Streaming music service coming to Xbox 360?

Microsoft announced a slew of Xbox Live announcements during its E3 2009 press conference including partnerships with Facebook, Twitter, and UK broadcaster Sky. During the press conference, the publisher also unveiled a deal with music site Last.fm (owned by GameSpot's parent company CBS) and...

Microsoft announced a slew of Xbox Live announcements during its E3 2009 press conference including partnerships with Facebook, Twitter, and UK broadcaster Sky. During the press conference, the publisher also unveiled a deal with music site Last.fm (owned by GameSpot's parent company CBS) and announced that the Xbox Live Video Store would be renamed as Zune HD.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph yesterday, MSN executive producer Peter Bale revealed that the company plans to launch a new music streaming service in the UK "imminently." A Microsoft representative confirmed the deal to GameSpot sister site CNET News.com saying, "In the coming months, MSN is planning to launch a new music-streaming service in beta via its Music channel in the UK." Despite this confirmation, the spokesperson remained hush on the details. "At this stage, we won't be confirming the details behind this, but more information will be available soon and will be communicated in due course," they told News.com.


Will music streaming be coming to Xbox Live soon? Time will tell.

In addition to accessing the service via the MSN UK site, Xbox owners may also be privy to the service, according to The Telegraph. "[Bale] hinted the service could be tied in with Microsoft's Xbox [360] gaming console, but would not be drawn on the details of how a partnership would work," the outlet said. Such a decision wouldn't come as a huge surprise given Microsoft's focus on multimedia support on the Xbox 360. Disc-based and downloaded movies, MP3 players, photos, and the company's own Windows Media Center are all supported by the console. At the time of publication, a spokesperson from Microsoft was unavailable to confirm plans to launch the service on the Xbox 360.


While MSN has partnered with media streaming services in the past, this announcement would be handled completely in-house, following its acquisition of mobile phone music service Musiwave. Bale said the service would be "similar" to Spotify, an already established leader in the media streaming space in Europe. Spotify's services are available on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux-based PCs, with plans to release apps on Apple's iPhone and Google's Android mobile OS.

22 Comments

  • Irve

    Posted Jul 15, 2009 1:33 am GMT

    @Gregolution
    you are so right about that .. £30 a year for live vs free PSN seems a rip off ...
    but they are providing extra content and facilities for that money ... personally i don't think it's currently worth it but a can understand why others would think it is.
    i just wish the PS3 was the same price as the elite ( like it is in the states ) then i'd buy one and have both consoles and get to enjoy everything.

  • Irve

    Posted Jul 15, 2009 1:27 am GMT

    and PS3 users can just use their web browser to go to you tube !
    it's about time Microsoft finally relented and gave at least a basic web browser to the 360 ... Heck even TV's are getting web browsers now !
    i'm loving spottify at the moment .. and as much as i am enjoying streaming stuff to my 360 right now i kinda think removing the constant need for 2 machines is a good thing

  • penpusher

    Posted Jul 15, 2009 12:20 am GMT

    Gregolution: I agree with that comment, we do have to pay a bucket load in the long run to get xbox live, but i look at it this way, by paying for it microsoft has entered into a contract to garuntee that we are provided with the service that we paid for, PSN users dont have that so if xbox live had problems then microsoft are obligated to do somehting about it, sony can just say "hey its free isnt it". . .admittidly thats not too likely a scenario but i find it quite comforting

  • penpusher

    Posted Jul 15, 2009 12:14 am GMT

    thenephariouson: I'm glad we agree

  • thenephariouson

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 9:15 pm GMT

    penpusher,

    Thats exactly what i was thinking.

  • penpusher

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 6:18 pm GMT

    doesnt suprise me, but I dont quite see the point I mean you can already stream music straight off a pc and even rip it from discs directly to the 360's Harddrive so why the hell bother? :S

  • hannify

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 2:20 pm GMT

    lol what a suprise

  • Markie75

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 2:12 pm GMT

    If it's another freebie for Gold members, then why not! Still easier to stream music from your pc to your 360....

  • muff07

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 2:02 pm GMT

    Isn't this just vidzone without the videos?
    BTW I'm going to quess that Sony BMG record label will not be giving the licensce for the use of it's songs.

    But you can't compain considering my X-box will now be able to do something it previously couldn't It seems that thats the great thing about competition this gen it makes the sservices better.

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 1:09 pm GMT

    will it better than vidzone

  • Gregolution

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 12:34 pm GMT

    @gameweasl - you dont have to pay for each music video on PS3 , they're all free.

    @StarlightHunter - I think Xbox live was the best thing going for Xbox, I really loved it. I don't agree with this common mantra I hear from Xbox users 'you get what you pay for'. PSN is an incredibly good service, I get 0 lag, I'm actually starting to quite enjoy Home (once you can launch all games in there it will be brilliant and unique) and the PSN Store is constantly being updated with content. It's improved massively over the years. And I didn't have to pay a monthly fee for it. People go on about price comparison between Xbox and PS3 but somehow ignore the £30/ year you have to pay for Xbox. It's a rip off. They're saying this console generation will go on for what... 6 or 10 years? You'll end up paying more than a PS3 just for Xbox live! We don't even have to get into the lack of features on the core xbox package (no rechargeable batteries, no wifi, tiny hard drive etc). I think the PS3 is a much much better deal and PSN has more than enough features for any online gamer.

  • coruscant

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 12:33 pm GMT

    Sounds a bit like PS3's Vidzone music service to me.

  • StarlightHunter

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 11:59 am GMT

    Yeah I guess is over exaggerated but after seeing all of the features MS have upgraded Live with the PSN falls short, Also being free means that the PSN has less money going towards it, in other words with the 360 you are paying for what you get for example 1 vs 100 which is avalable to those who have a paid suscription aslo sky will be free for thoses who paid for Live.

  • gameweasl

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 11:57 am GMT

    @Gregolution- I don't think you understand XBOX has music videos that you can stream but you have to pay for each one of them just like PSN, they are saying that it will be a music service such as Pandora or Live365 something like that...

  • Gregolution

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 11:49 am GMT

    @StarlightHunter - PSN already has a streaming music video service. Not just music streaming, but the videos as well, and there's a library of thousands. How does MS copying something PSN has already done make PSN slowly die by comparison? Oh btw... PSN is free too. Xbox live is great and there are some features I'd love to see in PSN, but saying live is constantly being updated with features and making PSN die in comparison is more than a slight exaggeration... its a giant hyperbole.

  • Generic_Dude

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 11:25 am GMT

    Hmm, or I could stream MP3s from a Media Center PC like I've been doing from Day One.

  • StarlightHunter posted Jul 14, 2009 11:15 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    StarlightHunter

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 11:15 am GMT (hide)

    MS constanlty seem to make Live even better. PSN is slowly dying in comparison.

  • Wh1teKn1ght

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 11:11 am GMT

    @Markie75 Spotify allows you to select and play any music it has. LastFM tries to play music you'll like based on what you wanted it to play. Therefore Spotify and LastFM are completely different and hopefully something will combine the two.

  • jimbob40k

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 11:10 am GMT

    doesnt the ps3 have something vaguely familiar to this?

  • Dynamo11

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 11:02 am GMT

    Yeah it'll get music streaming BUT NOT FOR EUROPE!!!!!
    If it goes everywhere then cool...

  • CharlieFubar

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 10:52 am GMT

    sounds like another good idea from 360... digging this 1 vs 100 live as well...

  • Markie75

    Posted Jul 14, 2009 10:38 am GMT

    Isn't that just the same as LastFM ?

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