• Full-screen toggle: Toggle between the truly full-screen view and the previous full-screen view, which includes additional biographical and discography information about the currently playing artist.
• Add to Now Playing: You can add songs to the Now Playing list at any time by expanding an album, artist, or song, and then clicking the Add to Now Playing button.
• Explore Artist: This button displays the full-screen artist details screen described earlier and provides access to the artist’s biography and discography.
Microsoft will be replacing the Xbox Companion app with a similar but more powerful app called Xbox SmartGlass, which should be available by the end of 2012. You may want to look for this app, too.
If you don’t already have the Xbox Companion (or SmartGlass) app installed, you’ll be prompted to get it from Windows Store.
• Play on Xbox 360: This button launches the Xbox Companion app, which will connect you to an Xbox 360 console in your home (it needs to be powered on first) and play the selection there, instead of on the PC or device. Two things happen when this connection is made. On the Xbox 360, a familiar (and Music app-like) Now Playing screen appears for playback and, in fact, gives you additional playlist editing features you don’t even get in the Music app, such as the ability to clear the queue and add and remove songs. And on your PC or device, the Xbox Companion app provides a remote-like experience called Xbox Controls that provides playback buttons, as shown in Figure 9-31.
There’s one more aspect of music playback that needs to be addressed. While Play to Xbox 360 is useful and interesting, it’s not the only solution that Windows 8 provides for playing music from your PC (or device) to another device in your home. That is, in addition to supporting Play to Xbox 360, Windows 8 (and thus the Metro-style Xbox Music app) also supports the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) “Play To” technology, which works with a wide range of devices, including, go figure, the Xbox 360.
This Play on Xbox 360 functionality is a bit more sophisticated than the Play To feature that’s been in Windows for years. To work, however, Play on Xbox 360 requires that the content you’re playing be found in the Xbox Music (or Video) Store, whereas Play To simply streams music from the PC or device to the console.
The playback controls persist as you navigate through the Music Marketplace, unlike with some online stores.
Figure 9-31: The Xbox Companion app lets you push music playback to your Xbox 360 and use your Windows device like a giant remote.
So why support both Play on Xbox 360 and Play To? Play on Xbox 360 is, of course, Xbox-specific, and it requires that the content you’re playing is found in Microsoft’s Xbox-based online stores. That’s because while using Play on Xbox 360, Xbox Music isn’t streaming the content, it’s handing it off and letting the console play it instead. Play To, meanwhile, is more basic in that you’re just streaming content from the PC (or device) to a compatible set-top box. So if you were to shut down the PC, the music playback would stop. On other hand, Play To lets you play music through the console that isn’t found in the Xbox Music Store.
To utilize Play To, start music playback and then bring up Xbox Music’s app bar. Click the Play To button on the right of the app bar, and then choose the appropriate device from the Play To pane that appears, as in Figure 9-32.
Figure 9-32: Using Play To
From here, playback control works as it does when you play music locally on the PC: You simply use the Xbox Music’s playback controls (in the app bar) to control playback.
Microsoft isn’t shy about its attempts to sell you music via its Xbox Music Store (formerly Zune Music Marketplace), which can be accessed from the Spotlight and Most Popular groups on the Xbox Music home screen as well as through various links like the Artist information interface in your own collection.
Clicking the title of the Spotlight or Most Popular group will provide a view similar to that of My Music. This is a rather paltry front end to what Microsoft claims is an online storefront of approximately 30 million tracks either way, but as you can see in Figure 9-33 it is, at least, simple.
Figure 9-33: Most Popular view of the Xbox Music Store
Since this interface is so similar to that of My Music and provides the same ways to filter and view information, drill down into various artists, albums, and genres, there’s no need to cover basic navigational information here. Instead, let’s look at some of the unique things you can do in the Xbox Music Store.
To purchase an album or song, click the Buy Album (or Buy Song) button you’ll find in the pop-up for that item. Xbox Music will display a full-screen notification interface like that in Figure 9-34, and step you through the process of purchasing the music.
Figure 9-34: Buying a song from the Xbox Music Store
One important note about the music purchasing experience: You must use Microsoft Points. Microsoft doesn’t use your local currency for purchases as do other online music stores like Amazon MP3 and Apple iTunes. Instead, Microsoft uses a system called Microsoft Points, which works across its other online stores, including the Xbox Video Store and Xbox Game Store.
The Microsoft Points system exists for one reason and one reason only: to save Microsoft money—since you must buy points in batches, sparing the company per-transaction credit card fees—but its biggest effect is to make online purchases needlessly confusing for consumers.
For your edification, 80 Microsoft Points is worth $1.00 US, so you can see how the math gets fairly convoluted. But Microsoft sells points, online and via gift card-like cards in retail stores, in bundles of 400 ($5), 800 ($10), 1600 ($20), 4000 ($50), and 6000 ($75) points. So if you’re interested in giving Microsoft an interest-free loan, you can stock up.
Microsoft has an interesting music subscription service called Xbox Music Pass—formerly Zune Music Pass—which provides you with almost unlimited access to its online music collection for a monthly fee. (In the United States, this fee is $10 per month, but if you sign up for a year upfront, you will receive 12 months for the price of 10, or about $8.33 a month.) Depending on how you feel about owning music and the quality of Microsoft’s Xbox Music Store, this is either a tremendous bargain or something to avoid all together.
Maybe we’re just getting old, or perhaps we’re simply tired of micromanaging a locally saved music collection, but we’ve come to really appreciate and enjoy Xbox Music Pass. But instead of trying to sell you on this service, we’ll simply explain what you can do with (almost) unfettered access to the Xbox Music Store music collection.
First, you can use the Play album, Play song, Play top songs, and other similar buttons you’ll see as you navigate around the Xbox Music Store to stream virtually any music in its entirety. If you were not an Xbox Music Pass subscriber, you’d only get a 30-second preview. (This streaming functionality is also available on Windows Phone handsets, Xbox 360 consoles, and via the web.)
Second, you can arbitrarily download any of this music to your PC and, while your subscription is in place, play it (online or off) on your Windows-based PCs and devices (and Windows Phone handsets). It’s like having 30 million songs in your own music collection—you know, as long as you’re a paying customer. You’ll see a handy Add to my music link, like that in Figure 9-35, letting you copy Store music to your own PC.