Paul Thurrott - Windows 8 Secrets

From here, playback control works as it does when you play music locally on the PC: You simply use the Xbox Music’s playback controls (in the app bar) to control playback.

Microsoft isn’t shy about its attempts to sell you music via its Xbox Music Store (formerly Zune Music Marketplace), which can be accessed from the Spotlight and Most Popular groups on the Xbox Music home screen as well as through various links like the Artist information interface in your own collection.

Clicking the title of the Spotlight or Most Popular group will provide a view similar to that of My Music. This is a rather paltry front end to what Microsoft claims is an online storefront of approximately 30 million tracks either way, but as you can see in Figure 9-33 it is, at least, simple.

Figure 9-33:Most Popular view of the Xbox Music Store

Since this interface is so similar to that of My Music and provides the same ways to filter and view information, drill down into various artists, albums, and genres, there’s no need to cover basic navigational information here. Instead, let’s look at some of the unique things you can do in the Xbox Music Store.

To purchase an album or song, click the Buy Album (or Buy Song) button you’ll find in the pop-up for that item. Xbox Music will display a full-screen notification interface like that in Figure 9-34, and step you through the process of purchasing the music.

Figure 9-34:Buying a song from the Xbox Music Store

One important note about the music purchasing experience: You must use Microsoft Points. Microsoft doesn’t use your local currency for purchases as do other online music stores like Amazon MP3 and Apple iTunes. Instead, Microsoft uses a system called Microsoft Points, which works across its other online stores, including the Xbox Video Store and Xbox Game Store.

The Microsoft Points system exists for one reason and one reason only: to save Microsoft money—since you must buy points in batches, sparing the company per-transaction credit card fees—but its biggest effect is to make online purchases needlessly confusing for consumers.

For your edification, 80 Microsoft Points is worth $1.00 US, so you can see how the math gets fairly convoluted. But Microsoft sells points, online and via gift card-like cards in retail stores, in bundles of 400 ($5), 800 ($10), 1600 ($20), 4000 ($50), and 6000 ($75) points. So if you’re interested in giving Microsoft an interest-free loan, you can stock up.

Microsoft has an interesting music subscription service called Xbox Music Pass—formerly Zune Music Pass—which provides you with almost unlimited access to its online music collection for a monthly fee. (In the United States, this fee is $10 per month, but if you sign up for a year upfront, you will receive 12 months for the price of 10, or about $8.33 a month.) Depending on how you feel about owning music and the quality of Microsoft’s Xbox Music Store, this is either a tremendous bargain or something to avoid all together.

Maybe we’re just getting old, or perhaps we’re simply tired of micromanaging a locally saved music collection, but we’ve come to really appreciate and enjoy Xbox Music Pass. But instead of trying to sell you on this service, we’ll simply explain what you can do with (almost) unfettered access to the Xbox Music Store music collection.

First, you can use the Play album, Play song, Play top songs, and other similar buttons you’ll see as you navigate around the Xbox Music Store to stream virtually any music in its entirety. If you were not an Xbox Music Pass subscriber, you’d only get a 30-second preview. (This streaming functionality is also available on Windows Phone handsets, Xbox 360 consoles, and via the web.)

Second, you can arbitrarily download any of this music to your PC and, while your subscription is in place, play it (online or off) on your Windows-based PCs and devices (and Windows Phone handsets). It’s like having 30 million songs in your own music collection—you know, as long as you’re a paying customer. You’ll see a handy Add to my music link, like that in Figure 9-35, letting you copy Store music to your own PC.

Figure 9-35:Using Add to my music to copy music from the Store to your PC

Xbox Music Pass has other advantages, but the point here is that with this service, the Xbox Music Store is suddenly open to you in ways that it isn’t otherwise. You can find out more about the service at www.xbox.com/music.

Of course, even finding music to buy can be difficult. And while the navigational facilities in the Xbox Music Store are, at best, basic, your best bet is to search for the music you want. And in this one case, Xbox Music Store actually works really well (assuming you know what you want, of course), thanks to its integration with the system-wide Windows 8 search functionality.

Search works as it does throughout Windows 8, and you can trigger a search of the store from within Xbox Music or at any time from elsewhere in the OS. To do so, display the Search charm (Winkey + Q) and, if you’re not already using Xbox Music, be sure to select Music from the apps list in the search pane.

Then start typing in a search term, perhaps an artist, album, or song name, and the Search experience will often supply suggestions as you type. You can see an example of this in Figure 9-36, and search results appear right in the Xbox Music app, giving you a way to dig deeper into your favorite music.

Figure 9-36:Searching in Xbox Music

While the Music + Videos app on Windows Phone fully supports podcasts, the Xbox Music app in Windows 8/RT doesn’t, so there’s no way to find, subscribe to, or listen to/view podcasts. Instead, you’ll need to try a third-party app. One that’s emerged as an early favorite is SlapDash Podcasts, which you can find in Windows Store.

While the Music app provides a handy, consumption-only interface for music, those who have more advanced needs will need to turn to some classic Windows applications that have been kicking around for several years.

Note, however, that neither of these options are available to Windows RT users: Only Windows 8 provides any support for these legacy desktop-based music applications.

All versions of Windows 8 include Windows Media Player, which is shown in Figure 9-37. This application has historically been used as a media management system, but it hasn’t really changed since Windows 7, for better or worse.

Figure 9-37:Windows Media Player

Windows Media Center, meanwhile, started life as a consumption-only application, like today’s Metro-style apps, though it picked up more sophisticated capabilities over time. It features large, touch-friendly controls, works well in full-screen mode, and has a particularly nice Now Playing interface, which is shown in Figure 9-38.