Xbox Music launches tomorrow, 16th October

Microsoft's new music streaming service, Xbox Music, is set to launch tomorrow, 16th October, offering over 30 million tracks to users of the platform – easily topping Spotify's library of 16 million.

Despite the larger catalogue of songs however, Xbox Music will operate in much the same way, offering a free, ad-supported version to all PCs, tablets and Windows smartphones. While not all of these will be able to connect tomorrow, by the end of the October, everyone will have access. Those that want to listen without the odd advert interruption, will need to spend £8.99 for the privilege.

However if you're an Xbox 360 users, you'll have to pay if you want to use it, as unfortunately there's no free version being offered.

If you want to build your own collection, you can buy individual albums and tracks from the service and in the future, Microsoft promises that you'll be able to store these on the cloud for access anywhere.

“The launch of Xbox Music is a milestone in simplifying digital music on every type of device and on a global scale,” said Don Mattrick, president of the interactive entertainment business at Microsoft (via VG247). “We’re breaking down the walls that fracture your music experiences today to ensure that music is better and integrated across the screens that you care about most — your tablet, PC, phone and TV.”

KitGuru Says: While there will undoubtedly be some users of this service, do you guys think it will catch on? Without a free version on the Xbox, Microsoft is missing out on many millions of advert impressions and with already established competitors like Spotify and the upcoming releases of the new MySpace and Megabox, the music streaming scene is becoming saturated, fast.

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