Xbox Music Coming to iOS and Android

Microsoft’s Xbox Music, which is their music streaming service (think of it as a rival to Spotify, Pandora, or Sony’s Music Unlimited) has been available on Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone, and obviously, Xbox devices for a year. Now, Microsoft has announced that their service will be expanding; in addition to headlining their music offerings on the upcoming Xbox One, it will also be available on iOS and Android devices.

Xbox Music offers an unusually good deal in that for the first six months, it offers free unlimited streaming of music with no limitations, from its catalog of over 30 million tracks; following the first six months, users who won’t pay are limited to 10 hours a month (similar to Spotify), whereas they can also subscribe to the service for $9 every month (which obviously removes the limitations).

The caveat here, however is that the free streaming will only be available to you if you are running a Windows 8 device, or using the web version, meaning those on an iOS or Android app will need to subscribe; although that sucks, it is, again, like competing services, so it remains a fairly good deal.