Unacceptable Advertising in Windows 8/RT Xbox Music App

By MorganX
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Grand Master

MorganX

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Can anyone else confirm that even when playing personal music library using the Xbox Music app on Windows 8 (in my case Surface RT) random audio ads (commercials) will pop-up between songs or playlists?

Again, this is not using the freebie Xbox Music subscription, when playing you own music library. I'm hoping it was an anomaly. This would be unacceptable to me.

Grand Master

Calum Veteran

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I haven't experienced this myself (as I haven't used the Windows 8 Music app for any personal music?I just use Spotify), but someone I know posted a Facebook status update about it the other week, so it seems as if it might be working like that :/

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neo158

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Can anyone else confirm that even when playing personal music library using the Xbox Music app on Windows 8 (in my case Surface RT) random audio ads (commercials) will pop-up between songs or playlists?

Again, this is not using the freebie Xbox Music subscription, when playing you own music library. I'm hoping it was an anomaly. This would be unacceptable to me.

It's probably because you're streaming your music library and not downloading and playing the albums.

Grand Master

MorganX

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It's probably because you're streaming your music library and not downloading and playing the albums.

I'm going to copy my entire music library over to see if this takes care of the issue.

Mentor

Clirion

Posted
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Can anyone else confirm that even when playing personal music library using the Xbox Music app on Windows 8 (in my case Surface RT) random audio ads (commercials) will pop-up between songs or playlists?

Again, this is not using the freebie Xbox Music subscription, when playing you own music library. I'm hoping it was an anomaly. This would be unacceptable to me.

I can confirm it does not play ads when using your Personal Music.

If you use the Smart DJ feature or stream music you do not own, it will play ads.

Grand Master

MorganX

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as opposed to the Xbox Music App which is a _______ ?

Thanks, you saved me the trouble.

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Grand Master

MorganX

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Yep I've had ads appear while my own music is playing (not streaming). It's so annoying that I gave up on the Xbox Music app.

I think using a cloud synced playlist is the culprit. Even though the files are local, it takes a while to find them locally and streams if available. It requires more work than Zune, iTunes, or WMP but I think it's going to do what I want. I hope. I'm tired of little third party apps that should be in the base OS. That includes Zune. With the Phone Sync app, if I can get my playlists the way I want, no more Zune.

It would have been nice if there were a more direct way to sync music and videos from desktop to Surface. :/

Grand Master

MorganX

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Ads DO NOT appear while playing locally stored music.

I noticed that streaming icon on one of the songs on a synced playlist. There is no manual library update that I see so I'll have to wait for it to find everything locally then hopefully that will be the end of that.

I was on Bluetooth headphones and having the ridiculous add pop-in made me think my Surface had malware! I'm OK with the ads on free apps and such, but audio/video, interrupting a playlist, not good.

Grand Master

+Ryster Subscriber²

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So after all the nonsense, we finally arrive at the the realisation that the Xbox Music app does not play ads when listening to local music. Only when playing playlists with content streamed from Microsoft's online service. In other words, exactly the same as Spotify and every other streaming media service. In other words, a total non-issue. Can we move on now?

Grand Master

MorganX

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So after all the nonsense, we finally arrive at the the realisation that the Xbox Music app does not play ads when listening to local music. Only when playing playlists with content streamed from Microsoft's online service. In other words, exactly the same as Spotify and every other streaming media service. In other words, a total non-issue. Can we move on now?

I just ignore the haters, I'm using the Xbox Music App it's inner workings aren't exactly documented, it's learn as you go. All the playlist functionality is there, just like Zune you just have to play with it, a lot.

I'm not happy the Xbox Music app seems to take forever to match your local music to a synced playlist but I do have a large library. I just wish there were a manual process to do it. It leaves A LOT to be desired but once you have everything synced and figure out the convoluted UI I see no reason for another app.

Discovering the Xbox Music app on the Surface is not optimal, I suppose I should spend more time with it on my desktop, but I prefer WMP there.

Grand Master

MorganX

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I just opened up Xbox music after reading this thread, it's pretty cool. :laugh:

I use iTunes everywhere else in the house, but at least this keeps me from installing Spotify.

Agreed, but it needs lots of updates. If all your music is purchased from Xbox Marketplace I'm sure it's Nirvana. But it needs to do better with private libraries and finding songs on all devices with synced playlists. The matching is alright but only available on desktop Win 8 right now. :/

Searching for songs is cumbersome to say the lease but that's another topic.

Since I only use playlists for my phone, I just have to decide where I'm going to sync my Lumia 920 when it gets here and create the playlists there since a synced lists only finds local files that it has information for in it's cloud database.

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Neowinian

Luca Leen

Posted
Posted

So after all the nonsense, we finally arrive at the the realisation that the Xbox Music app does not play ads when listening to local music. Only when playing playlists with content streamed from Microsoft's online service. In other words, exactly the same as Spotify and every other streaming media service. In other words, a total non-issue. Can we move on now?

Just for clarify:

My music stay on my NAS and added as folder in music collection of windows.

I receive audio ADS between my songs and every X times the music stop playing and a message appears asking me for buy xbox pass or continue the playing. UNACCEPTABLE!

Grand Master

zhangm Supervisor

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I had ads occur with increasing frequency, until it was stopping and playing an ad after every song. As far as I know, I was only playing locally stored music (synced between computers via Skydrive). Got ****ed off and uninstalled the app.

Grand Master

Brandon Live Veteran

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Just for clarify:

My music stay on my NAS and added as folder in music collection of windows.

I receive audio ADS between my songs and every X times the music stop playing and a message appears asking me for buy xbox pass or continue the playing. UNACCEPTABLE!

It sounds like you aren't playing local music, but instead are using the free streaming feature. This could be because you're used cloud-synced playlists. One thing you can try is turning off the "Xbox Music Cloud" option in the Settings charm, under Preferences.

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