original Xbox Music + Videos hub was the same exact thing as Zune Music + Videos hub just with different branding..  
  • Look, I don't know you and don't want to be rude but I don't know how to respond because imo that may be one of the most clueless things I have ever heard someone say. How long have you been with Windows Phone? Did you ever even use Zune? I have a Zune, I used Zune on several phones. I was mortified and pissed the first time I used the crappy Xbox music/video hub that screwed up my library and wouldn't play my videos and I had to apologize to several friends who I talked into getting L920's and even they who had only seen Zune on my HTC T-ll would know better than to claim ' they were exactly the same'. There is/was no comparison in design or function with Xbox music being severely limited and only usable with the music pass subscription. It sucked on the PC and the phone, it continued to suck, and now may even suck more. I have lost hope that it will ever compare to Zune which was imho fantastic on the PC and the phone so no, I'm sorry, it was not the same thing with different branding. . . smh
  • What really pisses me off is in that reddit with Joe no one brought this up. It painfully embarrassing what MS has done here.
  • I know, there should be heads rolling and a whole new team, and they shouldn't be allowed to use an iPhone or iTunes so they have to live with what they make. I can't even believe Joe listens to music or maybe he has an iPhone on the sly. Now don't get me wrong, I can't stand the convoluted iTunes but when MS tells you to use it to sync your podcasts you know that is what they were doing and whoever said it should have been fired too.
  • Joe WAS head of the Zune team too!!!! Why o why did MS abandon Zune?!?
  • If this is true wow, what a fuck up. He should be fired.
  • They brought up Xbox Music. You missed it completely.
    http://m.wpcentral.com/joe-belfiore-ama
  • Beta software generally has a design idea thought out and starting to be executed in a direction, and performance and bugs to work out. This app cannot go from ugly, mis-designed to decent in the process of fixing bugs. It needs a whole new layout! That's not a beta-bug.
  • The app seems to be a lot of better now, don't "update library" things anymore.
  • Region locked.
    Way to go Microsoft.
    So rest of the world gets a shit music app and USA gets the best. :')
  • Huh? I got the update and I'm in Canada.
  • Updated just fine in Brazil
  • Even here in the Philippine islands.
  • This is not the best of anything, don't worry.
  • No love for El Salvador... from anyone :(
    Posted via the WPC App for MSDOS!
  • Not available in India
  • Not available in Singapore
  • Got it in india.
  • Live type added ? Transparent background?
  • dont expect a transparent tile for anytihng with the xbox branding, and no, live tile isnt added yet
  • Slider bar!
  • It's a little faster but music should not have to load and its is still missing some features but I'm glad they're bringing back swipe at least
  • Ughhhh and still no recently played? C'mon guys.
  • Does any one else have an issue with the song library? For example when I play a random song, it only plays a portion of my library instead of the whole thing. For example I play a song and it only goes from A to D then goes back to A again rather then Z. Apologies for repetitiveness just wanted to voice my problem.
  • I have an issue every once in a while where it will only play a "sample" of a song..like 15 seconds and skip to the next..not sure if its related
  • Thanks for replying, but nope not related, music play isn't an issue it's just the songs. I can't play my whole music library it only plays roughly 25% of it then goes straight back to the first song.
  • It's because you can only have 100 songs on the now playing list. So it takes the first 100 songs (or the first 100 after the song you select) and then "shuffles" them. It's terrible.
  • There is a "recently found music" link on the store screen now that takes you to the Bing Music search results through cortana. But there is also a glitch on scrubbing like video scrubbing where there is a popping sound..what the hell is the deal with that?
  • firmware issue, will be fixed when the headset manufacturers make it happen.
  • Thanks...thought that might be the case....will wait "patiently" :)
  • How about a music player that shows up all songs on sd card / internal storage, when you download it.. WITHOUT XBOX THINGY.. Couldnt care less about that in my country.. and it takes a long time to load.. BTW I JUST GOT A NEW OFFICIAL UPDATE ON my Ativ S :) lol downloading now whatever it is just saying :D
  • No longer called xbox music on the app list just 'music'
  • Since forever on 8.1DP.
  • Is there still the broken record sound when a song is over?
  • ugh i hate this.
  • The last update made a lot of my music in the cloud incompatible. Stuff bought from Xbox too.
  • Un montón de niños quejumbrosos por aquí.
  • How about a music player that shows up all songs on sd card / internal storage, when you download it.. WITHOUT XBOX THINGY.. Couldnt care less about that in my country.. and it takes a long time to load.. BTW I JUST GOT A NEW OFFICIAL UPDATE ON my Ativ S (still at 0%, but it says its downloading, I have 8.1 already installed) :) lol downloading now whatever it is just saying :D edit: it works faster now, commented too fast :) but still, Oem Media Player would be useful as on Android.. but okay :)
  • Disable cloud streaming. Then delete all your music and re-add it. That fixed it for me.
  • Ah I see, I will try thx :)
  • Works okay but need more simple single click to all music :D
  • Hey, since you WPCentral guys know people at MS, how about telling them to stop region locking this damn thing?  I can't even upgrade and I'm on the 8.1 preview because I'm in a country that doesn't get Xbox Music Pass support?  This is suppose to be the default music player in 8.1 isn't it?  THEN THEY SHOULD UPDATE IT FOR EVERYONE WITH 8.1!
  • lol, I love how everyone is just assuming microsoft isnt pushing the update to certain areas for the lulz. yea, they know its regionlocked, their not doing it because why the hell not, theres some sort of reason for it.
  • I'm in a country without Xbox Music Pass, and got the update.
  • Windows phone 8.1 have most important feature they removed was direct upload of photos to one drive instead of share on one drive through app... It takes lots of time... To upload..
  • I noticed on the User Voice they've acknowledged that the 100 song playlist cap is an 'issue' that they intend to work on fixing. That makes me happier than anything else. =)
  • I hope they don't limit it to 1000 songs like on windows 8 though. It ought to be unlimited like before.
  • Awesome, you can forward a song easily now
  • Couple more updates and it'll be back to how the old hub was if not better. Sit tight folks.
  • Available only in USA, change your region in settings. I live in Poland, just for a while changing region, downloading update, then going back
  • Can someone tell me how I find music that I just added to the phone.  Besides the search button which requires I search for each item individually.  I go through a lot of music each day, downloading listening and then discarding.  With this new 8.1 redesign, I can't find that recently added content very efficiently.  Not that I can find anyway.  Any ideas?
  • Under Get Music down at the bottom is recently found music. Maybe this is what you're looking for?
  • In accordance with Microsoft's "to hell with every country that's not USA" policy, the update is unavailable in countries where there's no Xbox Live.
  • My country has no XBox Live, yet I received this update. A little patience, my friend.
  • Swipe between tracks coming soon....."Planned"???  Keeping the fingers crossed!! (since, after all, I can't use them to swipe yet anyway!!) http://xboxmusic.uservoice.com/forums/209733-xbox-music-suggestion-box/s...
  • "Planned" sounds commitment-ish. ("Under Review" means roughly what "we'll see" means when a parent says it to a child.)
  • Check for music update sucks sometimes....
  • Do I need WP8.1 for this? Because my version is 1.5. Any help please?
  • If you're not on 8.1 your fine. You actually already have a better working app.
  • Stick with the old hub as long as you can. The Xbox music app in 8.1 is good awful.
  • But I really want it.. it can't be that bad.
  • Oh it can.
  • When will they bring back a proper live tile for Xbox Music app. Plus full lock screen graphics when music is playing? Where is swipe to change tracks? And last but not least, why does the app continue to play music from online when I've set it to only play local files?
  • "This app is not available for your device" Lumia 925 WP 8.1 DP. What is wrong with it? I had to change region from Greece to US to get the last update. Do I have to do it all the time? Did Microsoft announce anything about Xbox Music app being available in certain regions only at this time?
  • live tile again , anyone ??? cant stand that green tile lol ...
  • +920
  • Its still got issues for me with some songs not being found, or displaying the wrong tag info on certain songs. This isn't an issue when using the old music hub using the 'music hub tile' ap. Thank god they left the old hub hidden. At least the update makes it a bit faster. UK here by the way and the update is available, not US only.
  • Seems scrubbier
  • it's definitely faster than the previous version, but until it's AT LEAST as fast as the old hub i'll be using the Music Hub Tile app. And for the love of god make it stop changing my album images!
  • Interesting Find   Seems like the App will download the Artist background image and use it within the App but will not display it on the Lockscreen Although! If you already used MPATools to add in the Artist background. It'll still retain that one and download a new one for the app.
  • Sucks to be changing region everytime you want to install this update. I don't see any harm in Microsoft making this app available globally although there isn't Xbox music everywhere, since this is the only core music app in windows phone 8.1. Is it such a difficult decision to make Microsoft???
  • The complete chagelog in my experience: 1. Scrub playback position. 2. Initial sync of collection doesn't happen everytime I open the apps. Seems random to me. Maybe a scheduled task. 3. FF/REW now work as they did earlier (ie. continuos moving instead of jumps). 4. Pinning playlists to start (not sure if it's new) 5. A LOT FASTER. Not a joke.
  • Hmmm there is still an issue with a partial nano second snippet of the song playing at the end of each song (sounds like a nano second of white noise). This also happens on the old hub using 'music hub tile' though, so maybe its a problem with 8.1 in general.
  • Yup - hitting that in third-party music apps too, so it's likely a problem in the music-playing APIs, not any particular app, & will probably need an OS update to fix.
  • its an incompatiibility with the old 8.0 drivers, nokia cyan or your phone's driver update for 8.1 will fix it
  • Good thing they fix the playlist cloud problem. I'm not in the US (I'm from the Philippines) so I cannot access the music.xbox.com service and delete it on there. Though the no album art still persists in this update.
  • Duplicate track bug STILL exists after syncing my cloud collection to the phone locally.  This is ridiculous. Cancelled my XBOX music membership and switched to Spotify. Given the lack of effort I have serious doubts that XBOX music will survive.  They are probably going to cut the cord soon IMHO.
  • Update also brings much needed SEEK feature cool :-)
  • Waiting for recent tracks played....
  • Microsoft had an amazing team with Zune. They scrapped that team and gave the music development to some team over in France. Been downhill since. A shame because I loved Zune. All my friends knew I had the best music experience. Now im afraid when someone requests a song for fear ill get that dreaded black screen of death smh
  • Huh. You think the French would have good taste in design, but maybe this is app is a joke and we don't get their sense of humor. Like Jerry Lewis.
  • So will the update bring a live tile experience like windows 8?????
  • What about open app and 1 click to all music like in "Play Music" ? :D
  • I'm not sure why the hate but I love mostly everything about Xbox music... I'm glad they finally added the slider.. that was my biggest complaint. Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • I just don't understand why it constantly says looking for music on the top and the app is constantly doing something, it seems, in the background. what is it looking for. I went into the settings and turned off show streaming music. I just want to launch the app and listen to my music that's saved locally. I feel like this app over complicates that simple task
  • Agreed. It's actually unsettling. I'm not a designer, but I know I've heard mobile UX folks talk about the little things they do to improve the perception of an app/os's performance, like having an animation at startup instead of a loading screen. This app seems to do the complete opposite by being so transparent about a process it's not even supposed to be doing (continuously loading, mostly local content, to no avail). It's like waving a big red flag signaling how crappy of an experience this is.
  • You could not have been more accurate if you tried. My thoughts exactly
  • How can I added background artist?
  • Here's my review of the app.....
    .....................................
    **Update 5/9/14**
    EVERY MS APP SHOULD BE A 5 STAR APP❗
    MICROSOFT SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THIS MUSIC EXPERIENCE, AND SERIOUSLY WORK HARD TO FIX IT❕ At least MS kept their promise to update the app every two weeks, and this is the second update since they made WP8.1 available, but MS still has a lot of work to do.. As a matter of fact the Music experience is so bad on WP8.1 that at this rate it might take 10-15 more serious updates to the app to make it a enjoyable experience.....
    And that's what it's supposed to be all about.. A enjoyable experience,, not just usable.. That's what I'm asking, and expecting, of MS, and that's what you should be asking, and expecting to...
    We're serious supporters of WP8.1, and it has already proven to be awesome, but Xbox Music on WP8.1 is seriously holding it back...
    Please MS give what the terrific WP8.1 OS deserves.. Give us something OUTSTANDING❗
    ........I will change my review, and rating, when necessary, and I hope one day I can change it for the better.. But, right now,,,,, I wish I could give it zero stars... Sorry. If this app looked like the current OS XBM app, with the same size font, and clear resolution, and had the same layout as the original WP app, then I would've given it 4 stars... I do not want to have to digress to this app for WP8.1...
  • You tell em!!
  • Lol.
  • +1020.
    Also Podcasts and Photos.
  • Yep!
  • So what exactly should be changed then? I just see a lot of complaining but very little of it actually states why it is bad or what needs to change.
  • Lol.. The best answer I can give you is... We've stated for over a year what's wrong with XBM.. Some issues were already present to the native version, and the new app just adds to the situation.. We're past the point of telling MS what's wrong.. We know that they already know everything that pisses us off about XBM, and that's old news.. We're at the point now where we are asking for a fix, a faster fix, and much more problem addressing updates.. They only thing we can do now is to keep complaining.. There's no reason to tell MS what they haven't fixed yet because they know.. They know.. But, as long as we keep saying "and", "and", "and" they will keep XBM top priority.. And, we do think that MS NOW considers XBM top priority.... But, we're still going to keep pushing.. It's kinda like Instagram.. MS knew that we wanted Instagram, but if we didn't complain as much as we did WP might still be lacking it to this day.. Who knows..
    .........................
    But, if you really want to know what's wrong with XBM go to the XBM user voice page, or read the forums on this very site... BTW, I realize that you do most likely know what's wrong with it, and I understand your point... I understand what you're trying to say... That's just not where we're at anymore...
  • I genuinly do not know what "issues" people have. I have a music pass and over 5k songs in my collection. It works well and streams bluetooth exceptionally better than all other apps out there. The only complaint I have is that discovering new music is no where near as good as Spotify. I've been to UserVoice countless times and most of the things there are small feature suggestions. So tell me, what are all these major issues that will take 10-15 major updates to fix?
  • You're right about one thing.. It shouldn't take 10 updates to make the app a great experience.. But, that's the problem.. At this rate it will.. If you think that the experience is fine then it would be dumb for me to argue about your opinion... Just realize that as far as WP fans, WPC staff, and most tech reviewers go you are in the minority with that opinion.....
    ..................................
    http://www.wpcentral.com/xbox-music-awful-windows-phone-81-update-near
    .....
    http://xboxmusic.uservoice.com/forums/209733-xbox-music-suggestion-box
  • I still fail to see why you can't give me a list of issues you are encountering that make it so bad and that require 10 updates.  You should also realize that not everyone uses apps in the same way. I use mine in my car. I can stream and control my phone's music without every touching my phone. I can say "Put on my top playlist" and it plays it. I can say "shuffle my music" and it does it. I can seek up / down, change the volume and see music information through my car's radio. Yes there are some features that would be nice to have in the user voice, but many aren't necessarily big things. And even when I use my phone and have music playing, I shut down the music app and have it run in background. Many of the suggestions are small things like "swipe to change track", especially when you have a button below that does it. So again, I'd love to hear about all these huge issues that make Xbox music unplayable and so far behind all those other apps. So far behind that the app is doomed and no hope for it.
  • The answer is no.. No I won't waist my time telling specifically you what's wrong with XBM.. That's old news, and a waist of my time.. Like I said.. Research for yourself, or ask someone else who's willing to entertain you......
    .................................
    Whoever said that it was unplayable, doomed, and there was no hope for it?... You're beginning to sound.... Nevermind.... You new here?
  • You have to understand that a lot of the people on here complaining are either Previous Zune users or WP7 users and the experience is way different. I personally have gotten accustomed or am trying to at least. Some of my quarrels with them at the moment are Duplicates, Sub vs Own Music sorting, and cloud Locker for my music not matched by the cloud.  With duplicates, whether I sync my Music or Download it from the cloud, I'll have several songs showing on my collection. And I mean like two or three copies, even though I've only downoaded it once. So, for now I'm scared to download anything to my phone because of it and have everything on streaming. I also want to be able to differentiate my MP3 collection vs my XM PASS collection. This way, when it comes time to get my 10 songs, I can see if I own the song or not, instead of trying to guess. This is available with the Zune software and it needs to be implemented in XM, especially on the PC. Now last but not least, there is 14% of music that I own that is not matched by the cloud, I'd like to be able to acces this music from my phone, XBOX ONE, etc. Also, like Netflix with their Movies and TV shows there's stuff that comes and goes. So, today I may have something on my playlist but tomorrow it would poof and be gone. If I own songs in those playlists I should be able to continue to listen to them.
  • That's a good point.. And what you said actually establishes a good baseline for the argument that the Music experience on WP has digressed... It's all about your expectations, and if your previous experience,, Zune on WP, was better, then you're going to be frustrated by XBM until it at least is up to par with its predecessor.... Yep, you're exactly right.. We're WP fans from the beginning, and we expect more, ask for more, and we're a big part of why WP8.1 is great today... That we're proud of, and we're not going to stop... So, to those who don't understand our passion for the platform,,,, sorry.
  • I was one of the odd ones who had a Zune device. But I also had WP7 device.  In fact I went through 3 WP devices and now on a Nokia 1020.  So I definitely know the line of MS music apps and software. I've even had subscriptions to rdio and Spotify.  Spotify was my favorite, but it could not work well at all on the phone, which is how I ended back on Xbox Music even if music discovery is limited. I have noticed issues with playlists back in WP8, though I have got to say that 90% of my issues have been resolved since upgrading to 8.1. Some of the biggest issues I have today are with the fact that I can only play 100 songs from a playlist while on shuffle, something I really cannot understand. I am trying to understand the greater issue you are having, because it sounds like it would be plausible but hasn't happened to me. I have been able to successfully filter out music I sync onto my phone that I own. Sometimes it is music I create and other times it is music I got through various means. I use the filter for showing music on my device and can play those only. I must say though, the current method to sync is piss poor and does require a USB connection. At least when synced that way though, I can get all my music on my phone.
  • Every issue that's stated in forums, and on Uservoice, are the issues that I'm talking about.. Some issues bother me, some don't, but enough bother me, and most users to where we think the app needs serious work.. This has always been the case.. You go look at those issue, add them up, and understand that the experience can be worlds better for a lot of users....
    ..............
    Of course, if you think XBM is fine then you can ignore complaints about it, go on using it as normal, and go on with your life.. Either way chose an option... Sorry I can't, and don't care to, help you any further.
  • +925
  • I don't use the app I use Mix Radio. But I downloaded it and tried it. Can someone explain to me why, when it lists all my music, not just on that on my phone why I can only play the tunes on my phone. Everything else it says not available, despite being in my collection.
  • When you go to playlists, albums, artists, etc. Click where it says "all music" and select "on my phone", that way it will only play music on your phone and no streaming music.  You need to make sure that the music is synced and on your phone though.
  • No such option here. Do you need one of these music passes to see certain options? I'm fucked if I'm paying £8.99 a month to listen to my own music. I've switched off the streaming music option to limit it to stuff on my phone but the whole app is clunky. Every swipe updates something. I'll stick with Mix Radio.
  • Thats a pretty good question. I have music pass so I wouldn't know. It does play the songs on my device that I downloaded and synced through my computer when I select "on my phone".
  • Do you guys love deadmau5 I always see him on all the pictures that have to do with the music app haha I'm a huge fan of his
  • Yeah, that's because of their relationship with Nokia..
  • Background image is back!
  • Seriously?
  • Lol!.. That's always been there, right?
  • Silly ole me. Thanks for the correction.
  • I love the comments moooree than the news
  • Lmao. Yea
  • ZuneHD UI. That's what is needed. Its easy. It makes sense. No need to look at the device while driving. All this patching and fixing is just reinventing the wheel. Grrr
  • Anyone got new software update on their phones ? It said I got it now - already on 8.1, but it stays at 0% :) ? edit: downloaded and ready to install
  • Just seems like Microsoft is breaking some major UI/UX rules. Adding a sliding object on a panorama? This causes gesture competition. The WP team would never let this fly usually...
  • Nope they have blown away all their rules and guidelines on this release. Here's a fun one: Go to Cortana and hit the hamburger button(vomit), go into a setting and make a change. Back out. Your change isn't made. Go back. Oh! You uncheck a box and then you ... have to hit Save? Windows Phone developer guidelines say settings controls should take effect as they are changed and never require a save button. Which is why its that way throughout the OS, except in Cortana. For some reason. These kinds of things pervade all the new features and apps.
  • All the new Windows Phone universal app templates are soo bad too. Especially the hub control compared to a panorama.. The tilt effect in Cortana is pretty bad too. Here's a great comparison: http://hmcafee.com/some-things-i-noticed-in-windows-phone-8-1/ I don't blame the team for a bit of a rush job since 8.1 was such a big update. I hope they fix all these design inconsistencies in Update 1 for 8.1....
  • Great post man. Glad to see someone doing those direct comparisons and showing the details. I keep seeing so many of these things in 8.1. I only hope that the team have any idea that these are real problems...
  • Thanks! Just to be clear I didn't write the post ;) @h_mcafee on twitter did :) If you want to talk about design and stuff you could always talk to me on twitter @TheInterframe. Glad to see someone else be vocal about these issues besides a select few people. Again I don't blame the WP team, 8.1 was huge...i just wish these issues are fixed....
  • Seems faster
  • To everyone who is utterly and completely devastated over this app, lets remember for a second that we are all beta testers. 8.1 has not been released to the public yet. Until it does these features and more will probably be added. I still hate the splash screen and the clicking noises between tracks though. Lets just wait for it to be complete and then we can vent all we want.
  • Yea. Splash screen needs to die asap.
  • So, you're saying that XBM is going to be greatly improved for WP8.1 in 10 days from now❔
    ..............................
    I'm not trying to disagree, or be negative just to argue, but lets look at the reality of the situation.. Your point about XBM being acceptable for final release is a good one because we really don't want first time WP users to have any kind of negative view of the platform... So, with MS once again keeping it's promise to update the app bi weekly,, in 10 days from now the third update to XBM would have arrived and it will be a massive one. This is possible, and I'm not saying that it's not going to happen, but is it likely? I'm not going to say that it is, or isn't, going to happen, but let's just remember the fact that the experience isn't at all good right now, and we have about 10 days before WP8.1 is officially released to the public...... Looking at it like that it kinda looks like the public are going to be doing some beta testing themselves... Lol❗❗❗
    ........................
    Oh, and this is slightly off subject, but that annoying clicking, which can actually sound kinda cool at times:-o,, Isn't specific to just the stand alone app.. If you use the native app, that's still in the OS, it clicks away just as much... I'm not sure but I think this is a OS level bug... IDK.
  • I haven't used the old music hub lately but when using other music apps this doesn't happen. Now... Given MS track record I'd say that you might just be right. I think that they will release a massive update just before the update rolls out so that the XBM becomes usable again and then improve it over time making their "vision" for the app slowly a reality. I do think they are giving themselves some leeway here. Yeah 8.1 sure is released in ten days but it's going to roll out slowly over the course of many l months depending on the carriers' whims and tastes. So I think by the time everyone has it on their phones the XBM app will be alright. That's not a very comforting thought but imo it's a realistic one.
  • Yeah.. That sounds about right.. It'll eventually get there.
  • Thing is that this should happen quicker. The app should be ready when the update is shipped not after eg one month. I wonder what version of the app will be on the new hardware... Let's say 630. If the app is not up to par it could prove a disaster.
  • That was my concern weeks ago.. IDK. But, they wouldn't be wasting their time updating the current app if it wasn't the one they plan to use.. I wouldn't think so.
    ..................
    Another tho g is that Joe specifically said that the new XBM app that we're using now is very powerful,, underneath, in what its capable of doing.. He said that it was based on the new framework that they are using to unify the experience with Xbox, and W8. He made it sound like what we can't see yet is awesome, the underline code.. Another thing I noticed yesterday is that this is a universal app, as listed in the store.. So, this app is essentially what's running on W8.1, and eventually XboxOne.. That gives me great hope that it will most definitely be updated to be awesome.. That said, with time it will probably blow away any current music experience, on any platform... This year WP will be a force to recon with, already surpassing what iOS can do, and becoming a serious rival to Android... So, I guess we should be more patient because right now MS is showing and proving.
  • Wait.. I mean the phones already shipped and about to be sold on day one... What version are they going to run?
  • I don't give a shit what's the most popular features, what they need to add is sorta by WHAT I OWN AND XBOX MUSIC PASS SONGS. Ability to buy multiple tracks or whole playlists, and how about a FUCKING SCREENSAVER? EVEN WINDOWS 95 HAS THAT....
  • Can any one pls tell me? Is Xbox music working in India... Because in my phone its not working properly... Is this app name music or Xbox music????
  • XBOX music is US only Posted via the WPC App for Android!
  • I love that you get as angry as I do. Lol.
  • Sorting: You can do this, you can choose between "all music", "music on my phone" or "streaming music (music pass)".  As for screensaver, you can also set your lock screen to display the music that is playing.  Both of these features have been here since before Xbox music had its own app on WP8.
  • Streaming is music pass and cloud music which is purchased music in the cloud as well, im talking about albums i download to listen to to see if i wanna buy. Also showing the artist pic as a lockscreen is not a SS!! get it? Please stop making excuses to justify this horrible app. kthx Listen, im gonna take yourost as trying to be helpful but its obvious you never used Zune software so dont know what your missing.
  • No "music on my phone" is the music you purchased or have downloaded / imported on your phone.
  • No your wrong, when I choose streaming ita all the music I have bought/downloaded that's in the cloud. Your wrong. Cloud music is purchased and pass songs.
  • I'd like this feature as well, especially on the PC version. Did you make a User Voice thingy? I went to look and all I could find was one guy with one vote. Inonly had one vote to give, so I gave it to him. http://xboxmusic.uservoice.com/forums/209733-xbox-music-suggestion-box/suggestions/5768585-xbox-music-sorting-by-what-i-own-subscribe-too  
  • That's me Ty!
  • Much better but it still needs swipe to change music, a real live tile and some performance improvements when scrolling down the music list inside a playing album (it still drags). Hope they introduce these features soon but at least it's looking like they're working on it. THX for that Microsoft :-)
  • Finally!!! Scrubbing!
  • I will check it when they update it... But until it is usable that is all i will do. I want something that will just play my collection on my phone, not stream it, not keeping looking for it. Just let me play my music, have the album art correct it shouldn't be that hard for one of the largest software manufacturers in the world to make this happen
  • Ok its slowly getting better. At least all my stuff shows up properly now after downloading new stuff...
  • Still trash. It needs a dedicated now playing screen. Swipe to next,previous track. Replaced my album art. Background image does not match
  • Hmmm, second update.. I didn't get even the first one.. Darn it.
  • These app is useless why have two app music and Xbox music terrible either Microsoft need to fuse the two app cause these app Xbox music only if u have a pass, what happen to those 10 hours free of streaming music, that's why I keep using Pandora. Very lame from microsoft
  • 2 apps? You mean also the hidden one? There really is only one Music app.
  • Right the new one and the old one we wish they would just bring back and add to.
  • Did you know that "Achy Break Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus... IS ONE OF THE TOP 10 JAZZ TRACKS!!!!! How is that for a bug!
  • It's one of the top ten jizz tracks for sure.
  • Hmmm.. Seems faster
  • Still a polished turd, barely any faster. Why I'm hell can't I open my on the phone collection and have everything available instantly? My iPhone 3Gs managed it, my Lumia 800 managed it, and my Lumia 920 used to manage it under 8.0 with the music hub. Until I don't have to wait for music to appear every damn time I go to my collection, and edit time I skip to a letter, this app will keep the one star rating I have given it.
  • Last 2 updates will not finish loading for me, says needs attention, anyone else have this issue?
  • Same here
  • There is no way to update it in Poland, though 
  • SLIDER !!! FINALLY ! Most Wanted feature.. 
  • Where's the new releases? Fuck top artist show new releases
  • No swipe, no live tile, still slow as ****. The app was a mess. No the app and the whole process that they are proceeding with is a mess.
  • Does anyone's "Show artist when playing music" thing for the lockscreen work? Mine doesn't and it's been bothering me since I got my phone.
  • I'm tired of hearing "vote on the stuff you want back". I shouldn't have to vote to get ANYTHING BACK. If I'm asking for stuff back, it means you're taking steps backwards, you ass clowns. Its alarming how backward this company is developing stuff. Apple builds stuff and then adds to it and fixes issues. What does Microsoft do? Gives you crap. Works on it till it is something you just might start to like. Then they scrap it and start over, giving you crap again. Then it starts the process all over. How about you actually stick with something for once???
  • Right! I was so angry about that! Like, we are supposed to do your job for you? This is not a, give us your neat new ideas situation. You do not have to be any kind of genius to see how awful a state Music is in. Don't condescend to me, just take responsibility for the failure of whoever was in charge of the vision, and then fix it.
  • Still the old app is miles ahead of this update. I know that wp 8.1 is not "consumer ready" yet, but it's a music app, how difficult can it be to get it right???
  • You can do things in the app you can't do in 8.0. This is better.
  • It takes so long to load with a large music collection that it's almost not worth the effort. This is worse.
  • The first time you open it takes a while, the update today made loading faster after the first open.
  • Had the update and its not faster after using many times during the day. Also the transitions are choppy and its not like the previous version standard anymore. And I am still getting loading music, which is odd as I only have Xbox Music Pass only on my phone.
  • *fortnightly
  • Assuming this is for WP 8.1 since there's no update showing for me?
  • Yes. 8.1.
  • MS doesnt care, how in the hell do you fire all the Zune people and then release this garbage app? Your a MFING software company and you look stupid releasing an app like this not to mention telling all your your loyal Zuners FU by basically forcing us to use tjis p on your phone. Ive got an idea, just go android already , you have had 2 years to get this fixed and its still the featureless piece of garbage you started with...im speaking as an angry Zuner who upgraded to everything windows 8 , have 3 w8 phones and 2 tablets.....and the only thing i want os a quality music app, its all i care about. Thanks for nothing.   Oh and BTW, i love wpcentral but MS did not leep thier promise the app recoeved no features and still is pos.
  • Still can't use it without Swipe to switch tracks...
  • Still trash.
  • How about scrping xbox music, taking Nokia Music and rebranding it xbox music...or buying beats for 4billion and rebranded thier music app, its only obvious you are incable of making a good music app you only no how to FUCK A MUSIC APP UP, #RIPZUNE
  • Seems faster.
  • I want to see New music and albums, not just top songs and albums. We used to have this.
  • can't believe most of you guys are writing the same things at each update...
  • Still getting random black screen issue. Sigh....
  • It looks like we might have to start a KickStater project to get Rudy Huyn to create a stand alone Music + Video app. Somthing us old school zune users got accustomed to. Dedicated play screen. Swipe to play next previous, Artist lockscreen, now playing background etc.
  • 6zune.
  • Mus6
  • Yea Man, Rudy may be the only way out of this mess, LOL
  • Will it work with xbox music cloud stuff though? Not sure if the API allows that?
  • It's as if you people don't want the incremental updates or realize that you're using preview bits. Go to uservoice and vote on your feature requests, then enjoy the changes as they roll in.
  • I am so sick of hearing this.  Do you actually pay a monthly fee for Xbox Music?  If you don't, then you really have no standing to tell those of us who do (and have for years)  to "get over it" or say "they're working on it."  They've been working on this crap for two years since 8.0 was realeased.
  • I've paid since owning the original Zune 30. I actually don't care what you're sick of hearing. I'm sick of reading the SAME rants and whining over and over. You're only punishing people who can't change anything. You don't want to be directed to where Microsoft actually reads feedback? That doesn't really make much sense unless you enjoy complaining for complaining sake.
  • Gee, what "feature" should I vote for? Maybe "not to suck"? Features are irrelevant when basic function is so bad.
  • Right. Again, they do not need people to vote them their way to a half-decent app. Right now, they are far from a point of being even on-par with other players, much less better. And they were way closer before! They (used to?) have talented designers and people with vision on their team. People who should be able to execute a great Music app. My vote would be: Find those people and get them back.
  • Music app paralysed.. Was so better and smooth in wp8.
  • This app sucks
  • Needs swipe to change track and needs to load songs faster!
  • Live tile?
  • Just forget it ms, this isnt an update nor is it a promised kept.
  • It's strangely demoralizing isn't it?
  • +1020
  • I assume these updates only apply if your region is set to US? I'm stuck at v2.5.2842.0
  • the big problem remains the bad performance of the app. I hope this isn't one of those winjs universal apps because if this is what we're looking to in terms of performance, then I'm all for going back to the silverlight engine instead.
  • It is. And it doesn't matter. It will get optimized until its smooth. In the end all winjs apps will profit. It's one of the sweetest html UI frameworks I've seen out there in terms of responsiveness and usability/accessibility.
  • Still crap
  • I miss Zune :(
  • I just reinstalled the software on my win 8.1.  Still works great....but the music app (win 8.1) found all 2500+ songs MUCH faster.
  • The incorrect album art garbage is still enough to NOT have me load over 4,000+ tracks to my Lumia 1520. I, much like a lot of you, have spent a lot of time making sure my music is tagged how I like to catalog my music, and have spent a lot of time making sure the album art is correct and the image is what I want it to be. The fact that I have no control over this on WP8.1 Music right now is total horsesh*t. I'll continue to use my Samsung Focus w/ 32GB Micro SD card in it as my mp3 player until this issue, and many others, are resolved.
  • Changelog listed here - http://xboxmusic.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/360852-xbox-music-...
  • Good find!
  • Thre shouldnt be any green wallpaper or that headphones image. Its a music app not a game. Lags a lot.
  • Why not give option to sync online or not? why everytime i open this thing has to check or sync online
  • Finally slider I was completely pissed that none of the players available in store had a slider to move the tracks
  • Slider seems smaller.. when swiping.. It just sometime go to other screen
    ..
  • Anyone else's phone speakers make an audible pop when skipping, or sliding any playback (video or audio)? 920. Does it even when all sounds muted. Strange
  • Yup and ms better remove that feature quick. That is very annoying
  • Yeah I notice that too
  • Still very laggy
  • So sad, just went to the xbox music suggestion site and some of the features there asking for are weak. In fact why do we have to tell you how to make a music app? No wonder your continually losing marketshare to google...if they had a decent music app i would switch over all 3 of my phones and my tablets.
     
  • Winamp ...its on android
  • Because the app is NOT finished. User voice is full of everything no matter what features were on the roadmap already anyway.
  • Update not available in India? It's showing me unavailable for my region. :/
  • I have 12,000 mp3s on a 64gb sdcard. It is faster now but there is still lag compared to my ipod touch. So it is more usable but I don't feel comfortable dumping my iPod yet.
  • I didn't get "Completing Update" page after update, is it a fault?
  • Barring apparent update, not much change in performance really, needs 2-3 goes from start screen to load music app (basic black screen) same menu, same layout, still no ' new releases' section, still listing singles in within ' top albums'eerrgh.........
  • Daniel must be on holidays lol haven't seen a post from him in a while
  • Under the "Get Music" section, there is a "recently found" list that shows you music that Cortana has identified by 'listening'
  • It's been there since the last update.
  • MS acts like a 3 men company. WTF a minor update !?!
  • For some damn reason it won't show half of my album artwork when Nokia Mixradio shows them all. ...and yes my artwork is properly embedded in each track lol
  • Is anyone having issues with downloading from Xbox Music on the background? I started downloading an album and leaves the app, and every time I go back into the app, the downloads say pending, they start again, I leave the app and come back and have to restart, etc... I don't remember seeing this before.
  • How the hell I can stop different artists showing up as different albums???? Please advise.
  • Use mp3tag on your PC and make sure you have album artists tagged correctly, which may be different than the song artists.
  • Just noticed that after the update a playlist I had created on the PC is now on the phone, too. Fingers crossed...
  • Can somebody tell me if MPATool will now work to add album art in this new update of Xbox Music?
  • Any idea of what we can possibly expect in the next update?
  • Not available in India???wtf :/
  • Wow, not one bug fixed for me. :(
  • Can't get the update in my Lumia 520.
  • Is this not available for indian region ppl im unable to update it
  • Well you can use Extreme Music until Xbox Music gets fixed. It's a third party app that also allows you to make playlists. Or try Listen (You can't make playlist tho)
  • Performance is still terrible as ever.
  • ahhh, finally getting update... really fed up with current version, it update all the time after launch, ang displays "Loading..." for sometime....
  • It's showing not available ... I'm from India... Pls help.. When it will available....
  • facing 80070057 error while updating the app
    living in india
    region set to us
    any help edit: problem solved after several tries!!!!!!!
  • Not available for my region? WTF!!!! :( :(,+india
  • if u want d update nw
    set d region to us nd see d magic!!!!!!!!!  
  • Still takes ages to load all my Music and to change track is a pain. I just migrated to Nokia Music because of all that
  • Music shuffling is a big fail. It only shuffles the near by songs to the currently playing song but not all the songs in the music library!!.. Fix this Microsoft!!
  • I found a new BUG with the new version. When you open the app and then you press the home button and after that you open again the Music app from the tile, you get a black screen but if you pull up the three dots (app settings) you will see that you are in the app.  By the way they must do something for the slow startup. On WP8 the Music app startup was faster!
  • WOOOHOOO SCRUBBING!
  • can't download in India... have to change the region to US
  • still got black screen after resuming
  • How can I update my music app in india
  • Not available in India
  • No update in India...y??
  • My album art continues to be wrong. So frustrating!!
  • Whatever they take away from me, I'm happy as long as those multiple files aren't here.
  • How to update this app? I click on the link and it says that the app isn't available for my device or my region.lumia 1520 wp8.1 DP in india.please help as I am still stuck with this buggy initial version of the app
  • Same here with my 520
  • Im done, MS, you will get 2 more months of my money then im just gonna use a free app in the store and medialayer to manage my music. Maybe Nokia music........And i know they dont care or give a shit either, 2 months is 8 updates......i almost forgot the title of this story, " MS keeps their promise ", thats fucking hilarious. I wish amazon would come out with an app for WP. I miss zune....
  • God, so many moaners. It's preview, its being updated every 2 weeks. Performance much better on my 1020. Relax people.
  • After every update, the number of songs i had in playlist gets trippled, and the list gets duplicated everytime Is it only me or others too are facing this?
  • Still painfully slow. It's like being back on Windows Mobile.
  • Pretty silly having to press the volume buttons, press the onscreen down arrow,  to call up the volume slider  for a music player. Frankly speaking, never see M$ rally in the multimedia market.
  • i recently added some new songs from my PC to my windows phone but in XBOX MUSIC they are not showing up anyone know about this how to solve this problem??? Nokia Mix Radio is showing that songs but XBOX MUSIC not showing recently added songs to my collection what should i do???
  • Not available in India
  • For some reason in India... The app shows as not absolute in the region.... So haven't got the update yet.... Still waiting
  • the name of the song being played is so small..it should be replaced by the big. now playing thingy
  • Was it once said podcasts were coming to this app as I don't see any facilities for them
  • Well, good news for my Lumia 520. It was the only device that didn't see my playlists, but behold it can now see 'em. Thanks fellas, keep it coming.
  • Got an update for my phone when I changed my region to US to use Cortana!! Is this the official update? I live in India. Nokia Lumia 720
  • Test
  • Test
  • Test
  • Test
  • i m facing a problem. Album art is blank but it can be seen in old win 8 music hub. It's very annoying. Please fix..  
  • Guys got this from xboxmusic: http://xboxmusic.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/360852-xbox-music-... Some things to look forward to in future releases:
    ◾Continued focus on stability and performance improvements.
    ◾Initial sync of local and cloud content happens in the background.
    ◾Usability improvements in Now Playing screen.
    ◾Support for greater than 100 songs in Now Playing queue.
    ◾Faster loading of long lists.
    ◾Swipe gesture to advance songs on Now Playing screen.
    ◾Transparent Tile support.
    ◾Live Tile support.
    ◾Design and layout changes to get you to your content faster.
    ◾Kid’s Corner support.
    ◾General UX improvements. We will regularly update the status of popular requests on UserVoice. Thanks again for your feedback! Expect our next release in two weeks! Thanks, The Xbox Music Team
  • I hope they make the "Xbox Music"-title smaller to match the other apps and show more content on the screen. :) My wishlist: - Smaller "Xbox music" title
    - Live tile (and transparent)
    - Swipe
  • Still not available for my device. :(
  • Y Is it not supported in India???
  • Getting better slowly. It's really not helpful complaining about this beta app the whole time. It needed to be rewritten and is now based on the same codebase as in Windows (html winjs). You should know that complex apps like this always need a long time until they feel responsive and polished. Do not judge until its actually released. Only and only constructive feedback makes sense.
  • Did any of you encounter having to hear a 1 sec off-beat cracking sound when switching between songs?
  • This update took way too long to open. It's throwing albums under the wrong artist for no reason. It's still not showing artist names if I scroll down too fast. Hangs up like crazy. Total mess. Microsoft... come on. Doesn't the 630 come out next week?? How is this okay??
  • It's still not showing artist pictures in the background that I already downloaded with MPAtool...
  • Still sucks. FAILS
  • Any one else notice the now playing screen vanishes sometimes when you exit the app and go back in?
  • It tells me that update isn't available for my phone.... Wtf? WP 8.1 dev preview, 620, India
  • Still no live tiles :(
  • Does anybody know why artists background doesn't display anymore.used to be such a nice feature I tried mpatool to see if I have to do it again but no luck.
  • The app is great now.
  • Microsoft could take several pages from BeatsAudio. Sure the Beats app is some what slow and clunky. But it's well designed and feature rich. I'm just doing my 7 day trial and even though I subscribe to XboxMusic ($49 1yr) I am very tempted to do the Beats monthly subscription.
    The app just looks and feels like a Premium App. Just speed up the app and it will be Supreme.
  • Hey, can anybody tell me how to play radio on 8.1 user preview? It says to login in Xbox music but I can't find any way to do it....
  • After making such a pathetic app, its the least they can do.
  • Microsoft keeps what promise?
    They destroyed a perfectly working app in 8.1, an now i am to be thankful for an 'update' that still is FAR below what i had in WP8? No sorry, no thanks no gratitude. This is bad. No wonder nobody wants Windows Phone. This is just shit and the cheapest of excuses.
  • When it is available in India...
  • Great update , keep up the good work Xbox team
  • shouldn't they make it available to regions that don't have xbox music? i mean people are using WP8.1 preview all over the world. and i can't seem to update the app by setting my region to India.
    have to change it to US to update.
    is annoying. :-/
  • What does it sync on cloud? Songs from one drive or any other service.?
  • Anyone know how to make music show artist background again like it used to mpatool doesn't seem to work either
  • I haven't received the update yet. Is this for US only?
  • They changed the way it looked!?!?! :( I liked the way it looked.. Now it looks like the old app... (curse word curse word curse word)
  • All of my music on my SD card still isn't showing up, yet when I use the bypass app it's there... Does anyone know what the deal is?
  • So, what about the regular music app? Any idea if its going to be updated?
  • I still can't play some music that the Music Backstop does play. It says: Sorry, you don't ave the rights to play this song. Please check to make sure you are an Xbox Music Subscriber, or exit the app an try again later. So annoying!!
  • Well it would be nice if I could buy music with my Microsoft credit on my account by it wasn't me to use my phone carrier..att... Dumb.. That makes my credit almost useless
  • Want the LIVE TILE back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • 2 updates and I can't really see any real improvement in this app. Glad they are keeping their word in regards to "updates" bi-weekly, but if it is an update in name only and no real improvements what good is it? How in the world does MS expect to compete with iphone (and itunes) if the phone owner is a music fan?
  • It says ' not available on your device'
    WP8.1 L625 Philippines
  • Needs swipe no doubt!
  • I still haven't got the update in India. The app link says download not available for your device. How to get this?
  • Still crap...last update lost half my songs and no matter what I do, keeps telling me I 'don't have permission to play this'. Which sucks when it's a song from a cd I actually bought. This update has not fixed the loading issue (for me, anyway, still 'looking for music' and 'loading...' All the time) or the fact that it wiped one playlist entirely and doubled the other! At least I don't get the fabled black screen of death but I've read that's a transparency tiles thing anyway.
    Scrubbing was necessary, but seeing as I can only play half of the songs I have with this piece of crap app anyway, I don't care.
  • Why the he'll im not getting the update
  • In India i am not getting any update in Lumia 520
  • Ok. How the hell do I get my 10 free songs with my Xbox music subscription? Can't find it on my phone.
  • Is the update not available for India because whenever I try to download it from the download app in the wpcentral app I get that this app is not available for you. I am running 8.1 preview on a Lumia 1020.
  • How do you turn off them overwriting your metadata for your own music. It's infuriating when you know it's right, and then this App comes along and gives you new (usually wrong) info and album covers. On top of that, it then doesn't let you edit them! We need MPATool-like functionality built into this App. It's supposed to be the personal OS is it not?  
  • Technology reverse :
    Previously music hub in wp8 does his job very well, after wp8.1, doeant support live tile, dissapearing background music, etc etc.
  • I can't download the update on my Lumia 620. It says the app isn't available on my device.
  • No Background image in 520....after update
  • The worst part is that probably when people update to 8.1 most of them won't get the updates of the app because of the lack of support for all regions. Most of users would just complaint and blame the OS and since you can't even rate the app in other regions it is harder to get aware that you have to change region just to get an update.
  • I'm confident Microsoft will have this app functioning great with a few upcoming updates. As of now it still is fairly shitty. Def miss the swipe track feature, love how they finally added the ability to scrub thru tracks! I also prefer having the play/pause and advance track buttons towards the bottom of the screen. App still wont load up everytime and its frustrating.They should increase the size of the album art and reduce the size of XBOX MUSIC font on top as well like they did in people hub.
  • New songs added to playlist keeps getting deleted even after this update. Anybody else facing this issue?
  • So, I have a few albums that were ripped from CD to .wma instead of .mp3...these are not rights-managed files.  With the new XBox music update, it refuses to play those unless I enable streaming.  Huh?    
  • I appreciate the update but I've never had a problem. I listen to music in the car every day using my phone. Just start Bluetooth Play in Ford Sync and I'm good to go. In other cars with a tape adapter just start Music and hit the suffle button. Why do people have such a difficult time with this? It works like any MP3 player ever.
  • They should have got Nokia to design it.
  • The app doesn't updated in my Lumia 520
  • The app doesn't updates on my Lumia 520
  • App update not available it says. Using Lumia 820, Windows phone 8.1 developer preview, India. Video n game hub updated.
  • Got this update today in INDIAN region..
    But there is no such improvements..
    Still bugs are not fixed...
    Still songs fails to update in the song list completely... Pls solve this problem in future update
  • In my Xbox music only music is display and there is no featured music and only black background.no live background is there any solution or any update because in 8 it is most useful.
  • In my xboxmusic only black background and no featured music.no live background in nokiamusic and only music is showing in xboxmusic and display of xboxmusic is any solution or any update.
  • I really hope they add the ability to shuffle all your songs (and have them show up in now playing) rather than 100 random songs that the app chooses. I'm really hating these limited playlists. Every new version of this app gets worse, and it's making me question my continued support of Xbox Music (I've had a pass since the days of Zune HD). I'd also like the store to have more categories (new music anyone?), top and featured just isn't good enough. Stop taking steps backwards Microsoft or people will start going over to other platforms. As it is I can spent 15 bucks a month and get 10 songs (but still be tied to a shitty app). Or I could just buy an album a month and use any app. I'm beginning to thing the latter is the better option.
  • 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.
  • My Xbox music keeps on updating and deleting some of the songs added to playlist, solution??
  • Today we should have a new update, any new?
  • Gimme gimme gimme sp3
  • I'd ❤ me a nice smooth surface 3