The Sad State of Xbox Music


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Just one more feature that is missing from Xbox Music as far as I know, CD ripping.

 

Even someone from Microsoft blogged about it:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jonbox/archive/2012/11/08/ripping-music-in-windows-8.aspx

 

See for yourselves:

Since I have a Surface RT in my house, I?m learning to see how far Windows 8 can take me with out 3rd party desktop applications. And thus, today?s dilemma -  how do I RIP music from a newly purchased CD, like I used to do with Zune software?

At first, I thought the new Xbox Music app surely would fill the gap. But, I can?t find this feature if it?s in there. I certainly can play imported music with the application, just have to make sure that the locations for my music library is known.

But, after looking around, I found an article that Change settings for ripping music that describes how to use Windows Media Player to rip. Basically, just change from Now Playing mode to Library mode (by clicking theSwitch to Library button (top right, looks like 3 dots), and the RIP actions start appearing.

Now, this is not the best story in my opinion (I?d prefer to see it all in one app). And I haven?t checked to see how my Surface RT will react to this (but guessing it will be fine). However, at least I can import without having to install the Zune software (which as fantastic BTW).

Also, check out the Xbox Music app. Pretty nice. And now I?m listening to a James Dean Hicks CD, Somewhere In America, that I recently purchased.  (this is the CD that I wanted to import, and you can see it in the My Music section below).

Hope this helps someone else!

0714.image_5F00_thumb_5F00_6F08DCD3.png

 

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a Surface RT isn't really a device intended for music ripping anyway. can you rip music on itunes on the iPad ? can you rip music on android tablets, specifically with the built in player ? 


I haven't ripped (or purchased) a physical CD in 6 years. Is this something people still do?

 

And that's why it's not included as a feature. If you want to rip there are better applications to do it with anyway. 

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a Surface RT isn't really a device intended for music ripping anyway. can you rip music on itunes on the iPad ? can you rip music on android tablets, specifically with the built in player ? 

 

And that's why it's not included as a feature. If you want to rip there are better applications to do it with anyway. 

 

I think you're missing the point here. The Surface RT is supposed to be a work device that should include the ability to manage, rip, organize media files all from one app. This is not about the Surface anyways, the Xbox music app should have this build in as it is supposed to replace Zune and WMP. Let's say the average Joe wants to rip his entire CD library to a flash drive to play on Xbox music, is he just supposed to use WMP or Zune? That isn't right.

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I think ripping CDs is an extremely small demographic that's only getting smaller.  The purpose of Xbox Music is to find and listen to the extensive catalog (which surprisingly has more songs in it than iTunes) at any time from anywhere.

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Xbox Music seems like a thing to compete more with services like Spotiy rather than provide the functionality of a full media player.

 

That said, people do still buy and rip CDs (maybe not be a ton of people, doesn't mean that group should be ignored), so it wouldn't have hurt them to add that functionality. Having to go use Windows Media Player to rip music (especially if you're solely using the touch screen) is a major drag.

 

edit: hmm, seems there is no Windows RT version of Windows Media Player.

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I think you're missing the point here. The Surface RT is supposed to be a work device that should include the ability to manage, rip, organize media files all from one app. This is not about the Surface anyways, the Xbox music app should have this build in as it is supposed to replace Zune and WMP. Let's say the average Joe wants to rip his entire CD library to a flash drive to play on Xbox music, is he just supposed to use WMP or Zune? That isn't right.

The RT line is not intended to be a work device. It's equivalent to the iPad. It's for casual use and media consumption. The Pro line is a work/enterprise device. You can still do the same thing that iPad users do: rip the CD on your computer and either copy the media files over or sync them with the music service to play. How would you even rip a disc on it? It doesn't have an optical drive.

As for your opinion on the app itself, I agree. It's horrible in general.

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Absolutely. Sort of astounding that you can still do it though (using WMP) if you want to.

RT doesn't have WMP.

 

The RT line is not intended to be a work device. It's equivalent to the iPad. It's for casual use and media consumption. The Pro line is a work/enterprise device. You can still do the same thing that iPad users do: rip the CD on your computer and either copy the media files over or sync them with the music service to play. How would you even rip a disc on it? It doesn't have an optical drive.

As for your opinion on the app itself, I agree. It's horrible in general.

Windows RT is supposed to be aimed at work and consumer for the future, it is what Windows is going to be, the desktop will eventually be the secondary part of the OS like the command line is. Therefore Microsoft's Xbox apps should at least be able to have the functionality. Not saying it is useful for the Surface line, but if RT was on desktops, maybe.

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I haven't ripped (or purchased) a physical CD in 6 years. Is this something people still do?

 

Yes, DVDs and BluRays too. That highlights some of the problem with Xbox Music. it was written for kids. You know, people too young to have a music collection and just stream from some service. :p Just about all the functionality that people who own their own collections want and need is what many complain is missing.

I think ripping CDs is an extremely small demographic that's only getting smaller.  The purpose of Xbox Music is to find and listen to the extensive catalog (which surprisingly has more songs in it than iTunes) at any time from anywhere.

 

In other words Xbox Music is a streaming service not a media manager. The sooner people accept that, the less frustrated they will be with Xbox Music. They expect it to be Zune 8.0, and it is not even close.

a Surface RT isn't really a device intended for music ripping anyway. can you rip music on itunes on the iPad ? can you rip music on android tablets, specifically with the built in player ? 

 

And that's why it's not included as a feature. If you want to rip there are better applications to do it with anyway. 

 He didn't complain that the Surface can't rip cds. He complained that Xbox Music can't. iTunes running on a Windows or Mac desktop PC surely can Rip CDs, and then automatically download the songs to the iPad or iPhone if you add them to a synced playlist.

 

The problem is people think Xbox Music is a media manager ala iTunes/Zune. It is not.

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There's a reason MS left WMP in. Xbox Music will probably never have all the features of WMP or Zune. I actually haven't seen any Modern software interact directly with hardware in such a fashion as ripping a CD or syncing dynamic playlists to a phone or MP3 player. Even gamepad support is apparently a challenge as Halo Spartan initially shipped without it.

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Windows RT is supposed to be aimed at work and consumer for the future, it is what Windows is going to be, the desktop will eventually be the secondary part of the OS like the command line is. Therefore Microsoft's Xbox apps should at least be able to have the functionality. Not saying it is useful for the Surface line, but if RT was on desktops, maybe.

I think you're confusing Windows RT and WinRT. Windows RT is a scaled-down version of Windows that runs on ARM processors. WinRT is the API/Framework that apps use and is present on Windows RT and Windows 8. Windows RT doesn't contain any features that most people would consider related to work. You can't install non-store apps and you can't connect it to a Windows domain. That's why there are two different Surface tablets. The Pro is a full computer in tablet form and can join domains, be controlled with group policy and can have custom apps sideloaded onto it using an enterprise key.

The music app was never intended to be a full media management system. It's only a media player.

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I think you're confusing Windows RT and WinRT. Windows RT is a scaled-down version of Windows that runs on ARM processors. WinRT is the API/Framework that apps use and is present on Windows RT and Windows 8. Windows RT doesn't contain any features that most people would consider related to work. You can't install non-store apps and you can't connect it to a Windows domain. That's why there are two different Surface tablets. The Pro is a full computer in tablet form and can join domains, be controlled with group policy and can have custom apps sideloaded onto it using an enterprise key.

The music app was never intended to be a full media management system. It's only a media player.

 

WinRT has the ability to be as powerful as the desktop, if implemented, that would mean Windows RT would then become as powerful as the desktop (or nearly as powerful) with WinRT or Modern UI apps. 

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I don't care much about ripping CDs but I agree with the general nature of the topic.

Xbox Music sucks as a music app and there can be no excuse for its sad state.

This app is a prime example that Microsoft still doesn't get the app culture or how a music player should work. This from the same company that brought us Zune and WMP. It is inexplicable.

Bunch of random problems:

- It is difficult to search for songs by artists because the app only searches on album artists. This is painful because I have a lot of compilations and bollywood music in my collection.

- Playlists, why the ###### can't it just read WMP playlists instead of importing them into its database?

- The app is full screen on my 22" monitor. It still can't fit the shuffle/repeat controls on the screen. Really?

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I didn't know you could even use CDs/DVDs with the Surface RT....You can with the pro and in that case you can use WMP or other (better) apps for it.

It does have a USB port though :p. External CD drives are still a thing.
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Has to be the silliest post I've seen on here in some time...

Surface... none of them have optical drives, RT variant or Pro.. My small Venue8 Pro sure doesn't have one and I'm not gonna

go out and buy some external drive plug that into my Venue8 and drain its battery ;P

 

If you need to rip cds/dvds go to your Desktop or Laptop which might have a optical drive(some don't these days) and rip whatever

you want using various desktop programs available(even wmp)

 

Heres a hint, there will be no cds in the future, everything will be subscription based or digital purchase and that's why Xbox Music

is the way it is & its also why many devices no longer have optical drives

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WinRT has the ability to be as powerful as the desktop, if implemented, that would mean Windows RT would then become as powerful as the desktop (or nearly as powerful) with WinRT or Modern UI apps.

WinRT is just an API akin to DirectX. It's not the entire OS kernel. The Windows RT kernel will probably never be as versatile as the full Windows kernel. The WinRT calls are abstracted out to the kernel so they will run on either.

As I said before, I agree with you that the music app completely sucks, but not because it doesn't rip CDs. It wasn't meant to. I think it sucks for the same reasons BajiRav mentioned. :)

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