Streaming music is all the rage now. Gone are the days when you’d have to lug around a Discman with a collection of your favorite CD’s to pop in and listen to no matter where you were. Even the popular iPod and Mp3 players are for the most part an afterthought. With smartphones and light speed data connections and the amount of options for streaming music services, you have a vast library of songs in your pocket on a device you carry with you every day. Microsoft has announced a new feature coming to its Xbox music app which aims to make music streaming a little bit better for those who plan on picking up a Windows 10 PC, the capability to stream music that’s stored within OneDrive through the Xbox Music application.
As of right now this feature is not live for Android users, but Microsoft makes note that it is coming and is already available for those who use Windows Phones. What’s the benefit of this if you could simply access all the music you want through Google Play Music or Spotify? The appeal seems to be targeting those who spend countless hours curating their own playlists from music which they have stored in OneDrive. Microsoft stresses that users will be able to access this new streaming feature with Xbox Music for free, although getting access to Xbox Music initially requires an Xbox Music pass which is not free, so there is still cost involved. The takeaway here should be the focus on the fact that Microsoft isn’t charging for the streaming from OneDrive feature.
Microsoft was quiet regarding any details which actually divulge specific dates, so at the moment there is no information on an Android release for the Xbox Music app update which includes this new functionality. They do mention “later in 2015” however, so users can likely expect the app update to hit sometime before Summer’s end. That’s a rather broad timeframe, we know, but that’s all Microsoft has to share on it at the moment. The silver lining is that it probably isn’t too far off since they already have it working on their own mobile OS.