Xbox Music Book 1.5

Here is a new release of Paul Thurrott’s Guide to Xbox Music. This free eBook has been updated to include information about the newly released Xbox Music for Web.

I have a number of notes about this release.

Terminology change. Microsoft is starting to refer to the Xbox Music cloud collection as “Music Pass collection” in some places. It’s not consistent yet, so I’ve left that as-is for now. But I think the company is trying to draw a distinction between Xbox Music features that require Xbox Music Pass—such as this and playlist sync across devices. We’ll see how that goes.

Xbox Music for Web. Obviously, the biggest change here is that the book now covers Xbox Music for Web in addition to Xbox Music for Windows 8/RT, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox 360.

Features in Web that aren’t (yet) in the Windows 8/RT app. It’s no secret that Xbox Music for Web looks and works much like the next version of the Xbox Music app for Windows 8/RT. Oddly enough, there are some features in Xbox Music for Web that are not in the current version of the Windows 8/RT app, including the ability to clear Now Playing. rearrange songs in Now Playing, and even remove songs from cloud collection. These are all important additions.

As with the previous update, chances are good that there are errors in here, since I wrote it quickly to get it out as close as possible to the Xbox Music for Web release. So please let me know if you see any issues.

Download Xbox Music Book 1.5 (129 page PDF, 8.11 MB)