At E3 2012 earlier in June, Microsoft officially announced plans to launch Xbox Music later in 2012, which is supposed to work on Windows 8, Windows Phone and the Xbox 360 console. Unfortunately, details about the service were not revealed at the time. Today, Bloomberg reports, via unnamed sources, that Microsoft has plans to make Xbox Music rival other similar services such as Apple's iTunes and Spotify.
Those plans reportedly include offering a streaming music service which can be accessed for a monthly or yearly fee. A music download store is also planned. Bloomberg also reports that Microsoft plans to offer some kind of cloud-based music storage service, which will support uploading songs purchased on Xbox Music or other services.
Microsoft is said to be in talks with the four major music publisher (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony and EMI) to support the Xbox Music service. The report adds that Microsoft might launch Xbox Music without all of the rights secured at first and may add features over time.
Microsoft has already announced that its current Zune music service will be retired in favor of Xbox Music. All current Zune music subscribers will be rolled into the Xbox Music service but details of how that will work have yet to be announced.
Source: Bloomberg
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