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Your newest music is featured on the main screen click or tap an album cover to play that album. This includes tracks you’ve ripped from your own CDs or downloaded from the web – not just from the Xbox Music Store. This is your own personal music library, those files stored on your PC or shared over your network. The main screen is divided into four sections that you can click to view additional content: On a Windows 8 PC, you launch Xbox Music from the Start screen just click or tap the Music tile. The service works similarly on all devices. However, Xbox Music is also available to anyone using an Xbox 360 videogame console or Windows 7/8 smartphone. On the PC platform, Xbox Music is available only if you’re running Windows 8 if you have a Windows 7 or Windows Vista computer, you’re out of luck.
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You use the Xbox Music app to play music stored on your PC or network, to purchase and download new music, and (if you choose to subscribe) to stream millions of tracks to your computer over the Internet. It’s a music player, it’s a music store, it’s a streaming music service – in short, a central hub for all (or at least most) of your music-related activities. Windows 8’s Xbox Music isn’t just one thing. It’s a full-screen (Metro or Modern-style) app you can use if for pretty much all your music-related activities in Windows 8. (Microsoft is obviously playing off their successful Xbox videogame brand.) Xbox Music is both a media player for music stored on your PC or network and an online service for purchasing, downloading, and even streaming music tracks. Windows 8’s music player/service is called Xbox Music. Windows goes one step further, however, in including both a music player app and a music download/subscription service.
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Ultimate Digital Music Guide, The: The Best Way to Store, Organize, and Play Digital MusicĮvery recent version of Windows has included some sort of music player application, such as Windows Media Player.
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