Xbox Music for Windows Phone 8.1 updated to change tracks by swiping album art

We’ve heard a lot of complaints from the community about the Xbox Music app since its release. And the lot of you have become even more vocal since upgrading to Windows Phone 8.1. In Windows Phone 8.1, the Music hub we’ve had since Windows Phone 7 has been dropped. You can still get it with a few tricks, but it’s really dead for all intents and purposes. Microsoft is pinning the future of audio entertainment with the Xbox Music app – now just called Music in the Windows Phone Store.

Today we’re getting our third update to Xbox Music for Windows Phone since the release of Windows Phone 8.1. Let’s jump in and find out what Microsoft fixed and added with this update.

First up, let’s go over what’s been happening with Xbox Music the past month.

When Windows Phone 8.1 came out, the Music hub was hidden and Xbox Music was made your music player. You can use apps like Music Hub tile to jump into the old music player, but it’s really time to move on. Hopefully Microsoft can update Xbox Music to live up to the expectations of the community.

The first update to Xbox Music, version 2.5.2842.0, came on Friday the 25th of April. That update finished off some Cortana integration with playlists, stability fixes and more. The second update, version 2.5.3884.0, came on May 9. This update introduced audio scrubbing, UI fixes, a background initial sync of local and clout content, and more.

Today we’re looking at version 2.5.3929.0 in the Windows Phone Store. Here’s what we get today:

  • Swipe the album art on the Now Playing screen to change tracks.
  • UI layout changes to make more room for content.
  • Minor bug fixes.

Not a bad update! Swipe the album art either up or down to go to the next or previous track. Works well and you get sort of see it in action with the screenshots above.

According to Microsoft here’s what else we have to look forward in the future:

  • Continued focus on stability and performance improvements.
  • Initial sync of local and cloud content happens in the background.
  • Support for greater than 100 songs in Now Playing queue.
  • Faster loading of long lists.
  • Transparent Tile support.
  • Live Tile support.
  • Kid’s Corner support.
  • General UX improvements.

Grab the new Xbox Music for Windows Phone update and let us know what you think!

Bonus: Xbox Video also has an update. It's now at version 2.5.3929.0, thought Microsoft didn't include a changelog beyond 'minor fixes and improvements'. That means we'll need your help seeing what's new. Sound off in the comments if you notice anything new with Xbox Video. 

Via: Xbox Music UserVoice

Thanks for the tip Robin!

QR: Xbox Music

Sam Sabri
429 Comments
  • Nice!
  • Definitely looking forward to the next update regarding loading long lists faster....the fluidity of this app with especially long playlists is terrible.
  • Think about this: If they would released this version of music player in the wp8.1 update it would have now at least 4 stars, but imo its greater to go up to 5/5 with each update starting from the bottom
  • From just messing with it for a few minutes I have noticed this app has gotten a lot better...the tweaking of the ui is much approved. If they had released this app like the way it is in the beginning it would fetch between 3-4 stars...it still missing features like the live tile and transparent background capability.
  • Well WP 8.1 is not officially released yet. So it's still possible to release this app with all its features when the OS is officially released.
  • Actually it is officially released.  The 630 can be had in various countries now.
  • there is Wp 8.1 preview build in
  • Did this update also introduce the "radio" only being available to "signed in subscribers"?
  • I'm still bugged by the Store section of the app. It still doesn't show "New Releases", which seems like a big oversight for if they want to keep selling subscriptions and even a'la carte song/album sales.
  • I miss this too. Sorting by genre then going to new releases, that was great. My workaround is to use the album releases app and what I've done is downloaded one song of all my favorite artists so I have them all populated in tue collection list. This is really the only way that album releases works too because it only checks new releases based on your local collection of artists/music. I miss the year next to the albums as well.
  • Completely agree with the last two comments. Next update bring new releases back please! Also needed back is recently added and recently played sections in collection. Those were really helpful, imo. Everyone should remember to keep hitting up the Xbox Music suggestion site and reapply their points now that they're checking off all these boxes!
  • And it looks like they have some issues with some new albumbs, just tried to download Black Keys new album True Blue. There is no download option, only pay option. Turns out it's not available to xbox music subscribers....
  • That's not an issue some songs aren't licensed to be download like Metallica led zeppelin just a great majority I believe 28mil+
  • That is an issue, rest of black keys are licenses
  • we started from the bottom now were here :P
  • Yes we are.lol
  • Just as a reminder to myself, I wear every single phone even when I'm in the house
  • LMAO
  • Started from the "seems faster..."
  • Now we're here
  • It sucks
  • Definitely faster, although I still see the word "loading" when scrolling through lists quickly. Never had an issue with loading in the native music app.   First load still gave me a black screen, had to back out and reload.
  • Volume control by swiping up and down ?????
  • Might change the track now lol
  • I have 5000+ songs on my phone. I definitely need lists to load faster. I download all of them on Wi-Fi. I hate cloud music because I have terrible data connection here. I noticed that when a song is deleted on my phone the cloud version stays. I need an option to delete cloud items from my collection from my phone. I miss Zune from Windows Phone 7. When Xbox Music replaced it I looked stupid for recommending WP to my fellow music lovers. The original Xbox Music was bad but not as bad as this.
    I need:
    Scrolling long song titles
    Ability to delete cloud content
    Fast loading of long lists
    Background synching
    History of recently played music Once I have all of that my rating will go to 5 stars. On this update I did change it to 2 from 1.
  • Microsoft seems to be willing to do expecting changes in a way that almost anyone thought, that's very nice... I love that the Music tittle isn't HUGE anymore, there's more space to swipe :)
  • Yes! Love that change, one of the things that was really annoying. Also, they made the playback control buttons bigger! This is a very good update on the UI side.
  • halle-freaking-lujah!!!
  • That whole list needs to be added next time... At this rate it would take months to get all those features... Seriously!!!❕❕❕❕❕❕❕
    ..............
    We need the New, and Recent panes back...
  • Actually I'd have liked "swipe up/down" anywhere to change tracks. How was that hard to implement ? There's no other thing you'd do wish swipe up/down in the music, so they could've easily let us swipe up and down anywhere on the now playing pane.
    And yes, new, recent and the epic live tile, we want them back !
  • Lol!!.. They couldn't do that.. Think about what you're staying.. In the last XBM now playing was its own page... Now, if you swipe right then you will end up in another pane... And, I like the new way.. Just one page is a lot less confusing for the average user... What I hate is how choppy, and Androidish, the refinement is... But, in a way its better than it used to be because she you swipe it now goes strait to the song instead of how it used to freeze halfway, then finally update.... This app has more potential than the last.. It just needs ultra refinement...
    ................
    It kinda makes you wonder how Rudy can make a app so fast and so very refined out the gate... The resolution on XBM8.1 is still not optimized for 1080p screens.. But that's not priority.... Seriously, MS should just give Rudy a few hundred grand and let him do the app... And, I'm serious!
  • Yeah really !! Rudy all the way !
    And same applies to the Facebook app by Microsoft, and the official twitter app ! I was scared of recommending windows phone to a friend because I'm scared she'll get mad at me if she doesn't like the Facebook, twitter and instagram apps ! :-P (she can use 6tag, but it doesn't yet have dm, no live notifications, and video upload is not free). Yet, i have recommended it, lets see whether I'm successful or not :-P
    Anyway, Xbox music now seems useable, so this issue is solved to sone extent. Now if only 930 would land in India soon ! (or she'd pick an android :-P)
  • 6tag has instagram direct. Upper right corner has the inbox icon and sending a message is a swipe to the pivot in capture.
  • Two of my friends bought L625 just because they saw me with L620..... And they love ❤ it.....
  • Fuck yes!!
  • They cut that one close. Just coming up 5pm in Seattle. Seems "swipier"
  • I know right? Now I can start my weekend. Adios amigos.
  • Sam... If you click on the song under "Up next:" It now goes to that song, the next song...
  • Already updated. :)
  • Good old MS.. They didn't let us down!
    ................
    I guess we can expect an update every other Friday.... Nice, very nice..
    .......
  • I believe its every other Friday...
  • Yeah, that's what I said... Really?... What am I missing?
  • U have one dot more behind Friday ^▽^
  • I don't have ANY dots behind Friday.. I have 4 in front of it. Lol.. Is that what you mean?... And, if so,, what does that mean?... I'm confused..
  • I see this: Friday.... Nice. And he has Friday... So one dot more. What it means is. The more dots behind a word. The more special it becomes. :P just kidding. It means nothing. I said that " u have one dot more behind Friday" cause u said "What am I missing?"
  • Now, I'm in a time warp... Lol!. No, I get it... IOW, it's nothing..
  • Now if only we got WhatsApp back this Friday, which we didn't.. I have my independence day (from studies) tomorrow, and i wont even have WhatsApp for a while.. :(
  • Go play outside or something. 
  • Transparent tile?! Sweet!
  • "According to Microsoft here’s what else we have to look forward in the future:"
  • Well, hopefully it will also have a live tile like before. I haven't updated yet so I don't know if this version has live tile or not.
  • That's listed.
  • Yeah, it doesn't even work on my phone anyways...
  • You can use transparency tiles app, its got xbox music support to get it to be transparent tile, won't make it live tile like before thou.
  • "Support for greater than 100 songs in now playing queue" HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!! This was the single must annoying thing about Xbox music in my experience.
  • "According to Microsoft here’s what else we have to look forward in the future:"   Just in case you thought that was in this update... =)
  • When they finally enable this I am going to create a playlist with 101 versions of the song Hallelujah in it. There must be at least that many in the store.
  • You could have already have made playlists with more than 100 songs...for instance I have had a playlist with over 120 songs for quite sometime. People were just annoyed that in the now playing queue it only showed 100 songs.
  • Not true. Try making a playlist with 101 songs, see if that 101st song ever plays...
  • They know.. Quit telling everyone that... Lol!!
  • Oh crap, I need to read harder! Thanks for the correction.
  • See ⬆⬆⬆⬆ ..... Lol!
  • My biggest complaint with this app is about the Store section. I can't easily find new releases!! This is annoying! I miss the Music Store section inside the Store app.
  • I don't think being unable to find new releases easily isn't such a bad thing. Music nowadays just isn't as good as it was from the late '70s to 2009.
  • You got that right buddy! They don't make music like they used to.. in fact, I always say they ran out of music in the 80's.. everything nowadays is just some regurgitated conglomeration of chords and sounds.. if not, a remix of an old hit, with rap lyrics added to it...
  • I guess you haven't listened to the music past the 80's if you say that. Every decade has it's good and its bad, same goes for what's happening now.
  • There's some exceptions.. yes. But being a musician myself, I really hardly listen to anything or anyone anymore... it's a curse I have personally.
  • There are a lot of "exceptions". Being a musician has nothing to do with it, you either haven't been able to discover the good new stuff or it's just not to your taste, that doesn't make it any worse however. 
  • Oh, Being a musician has everything to do with it. When I'm writing or composing a piece, there's never enough hours in a day to pollute my mind with other artist's work. When I ride in the car for example, I ride in silence (its just me!) and only like to hear the sound of my car's engine... and being around so many people everyday at work, I take refuge in the quiet times I do get... definitely don't have time (or the mind capacity) for today's pop music.
  • Once again you don't listen to music, considering you've just summed everything up as pop pretty much shows that you haven't come accross the good stuff that is out these days, that doesn't mean it's not out there.
  • I wonder about this also. I thought I was just getting old, but then find out most young rock fans are still listening to AC/DC and Metallica. I don't think they'd do that if there were young bands rocking as hard as that. When I hear pop at a store or whatever the words are imbecilic and the music unbelievably simplistic and totally devoid of creativity. I have come to the sad conclusion that American music, like the American intellect, is on the decline. We as a people are getting dumber and it is reflected in our art.
  • Agreed... and hopefully they're listening to the "old AC/DC" and the "old Metallica" because the "new" stuff from these two bands in particular is just as bad as the rest of the modern bands' noise.
  • You come of as a very negative person that likes to paint everything with the same brush. Good day to you sir, sad that's it's quiet and without discovery of new music
  • I listen to Zeppelin, Queen, the Stones, The Who, Cream, ACDC and plenty of other bands to this day, that doesn' mean Black Keys, Raconteurs, Foo Fighters and many others don't rock hard.
  • What an ignorant response. We should have the ability to check new releases plain and simple.
  • Yes! It was so much faster before! I hate this =(
  • Nice, we have improvements to look forward to every two weeks
  • Xbox Video also got an update. Now they are synchronizing the two update circles? Sweet.
  • Video updated as well
  • I'm starting to get excited about WP8.1! Music is something I use my phone for daily so will wait before upgrading.
  • Just now starting to get excited❔❔❔
    Wow.
  • Yeah, it's starting to come along. I usually am not a fan of beta-grade software. I like to wait until it doesn't suck and I can count on it.
  • Right... And look at what we're dealing with.. I understand that!
  • The guy need a Viagra before he get excited, that why he tooked this long. :-P
  • Is this update for 8.1 only? I'm still running 8.0
  • yes only for 8.1
  • Music beta?
  • Looks more 8.1 like in its UI now, it's now a swipe vertically to change tracks.
  • And yet, when I press the shuffle button it only shuffles 10% of my songs. wtf? -.-
  • this is annoying as hell...why would they do this?
  • Because the playlist only supports 100 songs at the moment, they are changing this, these are bi-weekly updates and remember 8.1 is still in beta so its expected not everything is there. My understanding is the original team that did the WP8 Music and Video was built into the OS so pulling it out wasn't so simple to make an exact copy. Either way go to uservoice and report your concerns, they are listening now. Should have been listening sooner but at least they are trying
  • I know right, I'm surprised not many people have said anything abouth this. I'm also surprised that no one has said anything about "add to now playing", it adds the song to the bottom of the list instead of making it the next song.
  • +822
  • That's one of the reasons, why I still use the old player (via Music Hub Tile), the other thing was the 'swipe to change track' that is now fixed. So now we have to wait till they fix the shuffle (that Now Playing Queue limit)
  • Still not a fan of the Now Playing screen. It is so awkward to have the content so far to the left, and small, leaving so much space just to hint that you can swipe to see the menu of artists, songs, albums, etc. to the right. There must be a better way to display the Now Playing screen. But I am very pleased with the frequent updates. 
  • Yeah, and it's so ugly now. There's something written everywhere, words everywhere. It's too cluttered and things are distorted.
  • You can say "leaving so much space just to hint that you can swipe" about every panorama app -- that's the UI. Don't complain about it, embrace it as one of the things that we love about Windows Phone. ;) I agree that the page seems crowded. On my 1520, there's a lot of room at the bottom. My guess is that right now, in its pre-release-ish state, they haven't optimized for both 15:9 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Taking advantage of the extra height in 16:9 will help in the crowded area. For the 15:9 phones, slightly smaller album art would help the crowded feeling, but will make even more of a gap on the right.
  • I don't think that every app needs to be a panorama app, nor do panorama apps need so much space, or any. Microsoft has shown that their initial design language with WP7 didn't have to stay the same forever, and it has evolved over time. And not all apps call for that kind of design language. More apps are transitioning away from it.  It's inefficient with how it uses space as well. There are plenty of ways to maintain the metro design language without pushing all content on screen to the left and leaving the next slide so exposed just to peek at what is to the right of it. I think the novelty of it was cool for a year or so, but devs see it is really a pain and prefer being able to use the full screen for their apps instead of just a portion of it, while leaving room for the next slide exposed. It also is less attractive to those who are used to other operating systems, going from a full screen of real estate, to just the left side. Devs have to reorganize their UI and items on screen to an inefficient and unintutive layout to allow for the panoramic view. The sacrifice creates a lose/lose situation for all of us. I don't think it's worth looking "cool" for a bit. But that's just my take on it, of course. I'm sure there are plenty of people who still like the panoramic layout.
  • And people were complaining that the update didn't come out.
  • Must remember where they are located. I can just imagine Joe standing there with a whip at 4pm Pacific to get this out.
  • Wow, I pictured that and it's hillarious!
  • Still crashes when trying to select a song... But it does this - faster.
  • It's there one developer working on this lol
  • Finally that header that took up a third of the screen is no more!
  • yeah they changed it to the size of the People heading
  • I'm content with it for now
  • Artist images being distorted in the background drives me nuts. Also, new release section would be good.
  • I agree. There should be an option to disablw this and have no background instead.
  • Where is my "played recently" list? I can't at how terrible this app is
  • Transparent live tile!
  • Now....PLEASE just give us gapless playback and Ill be happy!
  • Yes! This! Please, please add support for gapless playback.
  • Microsoft does not care about gapless. It's a shame, because I can't take my WP seriously as a media device until they do. And I had been fully intending to migrate from iTunes to Xbox Music with my song library and do everything on a 128GB SD. Instead, I had to buy another iPod Classic because it's my only option as a WP user with a large music library.
  • Do people still use kids corner? Not much attention has been paid to it.
  • I'd use it a hell of a lot more as a quick access version of my start screen if they didn't require a damn password. Guh, that was supposed to be fixed in 8.1 and it completely takes away the point of just handing your kid your phone when you're busy.
  • Actually now its fixed....try it for yourself....edit:yeah now its asking for a password but before hard reset it wasn't...before it didn't have personalise tile also ehh buggy
  • No it isn't.
    See? http://imgur.com/2EZGv2b
  • I use Kids Corner for all my photography apps... And I've never used a password.
  • You're right, I totally faked the screenshot that specifically showed my kids corner lock screen requiring a password. http://imgur.com/i8liyDd
  • I am also getting a password requirement but i wasn't getting it in april before hard reset don't know why even a site reported it http://www.nokiapoweruser.com/2014/04/16/windows-phone-8-1-launching-kid...
  • *shrugs shoulders*   IDK... like I said, I've never used a password for Kids Corner. Here's mine: http://vimeo.com/96274324#t=0s
  • Kids Corner is Definitely worthy if they remove damn password ,is it buggy in wp8.1 for mine or 8.1 didnt change that ?
  • I use it tons, but it would be a question of pinning specific child safe music. I don't want the app it open there as there is a lot of content not suitable. So I am yet to see how they would do this without opening up the possibility of playing a tune I find questionable. As for the kids corner, I have tons of games installed, but none I actually play. My kids fight over who gets to use my Dell Venue vs. the Surface vs. my phone!
  • That and "Rooms". No one talks about them anymore.
  • I set it up as "Guest Mode" & threw some random Non-Essential apps in it :p
  • HALLELUJAH!!!!!
  • And we still haven't got live tile yet.
  • Is the "Up next" line new this release? I might just be noticing it for the first time. My biggest peeve is it not persisting the Now Playing list on phone restart.
  • Not even the old music hub did that
  • I thought that was new.. You can now tab the song below to skip forward..
  • Mine just opened to the Now Playing. Even made sure the app was very much closed. It is likely that if I were to play content other than Music that that list would be cleared and the not show up. That I haven't tested. And that is something I missed bout the integrated music and video hub. It showed me ALL recent media played: YouTube, Podcasts from 3rd party apps, EVERYTHING. Not sure why that can't still be applied to a stand alone app.
  • yep its new! I gotta say, I'm loving what xbox music is turning into, i also like that they removed xbox from its title, I'd really love it if theyd remove the "xbox" from the actual ui too!
  • The new Music app still isn't supported in Kids Corner! I hope they fix this soon.
  • +1520 my two year old is still pissed at me cuz her yo gabba gabba songs don't play anymore
  • Was getting a little concerned, but had been checking my updates since Thursday (in Tokyo, so the 10th for me!). While discovering the swipe was great, and these are "features" what is more important are fixes. On speaker the scrub bar still pops annoyingly and having to "load" my collection each start is more than annoying, it greatly hampers my use of the app. How about this....give me a "sync" collection option in settings. I do love that soon after I add something on one device it eventually shows in the other, so periodic updates are nice, but why should the software have to search each time I wish to play music? But count me as a happy camper getting updates often. I am an Xbox Music subscriber, so it is important I am seeing support.
  • How can I make album art in the background?
  • So we'll never get back our most recent played list. That could be a deal breaker for me.
  • The music player is one of the most important features on a phone for me. They have completely ruined it, big time. After this update, I simply cannot use my phone as a music player cause it sucks.
  • The most recent view is coming back. A lot of functionality we had is coming back but slowly, and we will have even more functionality thereafter. I think Microsoft is just tinkering on the performance and reliability of this app because as limited as it is now, it acts really slow and sporadic. Adding more features will only cause more chaos. As the app performs better, features will be carefully ported as to not break the stability they are trying to achieve.
  • It's not on the list of what to expect.
  • Get on the user voice page and vote for it!!
  • It doesn't crash every second time I want to start this app! :)
  • as much as I love this update...im still getting black screens when opening the app. Its fuxkin annoying.
  • still no picture background artist in the lockscreen when playing music
  • Do you have it enabled under lockscreen? Its working fine for me, it doesnt work with all artists though, it only works if the artist has uploaded images or their label
  • I still have the black screen issues. And no , I am not getting anything under lockscreen as well. :(
  • Not from USA = Black screen :/
  • This problem occurs since I started using Windows Phone 8.1 any solution ?
  • Am I the only one that gets really excited when this app is updated? :)
  • As a fellow music oriented life liver, I can say, no, you are not alone!
  • Can someone please tell these tech gurus that the most annoying thing that needs immediate attention is opening up the app to a black screen and the words loading music.... I'm Just about ready to drop my subscription I've been loyal since the first Zune Brown Brick!!!
  • It doesn't happen to everyone so its possible there is something unique on yours that causes it (special characters in song or artist titles, titles too long, bad metadata etcetc) Use the Feedback app that was supplied with the WP 8.1 update and send screenshots of the issue.
  • It's better, but it just overall feels second rate. The design isn't as nice, the animations are pretty basic, it just feels way worse than the Xbox Music on Windows Phone 8 and Zune on WP7.
  • give it time! remember, this app stopped develompment after the preview was released for 8.0, and then development continued right after 8.1 dev previews release, so its still a pretty young app, animations and design will improve with time, its obvious they are listening to what the users want this time around, that while makes the app a bad app in this moment, it will become a much better app in the future, hell, in my honest opinion the now playing screen is officially better than the original! so thats one section down, next in UI updates I'd love to see the music list take on a bit more of an zune HD look (in artist view, show the artists and small picture's of all their albums underneath heres a picture for those whove never seen it: https://qhkloq.dm2301.livefilestore.com/y2pnHtDmBrns1aqPvUxnlC93qpNl2WdC...  
  • Can someone help me? My xbox music doesn't load the artist image. I mean, the background image. What should i do?
  • What about better playlist support? Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • Yeah!. Still loosing songs from playlist (wiped). So annoying and veeery slow. My music is in sd card (nokia 1520). The card is in good condition.
  • The only feature I care about WP 8.1 Xbox Music is the proper album art deployment. I use MPATool in WP8 on putting album art. But now, it is terrible.
  • None of my albums play in the correct order. Shuffle is off, but the order is all over the place
  • Clout content?
  • Hey can anybody tell me how to show the album art on the background of now playing!
  • This is the feature that got me so mad about having to use xbox music! Finaly, it's here!!!!!!!  
  • this was necessary for bikers like me and drivers.  no time to look for tiny buttons.
  • The new swiping is dumb, it should be left and right, like the original Zune Music app.
  • Zune!
  • i like the up and down, it feels more natural, plud with the way the ui is setup side swiping is just a nogo
  • >swipe vertically
    K.
  • The best part is that the app is responsive enough that you can skip songs in the volume drop down menu and see the next song before it slides back up.
  • Yay thats back :)
  • We don't need new features..just fix the bugs for god sake.
  • So you don't want new features?
  • Is there a way disable the artist background? I like it black -plain and simple.
  • God. They should really erase and clear the reviews once its officially done its rounds of fixes and changes. So many one star reviews that probably will stick around pre updates lol.
  • While this is nice these are features we already had(save for a few 8.1 specific ones) and is the equivalent of a new model car getting the rear parking aid and alloy rims that last year's model came with. Just saying.
  • Dude, what the hell, where are my freaking album arts? And this layout is ugly as f*ck. There are just letters everywhere, it's such a mess when you compare to the previous music players.
  • um... welcome to the metro UI? thats what this design language is about, always has been.
  • Lol wut no? Compare it to the previous music player. The previous one was such a beautiful app for you to look at. Now ir simply sucks
  • Your opinion, the new ui looks much much better to me, I fucking hated that grey background
  • It should be faster like the songs should be not have to load, xbox needs to stop deleting álbum art i literally used 10 music Apps and all has the correct álbum art and we should also be able to choose a background image
  • +Me
  • HALF LIFE THREEEE!!! ZOMG. ...... Oh damn, excuse me. I'm having this cough all day now. HALF LIFE THREEEE!!!!... See. Excuse me again. Btw good update. Hopefully the over 100+ songs now playing will be in the next one.
  • MS, you ask you'll probably get.
  • Xbox video was also updated
  • Can't wait to check it out I like that they are making an effort I usually just bare with all the issues Xbox music has without complaining
  • I find very hard to believe that Microsoft took 2 weeks to include just a swipe and make the now playing screen look uglier...
    It really is sad, because I was excited about, but after 3 updates and almost none improvements I hope nothing. The same thing happens with Windows 8 app: Almost none features in months. I think in change services.
  • Actually the Windows 8 app is getting closer to its Zune counterpart. You can even import Zune playslists to it, don't know if you were able to do this before. I know the new thing is being able to tell whether you have MP3 vs WMA music. Though it is not as efficient in doing so as the Zune app.
  • I just want to see my recent history.
  • Hey!!! Is there an album art in the background??? Does Xbox music don't support album art as background for songs downloaded from Nokia mix radio?
  • Not bad, not bad. Now it would be nice to surprise us with some Skype update :)
  • Heeeyyy! It's just like the Zune HD! Sweeeet! This is what i'd been hoping MSFT would do since FOREVER.
  • Now that the hub tile app was screwed by its creator,I think I can go back to Xbox music again
  • the way i see it, we're just beta testers for those highly paid Software Engineers (or Engineer tests) at Microsoft. They took what was working and completely botched it like it's some kind of experiment project. One of my pet peeves is having to reboot the phone cuz it seems as though the app is doing some kind of drm check on my personal music collection and it decides i dont have legal permission to play them. It's freaking lame Microsoft.
  • Although this is great, I'll stick to MixRadio until now playing lists are extended past 100 songs. It gets annoying pressing shuffle on a song starting with a and having only a & b songs playing, if I want to shuffle, I want to shuffle all songs
  • I'm getting error 80070127 when trying to update. Anyone got any ideas
  • Is the issue where it messes with your meta data still there cuz until that's fixed xbox music just hurts my soul
  • It is getting better. The metadata is still crappy and the load times are a little too long for my liking. I still won't update my 8X until they at least bring back the live tile support with metadata improved.
  • got that early 90s hip hop playlist can't keep runnin awaaaaaaay aaaaaaaay aaaaaaaay
  • Okay and now it is time to spot the typo...line 15 it is written clout instead of cloud.A quick edit needed. Also thanks for informing us that the update went live.I have been waiting for this for hours now. 
  • Shame podcasts does not get updated quickly
  • Great update.
  • My Xbox Music's background stays black all the time.  Does that have anything to do with my region? I'm in Manila but my region is set to US.  My tracks' metadata are all okay.
  • Same here! From the PH also
  • Same here (Chile). Black background, no transparent tile, wiping playlist songs by itself, wrong artist info. VERY BAD!!!
  • That abrupt noise bug has not fixed yet...its sad to know...
  • Damnit...
  • For some reason it IS fixed for me. I used to get it on every single song and it was extremely irritating. But if you're still getting it, Microsoft hasn't really found the root of the problem. I hope some of their employees are reading this!
  • Transparent tile? Where?
  • Upcoming
  • Almost ready to give up on this app and cancel subscription, this update will put that on hold.... For now, nice update
  • Swipe the album or pushing "next song" under the album to listen the next song lol
  • Hey guys, there's something strange.
    When playing a m4a file if I jump back or ahead I hear a very annoying audio glitch.
    Everything is fine doing that with a mp3 file.
    Is it just me or a new bug? I never noticed this before, but maybe I missed that.
  • It happens even on metro tube it's so annoying, I think that must be fixed with a Windows phone update
  • the pop? its an 8.1 compatibility issue with the firmware, once your carrier releases the update officially it should fix it
  • Fantastic, now at zero volume the music does not mute...
  • Okay, after a second reboot, its working properly again
  • What about playlist creation on the phone now? Can we add music easily to a new playlist without connecting to the PC?
  • Yes
  • Great news! Thanks!
  • Awesome!!
  • Weird... last week I was able to see Justin Timberlake art on my lockscreen when it was playing... then... no art shown anymore =/ Anyone seen it too?   Let me ask one thing too... the transparent tile for Music app will be Live too? I mean... the People tile is kind of transparent and live... I don't want just a static transparent tile... need info when my music is playing...
  • The new update also handles Multiple Discs as well! Great!
  • Cause I am happy
  • Glad they stuck to the schedule, but they still have not fixed my major problems.  Playlists are only showing a partial list of songs that are in the playlist, and reside on the phone. My classical playlist should have 50 songs, but ony 16 show in the playlist even though ALL 50 are on the phone.  there is still the scrolling bug when trying to scroll fast it goes part way down, then pops back to the top of the list again.   Getting music onto my device is still a pain in the rear too, as the offical modern app has NOT been updated yet, and remains broken.  
  • why would you use an app when the device can be opened in explorer? that method is just downright superior in every way
  • its not superior when dealing with a 10,000 song library, then it becomes a major pain in the ass.  I have about 2 dozen playlists with various songs within them.  I started collecting my music before Xbox music or zune were a thing.  I started with an iphone, and switched when WP8 came out.  So..... my music was purchased through other means.  What that does is restrict my method of getting songs on the device. When I have large play lists picking a few songs, maybe a full album in a large play list and putting them on the device individually becomes a major pain in the ass when I am doign so several times a week.  The modern app allowed me to open Xbox music on my desktop or tablet with my phone connected and share the playlist to the phone, no mess, no hassle of finding specific songs to fill my play list it was as easy as pressing share, picking the phone and whala it would put the playlist on my phone.  If I add more to the playlist all I had to do is re-share and it would only add the songs that were new in the playlist.    I cannot do that now, and have HAD to resort to using the file manager, what a pain in the ass.
  • and.. you cant just copy the files over to it with explorer... why?
  • did you not read my last post?  one playlist has 50-150 songs by VARIOUS artists in it.  Do I want to spend the 30-45 min. sorting through my 10,000 song library to hand pick each and every song our indivudually and put them on the phone? or do I want to spend 30 seconds and share the entire list to my device with three clicks?   seems pretty easy to understand there.  Could I do it?  yea, I kind of HAVE to at the moment, do I want to do it? NO I would rather have the other functionality updated so I can get the massive amounts of time I waste per week changing out my playlists.
  • My streaming music still isn't showing up.
  • The live tile update is so damn lame.
  • I downloaded / installed the free Zune PC desktop software on my newest Surface Pro 2 today and it was so sweet. It warmed my heart to have access to all my music (purchased) on my computer and in the cloud, my playlists, to be connected to the streaming music and video of Xbox Music & Video, to have access to music to download using Zune(Xbox) Music pass AND speaking of live tiles, to have the the beautiful changing & moving graphic images of the artists that are playing the songs I'm listening too. It is truly amazing how incredible and sophisticated the user interface is. The podcast sorting and download is the best I've found. The variety of prepared playlists is spot on. AND ... so much more.
    (I hope the Xbox Music team doesn't move on to fix Excel.)
  • Seriously they need to sort this 100 songs in queue nonsense asap! Who the hell decided that was a good idea?! That's the most important update to me. I don't care for swapping!
  • This. Even it shuffles between that 100 song list or maybe less. Because in a matter of minutes I'm back to the same song I started with. That's when I start to change songs I want to skip.
  • Same problem here! Not only that but it always chooses the same 100 songs. I have thousands of MP3's of a comedian who makes short sketches. Me and my eldest have been putting all his tracks on shuffles for the last 4 years when we go on a long car ride. I've done it with an iPod Touch, my old Android phone and the music hub. This is the first time a built in music app keeps me from doing it. As long as this isn't sorted out, I'm stuck using the Music Hub Tile. The article says "it's time to move on". Not for me! This product is still subpar. I'm really mad at Microsoft right now. Surprisingly mad.
  • Well at least they are consistently working on improving it
  • Swipe up to change a song /??? O
    o
  • Does the video app still crash?
  • Nice improvments but it doesnt feel smooth and fast like wp8 version, i hope someday it reach that level
  • Still shit. Still taking way too long to load. Why can't we get a dedicated playing now screen witout all the menus to the right and that Xbox Music label at the top. It does't even tell you what album is playing. You can't even go into artist collection.  History and New missing in action. I'm still getting the wrong album cover as well as artist image link below. http://kmt-studio.com/post/XBM.jpg   We need Rudy to create a dedicated Media player that had features of the old music player as well as some new one.  I'm willing to put up $100.00 on Kickstarter    
  • Agreed. I like the Nokia mixradio apps music player but it doesn't have the most direct access and its missing a few features. Honestly I love the idea of having artist wallpapers in the background but there is no way to add one for bands that aren't there. See I'm all over the place because there are so many little things missing. Give me a music app that has the functionality of an iPod with the looks and feel of both Nokia mixradio and Xbox music
  • We need Rudy on this. I'm in for 100.00 for Kickstarter. All the trimmings from the old app pluse new stuff including MPATools support.
  • We all have a "most important update for me." Chill and let it get through the updates, some of which may not come until the 8.1 updates coms to all devices officially this summer. I sit on trains and hours and a half each way. I likely rarely would let a 100 sone list play out before I was tiered and went to something else I was reminded of from that list.
  • Again it still will not show album artwork from albums I know for a fact I have embedded artwork into
  • When will they fix the SHUFFLE part of the music app. It only shuffles between preloaded list of songs. When will it be able to shuffle between all songs. It has been there in phones since the beginning and it's 2014.
  • What really sucks about the app is loading a playlist with 500+ songs and only like 40 play.
  • I like the Nokia mixradio apps music player but it doesn't have the most direct access and its missing a few features. Honestly I love the idea of having artist wallpapers in the background but there is no way to add one for bands that aren't there. See I'm all over the place because there are so many little things missing. Give me a music app that has the functionality of an iPod with the looks and feel of both Nokia mixradio and Xbox music
  • Mpatools allows you to add from database or from library for artists
  • Does Microsoft now own the Nokia Mixradio Music Player App? If so, maybe that App Development team could merge with the fledgling Xbox music team and combine the BEST features into a new full featured app?
  • i dont believe microsoft owns mix radio.. might be wrong, but pretty sure im not  
  • Oh no what has happened for X.box & Microsoft team..?
    Shit.. Still they haven't concentrated on loading of songs..
    & They are fixing silly bugs only...
    Pls do well in the next update...
  • I agree, this is the single biggest and most pressing issue that EVERYONE here has. Some of us care about the album scrolling, some the user interface- the list of smaller things goes on forever. But I bet every single commenter here wants the app to load their music faster and remove the black screens and crashes. Priorities Microsoft, please!
  • Yes!
  • So at the current rate of release and features added, we should finally get back to what we had with the 8.0 Music experience by about..oh..October. Way to go MS :o/    
  • the app isnt that far behind 8.0's music app.. where are we so far behind? in some ways we have even better functionality with this app, yea were missing a livetile, but thats because livetiles were only capable on built in apps opriginally, so now that the feature has been added they need to remake that from scratch, and thats already planned in the next update, the only thing were behind on is bugs, and even that list is shrinking quickly. you guys are all getting so worked up over nothing, the app is in beta, or, was until this update technically.. justr calm down, sit back and enjoy looking forward to every other friday.
  • If they don't fix the user experience in the next update i'm canceling my Xbox Music subscription. I get most of my music from other places like https://bandcamp.com/wetworker They took a perfectly great user experiency from the old player and made it even worse. I can't see which album is play Can't go directly to artist that's playing collection without pressing songs two times Wast of space with that Xbox Music tag at the top. We know where we are, it's not needed in the playing screen. Menus to the right makes it looks messy History and New is missing Swiping to the next or previous track should be left and right, not up down      
  • Yeah, don't know why they are using that awful panorama 45 size font title guide line, which is insane for a small device. Most other apps have dumped that style (including all the Bing apps). Generally, if they cannot make a good app here, why don't they outsource it to a company that can and in a fraction of the time?
  • I still done see the STOREin Xbox music. New releases??
  • Still no change. Still stuck with loading screen FAIL
  • I don't want a transparent tile option, to be honest. I use the Music and Games Hubs as a separator from my Page 1 to Page 2. I hope it'll stay an option. :-(
  • Hey this thing is starting to shape up. One of the more annoying bugs is the seemingly random cancellation without a trace of some song downloads if I load up multiple albums for download. Hope that gets taken care of soon (maybe in this, I haven't tried it yet...)
    Nice to see them keeping this going.
  • just tell me when i can upload music to my onedrive, and stream my own music through my windows phone's app for free. until then, im using cloudmuzik
  • Yes, and sync MY music locally on my phone. Adding a song in either place, would add to the other AND I could play my music when internet is slow, intermittent, expensive, throttled, limited, or nonexistent.
  • Ahh mahn! They took out the shuffle all button at the top of the "songs" section, now I have to click the top song (which I will be sick of after 2 listens) click shuffle then click next....3 x more clicks :(
  • Use the shuffle button at the bottom of the "collections" page. That changed last update and I had felt the same way
  • I can't seem to open my MOV files (on SD card) in the updated Video app....
  • Looks so much better!
  • Great! now the App doesn't open
    ..I tried several times and got stuck loading in black screen...soft reset didn't help..Dear MS team, are you sure these updates got the idea to improve the app?
  • Microsoft is on a streak today!
  • Yeah, another bad streak...
  • I am not getting the album art as my background while playing songs on my xbox music player as its shown in the screenshots . Am I the only one facing this problem. I am using Lumia 520..
  • I think they are playing the ' featured songs' in the app from the internet, that's why they are getting the background images. (It's just my assumption, that may or may not be the case)
  • Mine goes out sometime but I use mpatool to add them and usually have to turn it off then back on in settings while playing
  • The album cover seems bigger now.
  • Why do I have a sinking feeling that Xbox music for the desktop will replace windows media player in windows once it can be used in windows mode. It would be great to see them sync with the phone and Xbox sharing content, features, and ui
  • Imagine not having to go into metro mode just to choose a track or anything. U just click and you are in a full fledged media player
  • How about they update the atrocious Podcasts app for once...
  • So close to me being able to use the proper app instead of using music hub tile to use the WP8 music app. unlimted playlists and im back on it.
  • Still no live tile, distorted artist background, missing album cover, 'xbox music' waste of space, too large fonts, no recent plays.
    So many missed features, and they add 1~2 features per 2 weeks , it'll take several months to be usable. Till then, I'll stick to Nokia mixradio. Xbox team, plz just use other music apps like mixradio, google music,music of iOS or whatever. It'll help to fix horrible UI of current xbox music app.
  • You need prayers, see your pastor!
  • Y artist backgrounds work great maybe because of mpatools,I miss recent plays and live tiles, along with more than 100 songs queued up didn't realize why on a road trip I'd hear repeats
  • At this rate its gonna take YEARS for Microsoft to fix the music app! >.
  • Is this supposed to be a joke?
  • He's probably right... Or maybe they'll go backwards again.
  • How do I get that background as the album art of the song?
  • *Reads this article on wpcentral*
    *Goes to try out new swipe feature*
    *Realizes they made it vertical swipe instead of the normal right to left swipe they have been using since Zune HD*
    *Facepalm*
    Do we need to show them how to do everything?
  • Swiping from side to side switches menu, so really not an option. Also, the songs are presented in a vertical list, so swiping up and down to switch songs is actually quite intuitive. It's also more culturaly forgiving, seeing as many people read from right to left, but pretty much everyone reads from top to bottom... ;)
  • No it feels weird. There needs to be a dedicated now playing screen that isn't flanked by 2 other menus, just like the old interface. I just think its funny how after the release of this app, the community hated it, then Microsoft asked us how it could be better, we asked for swipe, and Microsoft gave us swipe but not in the way we hoped lol.
  • You have issues go make your own OS, I love it this way so it's not gonna change just because of you!
  • Exactly my thoughts. I like the old dedicated Now Playing with the next two songs shown and the Album name. EVEN THE ALBUM NAME IS NOT SHOWN HERE SMH.
  • WHY DO YOU NEED THE ALBUM NAME WHEN THE ALBUM ART IS STARING YOU IN THE FACE??? Redundancy.
  • Because there are people like me who likes important details of the track to be shown on the Now Playing screen.  Your argument is wrong because if you'll follow that, WHY DO YOU NEED THE ARTIST NAME WHEN THEIR VOICE IS SHOUTING IN YOUR EAR??? Redundancy?
  • Two very different things.. Your nit picking at nothing, albums don't always say the artists name on the cover, album name 99% of the time is
  • I like the new top the bottome smother for changing song in car and I swipe over to view more didn't think about it before but love it now
  • Me too, I can get used to swiping up/down but the swipe area needs to be larger to be done in the car without looking...
  • "Faster loading on long lists" - Really, REALLY hope they deliver on this one; as it is, my phone takes at least ten seconds to even go to the song list menu. It then has to populate the list, which is another 6-8 seconds per segment (about 20-30 songs), and seeing as how I have 60 gb worth of music...!!!
  • My playlist is f'd up.  I originally had some audiobooks with different chapters.  Xbox music doesn't recognize one of the chapters.  Funny thing is that Nokia Mix Radio recognizes it, but leaves out another.
  • This app is still garbage comparatively.
  • indeed
  • Why mine doesn't shown album art
  • Sam! You listen to Geto Boys etc? Haha pictures look like taken from my phone... Lol
  • Not support live tile.... Garbage
  • Keep calm, be patient.
  • LOVE NOKIA,MICROSOFT & WINDOWS... <3  
  • musixmatch still the best application so far.. IMO
  • This is wonderful, though swiping to change track was not one of my wishes! I don't like transparent tile either
  • What do you like/want then?
  • On music player I just want it to stop this SEARCHING MUSIC thing and the tile to be LIVE not transparent
  • I like transparency; the option to toggle it on/off on the individual app would be optimal.
  • Yeah the option to switch transparency on/off should be there, some apps really look awkward when transparent
  • When I open songs it crashes.Works fine when I open albums windows 8.1 dev preview Lumia 920 India.
  • Excellent. Sam, I got a couple of questions:
    • You mentioned that there are other Apps & tricks to get the old app: Is there another app that can do that ? Aside from Music Hub Tile & the NFC trick.
    • How did you get the Artist Backgrounds to work in the new app? Thanks, enjoy your weekend :D
  • My artist background always work for luck screen and background I use mpatools to fix blanks sometime I have to turn off and the. Backnkn to get it to work ahain
  • Need Transparent Live Tile Support....it would be really amazing to see artist name floating on transparent live tile just like in wp8
  • That's cool!!
  • They still have their work cut out for them with this app but it finally meets the threshold of "usable" for me. I'll be deleting the music hub app and re-pinning Xbox music. Good job MS. Keep up the solid updates we're getting on all your platforms.
  • Still the worst media player in Microsoft's long history! I'll continue using Nokia's effort until they sort it out. I miss the days of Launch app - press play - Listen to all the music!
  • Yup really miss that.... Is there a suggestion for that feature
  • YEEEEEEES!!!!!!!
  • Excellent, just the games app needs updating now and ill be happy.
  • I can't see live tile while playing music. Or it isn't available only?
  • Still not available clmkng back in future update
  • READ the article.
  • I just updated to the new version without changing the region to US...fantastic  
  • Why would you need to change the region?
  • Great but what's wrong with artworks, they are not shown.
  • Can anyone tell me how one get album art as his now playing background? because my current background is blank
  • You turn it off and then back on if not set try mpatools backgrounds still work on windows 8.1
  • Mpatools doesn't work on WP 8.1
  • Turn it off and then back on? Could you explain a bit more in detail? Thanks.
  • Does this update shows artist image atleast now...i m pissed of with black background
  • I'm glad they're focussing efforts on gradually getting this app up to speed. I still have NO playlists on my phone though. They sync to my Xbox, my PC and my Surface, but when they removed the Music Hub, my playlists vanished and I can't get them back. Really frustrating as that's the main way I organise and listen to my songs. Ordinarily I'd uninstall and reinstall to give it a kick, but that's not an option now... Anyone else having this issue?
  • Can someone help me? Whenever I push the select button the app crashes and none of the updates have fixed this problem. I can't hard reset because I'll lose important data. Using an Ativ S btw.
  • I just want them to reinstate the new and history pages.. My music app seems incomplete without them.. :(
  • What album art?
  • The big grey squares they call album art ;)
  • When will we get the music screensaver that Rudy has been working on with MS?!
  • They fixed the black screen bug!
    ( when from the volume centre, you taped the song title, it didn't open the now playing section, just a black screen. Now it does open the now playing section)
  • Better, but still no live tile :-(
  • Anyone else who still can't see most of the cover art?
    XBM still shows around 15 per cent of the cover art for me, while any other application does well. No idea what's the Problem here.
  • I'm in the same situation. It's pretty much the main reason I dislike the app (that and the fact it's still miserably slow)
  • And yet it's still terrible!
  • Any body noticed about the background of the artist playing is missing in wp8.1
  • Of chose, it's quite obvious... Maybe because most of our music doesn't have one??? Ah, I miss MPA tool Support, It doesn't work for XBOX music.
  • Mpa tool was really great.
    I like this new way of changing tracks, but that's the only good thing about this new app so far
  • Dies the music playlist problem fixed too? I can't Add new music to my existing Playlist, (It does goes in, but gone again in a few minutes after). Syncing playlist to W8.1 ver also doesn't work.
  • Still black screen of death. I found that if u hold back to go to multitask then just tap back on xbox music it loads fine. Dunno if any one else knows this or not
  • Same here ...hate to see that...never seen a music player loading...loading...resumingg....always...
  • +920
  • seems final
  • What's mpatools?
    Edit:its not compatible wid wp8.1
    Sad
  • If only when I ask Cortana to play a song it won't stream a different version of the song that I don't have saved on my phone. Where it's getting this other version to even play I still have no idea.
  • This is still crap!
    You list features like a pro, but all these features HAVE ALREADY BEEN THERE. There is no thing 'nice' or 'good' or 'looking forward' to.
    Microsoft broke a perfectly working service. How is it 'time to move on'? This is moving backward.
    Do you realize, your 'looking forward to'- feature list does not even contain all the features that exist in WP 8 (artist on lockscreen) that means the music experience is planned to be worse that before. I don't understand how ya all can,be so haply about all this!
  • Kind of odd how it takes some time for the app to actually reflect the changes after updating...
  • Yes, still a bit clunky, needs to be more fluid for transitions.
  • No background images, during music play. Lumia 820 from India.
  • Radio still not working here in India. These updates are a bummer.
  • But still Zune is much better
  • I miss the live tile when I'm playing music
  • +1520
  • your welcome. i'll ask microsoft for the next update : swipe left/right on lockscreen (or if there is album art shown on lockscreen or the music player banner on top of lockscreen) to skip tracks.-so you can skip tracks easily while sleeping/blindfolded
  • Yes, this ^^^
  • Does anyone else have the issue where Cortana is not playing music playlists? Also to the command "shuffle music" she is incapable of playing only the music on the phone despite music streaming being off. These two issues are driving me insane
  • Haven't tried playlists but my streaming music never comes on via cortana mine is set too off as well
  • Nice update. But my tile isn't live when the music is playing, and it's not transparent. I can't see that feature in settings as well. I only see Show streaming music in my collection and a couple of links. What's wrong? Does it have some connection with the region? And artist background is not showing even though I preloaded them with MPAtool. Also, they should still remove a couple of things such as that music title on 'now playing' screen, splash screen (totally unnecessary)  and add more content when you enter the app. It looks a bit ugly with that black screen with music title and sections. I'm mostly referring to the last played song. It does not save my last played song.
  • Those features are coming in future updates and mpatools doesn't work it works for artist backgrounds on lock screen if u have that enabled
  • Good to hear. Hope to see some updates for the Podcast app soon. That app is pretty terrible.
  • I have a problem with the Music app... All my album covers appears in NokiaMixRadio, but in the Music app don't show any. Someone knows what can I do?
  • I have this problem :| please fix  
  • I agree. Same here. AND the album art was the only way to know what month some of my album were. The title of the album is too long for the list and the month is cut off
  • I think the swipe-able area of the album art needs to be larger, ditch the "now playing" header.. It isn't necessary... The whole point of swipe to change tracks is to be able to do it without looking at or aiming for a specific area of your screen... Grateful for the implementation and regular updates as a whole... It is now usable but not perfect yet...
  • Have to say I agree.
  • Nice update , I am loving these new features.
  • Guys, I updated every time this app and my background is black all the time. And I have albums in my device..
  • Still there is some problem. I couldn't see some songs but I could see and play them with music hub tiles. And it works really slow when I try to change songs. (l920)
  • My Phone (920) no longer displays background art, artist bios, or related artists info when I play songs in XBOX Music from my local collection (stored on the phone). It worked properly before the recent updates. The correct info and art is displayed when I sample the same artist from the online store.  Has anyone else encountered this issue?
  • Same here. Same phone.
  • After 6-7 years of using Zune Pass (with my credits) I let my account expire this week.   I really do not get why Xbox Music and WP has been such a challenge for them.  This is beyond stupid.  I just do not understand why I still need to carry my Zune HD or 8G around on a daily basis. The Load time for music so it can check the digital rights is ridiculous.  The WP Software to add songs is horrible.  Still No wireless Sync.  Overall performace is just poor. We are an all in Windows, but MS really needs to make some gutsy changes.  They are no longer top Dog.  The average person could give a crap about them, hence wil all the rave is about Google and APPLE.
  • The Video app live tile shows the last played video!
  • im having problems with the swipe, i don't know if its just cos i got a big screen (1520) but every time i go to swipe if it isn't a direct swipe up it just shifts the screen, i can live with up and down swipe but i kind of feel side to side would work better and feel more natural when holding a phone in one hand, also as you swipe it seems a bit choppy it isn't as smooth as it could be, and kind of feel like there should be a bit of a gap between the album art,   im really holding out for some kind ID3 tag editing abilities my album art have been messed up since upping to 8.1 and all the artist images are messed, album name and artist name are all completely messed up, why is the app changing my albums artist names and such i don't understand
  • Mines works fine just a simple flick and it changes songs
  • This app is VERY tag sensitive. Check ur tags for quality. I haven't found the magic to have everything work properly as some songs just disappeared, album art displays properly on other apps, etc. Frustrating.
    Hoping someone writes an article for foolproof id3 tags
  • I like music hub windows phone 8 better xbox music on windows phone 8.1!
  • When are they going to fix the missing album art issue?!!! The ONLY album artwork I don't see is Amok, Atoms For Peace.
  • how do i update the XBOX Music on my Windows Phone 8.1 ?
  • Using the wpcentral app, go to this article, slide to more then tap download app. There will be an option to download in the store.
  • I'm still not 100% satisfied. Swiping the artwork is not a bad solution, but swiping the whole screen was just so much better when you wanted to change the track without looking on the screen.
  • Haven't had a problem with its in perfect position on Nokia 1520 never have to look down
  • this update makes XBM a whole lot better! the only major complaint i still have is that it doesn't display some album arts correctly(American idiot and dookie by green day, slippery when wet by bon jovi etc) even though i tagged them myself on my PC
  • Don't understand why the store still showing this.....This app is no longer published
  • No new tab or history tab to look forward! I'll miss them.
  • Please update it....I don't bear this
  • Just want to add my two pennies. Xbox music on Windows phone is fine and dandy for me with the exception of Song duplicates. Anything else added to the experience is gravy. On Windows 8.1 however, it is extremely buggy to the point it's not useful at all. I swear it worked fine before 8.1 and that running of apps in the background has been the downfall of my Windows experience.
  • Has the skip between tracks been fixed.  When listening to Pink Floyd albums you can tell what needs to be fixed.
  • I love Microsoft. They are listening to us!!!
  • There is no live tile and transparent tile in my 520
  • Still i have no background images on HTC8X why?
  • Still no live tile functionality...
  • I like the history feature in the Music and Video hub, I miss it not being part of the Music app.
  • How to get background sync?
  • Album art not showing anyone else facing same problem
  • I have the same problem. No album art at all in Xbox Music after update, however I can see all of them in NokiaMixRadio - seems it's bug in Xbox Music. If you go to the Music folder on your phone (using Windows Explorer) you will see couple of hidden subfolders including Album and Artist. The Album folder contains list of your albums with GUID like names - those are links to album arts created by Xbox Music. So it looks like Xbox Music can find the album art but because of some bug does not display them at all.
  • Hope they fix it....it looks really ugly....thanks for info dude....
  • Still crappy. They should make it as it was since the beginning
  • Updated :)
  • I prefer scrolling by swiping instead of having to press the arrows
  • The one thing that I would love to see added that I have not seen in any music app (Pandora, Slacker, Nokia, etc.) is full lock screen integration. Yes, you can see who's playing and pause/skip the track, but I want to be able to like/favorite a song without having to unlock my phone first.
  • Put this in suggestions....
  • Oh my god, what a mess this WP8.1 music app, The playlists crashes, and where are my cover art, my Lumia 920 under WP8 reads perfectly all the tags/covers of the albums but the new music app of my 1020 under WP8.1 doesn't... What's wrong in the heads of the guys who made this app, they're under lsd ?
  • Xbox video was crashing immediately after launch, after the update that was given after windows phone 8.1. But after this new update, it's working fine.
  • But still, I don't like the animations either.
    It feels like you're using an app made from App Studio. Same on FB Messenger too.
  • Frustrating reading about all this coz I'm still stuck with the 1 st version.. Gives me error 80070127 when installing the update. Anyone here know any solution?
  • Video app no longer auto exits or crashes.. Thanks for the update..
  • Still sticking to the old format until they fix the shuffling more than 100 songs. Once that's fixed and it's somewhat similar to the old app, then I'll go back to it.
  • i just wish the app didnt change my artist info and album art.. or a way to turn it off
  • Mine still has random duplicates and tells me I don't have the rights to play certain music that I can play on the computer app and on Xbox music online. As far as I'm concerned, the music portion of WP will be useless until you can actually get use out of a $100/year subscription.
  • Most of my songs still have artist backgrounds and my lock screen background for now playing still works via mpatools just not within app but besides a few missing album covers they and the artist show as I flick the album cover up or down
  • Imo, Nokia MixRadio outperforms Xbox Music anytime.
  • Again, the updates are welcome but where is multiple track purchasing, more sorting options, fucking Screensaver, and updating of the pc/ tablet version.
  • Why is WPC banging on about WP8.1? It's not out yet.. If you have got it, you've voided the warranty on you phone, so congrats. Wouldn't it be better to ignore WP8.1 until it's officially released? Or release a WPC 8.1 app for those that have been foolish enough to pretend to be developers & downloaded it? I'm sick of these articles about 8.1. Please change your policy WPC.
  • Is this update not available in india ?  coz i'm not able to set my background image ,,
  • Bring back the old music app! I miss live tile animation when playing music :(
  • From last update Xbox music does support Now Playing queue greater than 100 songs.
  • yes!  this was the feature I missed the most from the old Music app.  having to tap the arrow buttons in the old Xbox Music was maddening on my Icon.
  • I don't know when this happened, or if its even been mentioned, but XBOX Music now syncs songs I add to my phone, from my phone, across ALL my devices! This is a huge thing for me, as I like to use the phone for searching for new music and such. Before, I would have to add the songs on the pc or laptop and they would sync to my phone, but not the other way around. Great job, MS!
  • Bring back Zune!
  • Because the app has lost its discoverability with being able to find new albums/releases it is worse off than the android/ios version. Music it's a large part of my cell phone experience, what's the point of having a Windows phone when the ADP on the competition is better than the home device? This app is a deal breaker for me... Get it together MS
  • Position slider has come.. Great
  •   How to make a background for each song?
  • Love this at all
  • Folder play?