Microsoft is shutting down its free music streaming service, Xbox Music, on December 1. The service will continue to exist on Xbox but will become a subscription-only service for $9.99/month
Although Microsoft has upgraded the Xbox Music service several times, both for the Xbox One and for the new Windows mobile devices, it is still quite behind its competitors, such as Spotify. The company states that it focuses on creating the ultimate subscription-based music service for its customers, yet it does not justify why it makes the service exclusively subscription-based, especially since the free version also contains ads.
Xbox Music launched its operation in October 2012 together with the then-new Windows 8 and was preinstalled on all systems with this operating system. To date there are three options for users: the first is to pay the subscription from the start and download the Xbox Music Pass, the second is to pay for each song they download and the third option is to have the service for free on PC, but with advertising messages. The last version will stop but those who have downloaded songs to their device will continue to have them and they will not be deleted.
