From the Forums: Disappointment with the Xbox Music app in Windows 8

Users in the Neowin forums aren't too happy with the new Xbox Music app in Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Of all the complaints about Microsoft's new operating systems, one of the most common in the Neowin forums seems to involve the app, which replaced Microsoft's previous Zune and Windows Media Player applications.

In one thread in the forums, mrdeezus discusses issues he's having with the app downloading music despite having the cloud syncing settings turned off.

I have a surface and windows 8 pc. I have cloud settings turned off and every time I load app it says its downloading music!!! I have installed all my paid for music in my xbox music folder for local listening. I would like someone to explain to me why this is happening? Also id like to hear from some Zuners what they think of the xbox music app because to me it has a lot of work to be done to it before it comes close to Zunes functionality. Thanks

In the same thread, xiphi stated his displeasure with the app so far and said Microsoft's previous Zune software had many more features.

They definitely need to bring back a LOT of functionality that Zune had. I'm surprised there's no way to change the sorting of music when viewing by artists in your own collection. It just defaults to songs which is lame. It's also sluggish when it has a few thousand songs compared to Zune which handles it gracefully. There's no obvious way to change the position of the song. There's no "my picks" in the marketplace that shows relevant results. No Social, which was "removed" from Zune, but is actually still functional if you don't restart Zune after a fresh install. If it weren't for the free streaming, I wouldn't even use the app.

Other users were also unhappy with certain features being missing. In a different thread, bguy_1986 lamented the fact that music ratings aren't available in the Xbox Music app.

Did Microsoft take awa[y] all song rating stuff in xbox music? Can I no longer like or dislike a song like I could with Zune or am i just missing how to do this? If you can rate a song, is there a way you can create an autoplaylist of your favorite music like you could in Zune? Loved that feature! 

For the most part, Neowin users seem to be unhappy with the state of the Xbox Music app, although it was recently updated to fix an issue with music stuttering, spudtrooper said.