The following is an excerpt from Doug Gross | October 15, 2012 | CNN.com |
(CNN) — When Microsoft announced Xbox Music at this year’s E3 gaming expo, it sounded like an effort to become the next iTunes.
But new details show that the service, which begins rolling out this week, aims to be a whole lot more.
Microsoft announced Sunday that the all-in-one service will feature streaming online radio (think Pandora), an ad-supported or paid subscription service (say, Spotify) and, yes, music purchasing (a la iTunes). It begins rolling out Tuesday on the Xbox 360 system and will expand to the rest of the Microsoft product universe when its new operating system, Windows 8, is released October 26.
It will eventually be available on devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems.
“There are a lot of individual services that do a good job, but today there isn’t a service which can pull together the benefits of download-to-own, music subscription, or free streaming services,” Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment division, said in a written release.
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