Microsoft has never revealed any information on how many people use its Xbox Music apps, but the company clearly would like to take some of the massive audience away from Apple"s iTunes via their own music marketplace. This week, the Surface division posted up a brief video that showed how iTunes music tracks and playlists can be transferred to a new Surface and played on the Xbox Music app.
The quick, and unlisted, YouTube clip appeared on Microsoft"s official Surface blog this week. It shows how owners can simply connect a USB flash drive that contains an iTunes playlist to the tablet. The list can then be dragged and dropped into the Surface"s music folder. If a user has a custom playlist on iTunes they which to retain on the Surface, owners can bring up the Xbox Music app and then tap or click on the "Import playlist" option; the app should take care of everything else.
While not a direct shot against Apple, the blog post and video does show that Microsoft wants people to understand that if they buy a new Surface tablet, they don"t have to suddenly dump the content they may have bought in the past on iTunes.
Source: Microsoft