Microsoft added a couple of new features to its Windows 8 Xbox Music app last week but the company is also working on a major overhaul of Xbox Music for the release of Windows 8.1. People who downloaded the public preview version got a chance to check out some of those new Xbox Music features this week.
In a post on the Xbox Wire blog, Microsoft goes over some of the changes for the Xbox Music app, starting with a new UI that puts a column on the left side of the screen that gives users a new way to navigate though the app"s selections. It also includes an in-app search bar, a "Collection" option to see which songs are stored on a local PC and which ones are stored on a user"s Skydrive cloud account, and a new "Explore" selection that takes people to the Xbox Music store to buy more tunes.
The "Radio" selection will let users find streaming Internet radio stations based on the artists they like. Microsoft also talked about how adding Bing to Xbox Music will help users. It stated:
Using Windows Search, you will find musicians, bands and artists presented in a rich field of content, including top songs, albums, videos, images and relevant Web pages. If you select a track from the song list in the Bing results, it will immediately begin playing in the Xbox Music app.
Microsoft says that the features that are in the Xbox Music Windows 8.1 app are currently just 50 percent of the features they plan to add before the final version is released later this year.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft