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XBox (Games) Media Music

Music Biz Figures Into 360 Strategy 50

Posted by Zonk from the must-take-apple's-pie dept.
C|Net has up a story discussing the thought processes on the Redmond campus, as they plan a way for the Xbox 360 to have a meaningful participation in the music market. Most likely, this will be through the upcoming Microsoft commercial download service. From the article: "The Xbox is widely viewed as a successful consumer product, and the new version will be more deeply integrated into home networks and digital living room systems. Making it a platform for digital music purchases or subscriptions could help solidify a consumer foundation that remains shaky."
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Music Biz Figures Into 360 Strategy More

Music Biz Figures Into 360 Strategy

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  • How does this make any sense??? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by parvenu74 ( 310712 ) on Wednesday June 15, 2005 @12:48PM (#12824540)
    So because Microsoft was late to the digital download market, they figured that releasing a bunch of digital music stores based on WMA and meant to be used by WindowsMediaPlayer they were going to somehow make a dent in iTMS revenue and market share?

    And on the heels of that "success" they are now pushing the next gen Xbox as a competitor to the iPod? I bet they're all standing around in Redmond wondering "I just don't understand why this isn't working..."

    Here's to hoping they still don't get it for a long time to come!
    • I would be the last person to apologize or make excuses for MS, but it is logical for the Xbox to include music. I would make three points:

      1. The Xbox is not portable, so it is not really a competitor to the iPod.

      2. The Xbox comes with a hard drive, so it could easily be used to store music (MP3s only?).

      3. Many Xbox users hook their Xbox into their stereos to take advantage of games that have robust audio.

      It seems like using the Xbox to store music, whether it is purchased or rented, would take ad
      • The Xbox 360 is already going to support connecting to various music players via USB - and this includes an iPod. So people will be able to transfer their music (in appropriate formats) to the 360 without having to rip the CDs and tag them by hand, the way the current Xbox does. At least that's the plan as I understand it.

        With such support, it would make sense to be able to buy music online with the 360.
        • true, but the given that if you have an ipod, you have a computer anyway to serve as the repository for your music. why clutter your life by having three different places with complete copies of your mp3 library?

          im sure they will play up the ability to use custom soundtracks for your favorite games i guess. the real problem is, with custom libraries and three different copies of your library, the only way an xbox based music service could work would be to allow itunes and the ipod to sync/ read music bough
          • But you see that is the whole idea. The new XBox may is where you will end up putting your music.
            The XBox will probably sync with all WMA supporting players.
            After that of course will come the videos.
            • yeah, but how? if it just supports wma, do you think MS really has the force and power to make the power companies publish in wma format? there is also the matter of DRM thats constantly being altered and updated. the largest digital media player is, for the time being anyways: the ipod. to sync with the ipod you have to convert the wma files to mp3 with itunes. converting their drm files to drm-less mp3s just would defeat the purpose since most xbox360 users would be using ipods in the first place.
    • Here's to hoping they still don't get it for a long time to come!

      What, you don't want a functional and effective music service to exist? Why not? More options for the consumer is always a good thing.

  • What? No, you say? Well... I don't really have much use of an Xbox playing music other than a novelty.
    • I don't really have much use of an Xbox playing music other than a novelty

      Thats probably because you've never experienced how cool it is to listen to your own music - your own custom soundtrack - while playing a game.

      It's cool. It's one of those "can't do without" features. There's nothing "novelty" about it.

      Now, imagine this scenario:

      - Xbox is the hub for my TV and audio system.
      - Xbox is networked to my main server
      - Xbox is online - all the time.
      - Xbox can connect to external hardware.

      From my sofa,
      • are you joking about the limitation of playing secured wma files being a limitation of the ipod? i guess in that school of thought its a limitation of the xbox360 if its not able to play the secured files downloaded off of itunes or from your ipod.

        what about as new formats that come to market? MS hasn't been exactly quick to incorporate codecs into their media players. seriously, unless they open up the xbox360 to the homebrew community [which they wont] chances are that your xbox 360 mdeia center will nev

        • are you joking about the limitation of playing secured wma files being a limitation of the ipod? i guess in that school of thought its a limitation of the xbox360 if its not able to play the secured files downloaded off of itunes or from your ipod.

          There's a difference. Microsoft is willing to sell licenses for its secure format to other established companies that make playback hardware. Apple is not.

          • the point is just as you say; MS is willing to sell its licenses. it wants everyone to play by its rules and follow its vision. what about the vision of others? getting away from /just/ music, look at some of the other more popular media formats. divx, xvid, mp4... when MS decides that it is willing to go that extra mile to incorporate those into xbox360 or even WMP itself, then you wont have these issues. MS is willing to play nice with everyone, but only if they are playing by MS's rules in the first pla
        • No, I'm not joking. If Apple and MS sat down with their lawyers I'm sure WMA playback on the iPod can be enabled.

          Wether or not one or both companies would want such a thing is not my point.

          My point was that this is a legal issue and not a technical one.
      • Thats probably because you've never experienced how cool it is to listen to your own music - your own custom soundtrack - while playing a game.

        It's cool. It's one of those "can't do without" features. There's nothing "novelty" about it.

        It doesn't seem very "must have" to me. I sometimes mute the music in PC games and let Winamp run instead but that's not something that I absolutely MUST have, in fact I don't do that very often because usually the game's music fits the gameplay better.
      • I could only see this as "cool" if you didn't own a computer and did own a USB WMA MP3 Player. Buying real CDs is still probably the best option for purchasing music, they have no vendor lockins, no lossy compression, and are easily converted to a file for any player.

        Most of the games that I REALLY wanted to change the music for on the XBox didn't support custom soundtracks.
        • Burnout 3 - supports custom soundtracks, but had decent music
        • Prince of Persia Warrior Within - Horrible soundtrack and doesn't su
    • Actually, I do believe that they intend to design functionality such that you can plug in your ipod and play non-DRM'ed music on it. (As far as not playing iTMS songs, there's nobody to blame for that except Apple for refusing to license the codec.)
      • (As far as not playing iTMS songs, there's nobody to blame for that except Apple for refusing to license the codec.)

        Actually, no, that's because the agreement they made with the labels to prevent iTMS songs from winding up on file sharing.

  • Just music? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by turtled ( 845180 )
    I think there is too much marriages going on... the games are going to be filled with crappy music, they will be littered with ads ingame, flashed in our faces on TV... but, will any games actually be any good? It's all over-hyped.

  • Why? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by alvinrod ( 889928 )
    While you could use a gaming console to download music, why would you want to?

    First of all, unless the interface for doing it is really good, most people would rather use their computers. I've never used any of Microsoft's music store programs so I can't say whether or not they're worth using.

    Also, because the next-gen consoles are not going to support dial-up, people who don't have access to broadband services won't be able to use the service.

    Unless you'll be able to transfer the music files

    • Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Trelane ( 16124 )

      While you could use a gaming console to download music, why would you want to?

      The simple answer is that Microsoft's not simply producing a gaming console. This is their portal into your living room (and gateway to further growth out of the stagnant PC industry, via their formats this time). Music is just the start--on-demand Windows Video and digital video recorder functionality, combined with their IPTV offerings will likely prove to be both carrot and stick starting more with the 360 and increasing

      • I never have mod points when I want them. ;)

        The parent post is on target. Microsoft is planning on using the XBox360 as a beachhead into people's livingrooms.

    • Microsoft has already stated that the XBox 360 is mainly going to serve content from a PC. My bet is that I'll be able to download and purchase my music on my PC (especially considering that most of the WMA music stores have specific clients that must be downloaded and installed to use), and then transfer this music to the XBox 360 sitting in my living room.

      Honestly, this is exactly the sort of thing I'd like to see. I have no PC in my living room, but if I get an XBox 360, it will be hooked up to my s

    • Additionally, with a 20 GB HD, an Xbox 360 would be a slightly more expensive, larger, and significantly less portable iPod or MP3 player.

      The HD is actually attaches onto the Xbox 360, and can be removed - meaning that you can tote the HD around to other Xbox 360s. Yes, still not a real MP3 player, but I could haul my custom soundtracks over to a friend's house for playing games there, or just for playing through the stereo if theirs is hooked up.

      Yeah, it's limited in value compared to MP3 players and s

  • so... (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Gogo0 ( 877020 )
    ...does the 360 still play games?

    next thing you know, people will start saying that Nintendo will die because they dont offer music downloads/home jukebox/AC unit controls with the Rev. --- Parallel to DVD playback this gen.
    What will be the big 'useless but must-have' feature after the next gen? Oh the shame of making something that ONLY plays games!
  • The Xbox is widely viewed as a successful consumer product . . . help solidify a consumer foundation that remains shaky.

    Perhaps TFA would explain this more clearly if I bothered to read it, but I doubt it.

    • Re:eh? (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by gabebear ( 251933 )
      TFA didn't explain this, but it depends on what you mean by "success".

      The XBox division of Microsoft has lost over a billion dollars and the only quarter they posted a profit was when Halo2 was released [firstadopter.com]. If either Sony or Nintendo where operating like this then they would be shutting their doors, however when you have the INCREDIBLY lucrative Windows and Office monopolies you can afford to spend a couple billion to establish yourself. Competition is good, but I hope Microsoft don't drive the real compani
  • I wonder what the folks at Napster and other music sites that support the 'Playsforsure' DRM are thinking now.

    With Apple, they don't even pretend to play with others on DRM...while Microsoft promoted the tech to 'partners' while working on competing services.

    • I wonder what the folks at Napster and other music sites that support the 'Playsforsure' DRM are thinking now.

      I'm sure that Microsoft will allow transfering of portable media from your PC to the 360. So you'll be able to buy or subscribe to any WMA music store and use it on the XBox. So while Microsoft might be competing in the store arena (which they've been doing so for a long time), it hardly appears MS is just going to block the other stores from the XBox platform.

      • I'm sure that Microsoft will allow transfering of portable media from your PC to the 360. So you'll be able to buy or subscribe to any WMA music store and use it on the XBox. So while Microsoft might be competing in the store arena (which they've been doing so for a long time), it hardly appears MS is just going to block the other stores from the XBox platform.

        Agreed. I'm curious how Napster inc. considers the change of Microsoft the partner to Microsoft the competitor. How likely is it that Napster wil

  • Will I be able to put a 360 in my pocket for music while I exercise, etc? Or will it require a backpack with a spinal tap, ala the Borg...

    Did you guys read about the iPod 720 that will play every game ever invented?

    Neither did I. Jack of all trades, MaSter(bater) of even more.

  • Will DRM CDs be rippable? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RickPartin ( 892479 ) on Wednesday June 15, 2005 @11:40PM (#12829702) Homepage
    Now that more and more CDs are now crippled copy protected versions, will the Xbox still be able to rip them? If not maybe people might start to wake up and get angry about fair use going down the toilet. Or perhaps I live in a fantasy world.
  • The people at M$ have said that the 360 will be compatible with every MP3 player on the market (including the iPod)...so it won't be pointless at all. Also, how many people that download music actually download it with a dial up connection?

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