Xbox Music Book 0.6

Another week's worth of updates to Xbox Music Book

Here’s another interim update to the Xbox Music Book. This version includes more content in the section about the Music app in Windows 8/RT.

As with the previous update, this one is a bit messy and not quite what I expected. The HD PVR I’ve been using to record video stills from the Xbox 360 stopped working for some reason, so I wasn’t able to finish the Xbox section as expected. Instead, I’ve plowed ahead with the Windows 8/RT section.

The messy bit applies mostly to the order in which the content appears. I’ll need to fix this, as the play/stream tasks are all over the place right now. I’ll look at that in the coming week. Also, since I’ll be away this coming week, I should be able to get some Windows Phone content filled in as well. (Rather than the Xbox stuff, since I’ll need to be home to work on that.)

As always, I’m interested in any feedback about the content, the organization, whatever. Maybe it's time to start thinking about a proper name for the book as well.

The book is clocking in at about 43 pages right now, but it is of course image-heavy.

Download Xbox Music Book 0.6.

Discuss this Article 4

qhendricks
on Feb 15, 2013

I've got a question regarding the the usage of Xbox Music on PC when not connected to the internet...
If I have an artist's .mp3s physically on my laptop, and try to play them starting from the Xbox Music app, it acts like it's still trying to stream all that it can from the artist. I click "Play Artist" and get a network error (because I'm travelling without wifi). It will not let me play just what I own - just keeps trying to stream. When I am connected, I get the Xbox Music ads because it's streaming everything it can.

Is there a way I can just play what I own starting from Xbox Music? I'm tired of it trying to stream for me when I can't or don't want to. The only work-around I've found is to go to my music folder on the desktop, select the files, and click play from there instead.

ZipZapRap
on Feb 19, 2013

Welcome to the dog turd that is Xbox Music. Your problem is shared by many and believe me you haven't scratched the surface (no pun intended) of just how bad this app collection is.

peeklay
on Feb 22, 2013

Paul, love the book and welcome additions. I do have a question though.

You mention both the Cloud Collection and Music Match services and they sound awesome (just like in the press release) but I have found them to be less so. Maybe I am missing what this actually is.

The way I see it, I have Xbox Music Pass so I can careless if my local music that is also available on the service is matched and thus I get my full cloud. My bigger need to for playlists and random streaming of MP3's that are not on the service (say Led Zeppelin or Metallica)

I can manually try to match, I can even find the album (someone else synced theirs?) but it is never available to stream/play or add to playlist.

Is this the feature we are waiting for with Scan and Match or will I never be able to sync/upload/match my mp3's that are not on the service (named artists above and lots of indie stuff)

thanks

pthurrott
on Feb 23, 2013

So, the manual album matching that is currently available is spotty at best. I did match my entire collection, tediously, over a long weekend a while back, but the success rate was perhaps 75 percent.

I don't want to suggest that the scan and match service will fix all the problems, but as I understand it, it will work like the matching services from Apple, Amazon, and Google, and upload what it can't match to your cloud collection. Fingers crossed.

I wrote this a while back about manual matching, and will be writing that part of the book today or tomorrow...

http://winsupersite.com/xbox-music/xbox-music-feature-focus-album-match

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