Just been reading a bit about the new Windows 8 due on 26 October. I see that it's going to come with Xbox Music Pass, a rival to music-steaming services like Spotify. In the UK it will cost around £9pm, £1pm less than Spotify Premium, but with the same options to share your playlists via your desktop PC, your Windows 8 phone and presumably also future Windows 8 tablets. I was wondering how long it would be before either MS or Apple supplied us with a subscription-funded music-streaming service. Apple has long shied away from offering such an option through iTunes because it knows full well that doing so would crucify outright iTunes purchases. Microsoft on the other hand, has nothing to lose and everything to gain from offering such a service, especially seeing as PCs and Windows are so ubiquitous. Will this be a fatal shot to the head for Spotify and other subscription music-streaming services? Will it be a shot in the leg for iTunes? Surely a huge swathe of iTunes’ users who use Windows computers will be tempted away from it and its “old fashioned” modus-operandi of making you actually buy albums individually, in favour of signing-up to a subscription-service in an app which already sits in their new OS. Or will they? What do you think?
Xbox Music Pass: a fatal bullet for Spotify, a shot in the leg for iTunes?
- Thread starter MajorFubar
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...come to think of it this should probably be in the Computer Based Media forum...perhaps a mod can move it?
Done! - MODS
Done! - MODS
idc
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- Jan 2, 2008
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Its going to be more competition, but why would that be fatal to Spotify? People will not just shop on price, but also user interface and title availablity and image. I am a Spotify fan boy and it would take a significantly better and cheaper product to tempt me away from it. Just as people pay for the Apple brand, even though others are available for less.
I have tried other streaming services, so I am not blind to one service, but Spotify reigns supreme for me.
I have tried other streaming services, so I am not blind to one service, but Spotify reigns supreme for me.
SteveR750 said:
Rather early to be using the word demise for Nokia. They are still the second largest producer of mobile phones after Samsung and if W8 is a success could start to regain some of the ground they have lost.
I'm certainly on the waiting list.
fr0g said:
That's interesting - I would have thought that Apple sell significantly more than Nokia?
I must admit I'm intrigued by the prospect of a seamlessly integrated windows phone, syncing properly with Outlook without having to resort to over-priced 3rd party apps would be a huge step forward for me.
I have tried both Spotify and Microsofts Zune music player on a teporary bases and have found the Zune music to look nice but its not as good searching for stuff as Spotify, Also Sportify works cross platform unlike Zune which is limited to PC's, Xbox and Windows Phones.
I think at the moment Zune needs a little work and until it goes cross platform its never going to be big as it could be
I think at the moment Zune needs a little work and until it goes cross platform its never going to be big as it could be
Had a quick look on the Zune website but I couldn't easily spot what sort of quality is on offer. One of the big reasons I chose Spotify over Napster was 320kbps streaming (Napster only streams at 128k and even only 192k in offline mode). I'm sure plenty of folks with a decent set-up opt for Spotify Premuim for the quality too.
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