• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Microsoft on background music on XB1: "Taking our time, we want to do it right"

Bgamer90

Banned
Seems easy to implement but I don't know what they have in mind for new features that will possibly make this better than what the 360 did.

Only way I could be upset by this was if MS stated this feature would be coming to the system at launch.
 

m23

Member
Thanks, I added it to the OP


Good stuff.

I've been waiting on this feature for a while, not really sure how right they want to do it. Only stuff I can think of is allowing separate volume control for the music while in game.

I didn't do this, and I get the notifications anyway.

There's a setting somewhere.

Same, you choose notifications for all friends, or just favourites.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
it really doesn't seem like letting music play in the background could be that difficult a software engineering task, i mean doesn't pretty much every mobile phone since like 2004 do it
 

Ardenyal

Member
The console has been out two years and they are still taking their time. Sometimes it feels like these console updates are done by some intern on their free time with how long it takes to add features.
 

Heimbeck

Banned
Seems easy to implement but I don't know what they have in mind for new features that will possibly make this better than what the 360 did.

Only way I could be upset by this was if MS stated this feature would be coming to the system at launch.

I think the way to improve it would be getting Groove music to be able to play in the background.
 

GHG

Member
I don't understand why they are fumbling around with this. It would instantly breathe new life into Forza for me by being able to have my own tunes playing in the background.
 

Nosgotham

Junior Member
You don't feel like you're lessening the experience by listening to outside music? It's not distracting?

It's not great for all games but I'd rather listen to a custom playlist on a racing game or listen to some music I like in the background of halo which has no music in multiplayer.
 
i never understand the approach of waiting until it's right. apple does it too, just give me the shitty version that makes me 90% happy and then improve it later.

that is what Sony had done. they started off with a barebones USB MP3 player, moved on to Spotify and now they have a regular DLNA media player.
 
it really doesn't seem like letting music play in the background could be that difficult a software engineering task, i mean doesn't pretty much every mobile phone since like 2004 do it

From what I remember it worked even better on the OG Xbox, the GTA games especially which turned your stored music into its own cassette player in the car you were driving so conversations wouldn't be drowned out by the music, which would fade like the radio stations would when characters were having a conversation. I found it strange they never did that for GTA IV.
 

Gek54

Junior Member
So what about Spotify? They have pandora, I would be just as happy with that.

This feels like PS3 party chat all over again.
 

arhra

Member
I think the way to improve it would be getting Groove music to be able to play in the background.

The way to improve it would be to make it a pluggable API that third-party apps can hook into. Doing that robustly while meeting everyone's needs is the tricky part, and probably why it hasn't happened just yet.
 

Bsigg12

Member
The way to improve it would be to make it a pluggable API that third-party apps can hook into. Doing that robustly while meeting everyone's needs is the tricky part, and probably why it hasn't happened just yet.

That's what I'm thinking. I also think this feature will launch alongside the UWP opening up for the Xbox One.
 
Dream scenario would be to make it work it all apps, I need TuneIn running in the background so I can listen to Test Match Special while driving around in Horizon 2.
 

Heimbeck

Banned
The way to improve it would be to make it a pluggable API that third-party apps can hook into. Doing that robustly while meeting everyone's needs is the tricky part, and probably why it hasn't happened just yet.

It would be nice if they could at least get Groove to work in the background first.
 

Mindlog

Member
I was hoping this would be the gen where I could easily use any of my streaming apps for music natively on the hardware.

Instead it's been a clusterfuck.
Maybe PS6 and XBOX '25 will support Di.fm and changing song browsing without suspending a game in progress.
 

Shpeshal Nick

aka Collingwood
Why does he "want to do it right?", they've done barely anything right with the new dash anyway. Just throw the background music on the pile and hope for the best like the rest of the dash.
 

MaulerX

Member
I wonder if there isn't enough extra RAM to handle it, same as party chat on PS3.



Not sure how you're getting at this conclusion. They said it's coming. It just seems like they want to improve on the 360 solution and are aiming at background music/audio for all apps. At least that's what I'm getting from it.
 

segasonic

Member
MS is taking their time. Everyone chill, don't be so impatient and ungrateful.

They have to make sure to get this feature right that was part of Xbox 360 dashboard 10 MOTHERFUCKIN YEARS AGO

chill, people
 

jfoul

Member
Not having this feature is why I stream to my PC most of the time. Custom music was perfect on the X360. I don't know why it's taking so long to implement on XB1.
 

Sydle

Member
Given the issues with BC and the new OS I think it's a good idea they don't release it until it's ready. Hopefully it supports a good number of streaming services.
 
"Doing in right"...

Translation for how can MSFT somehow leverage some licensing or fee control from content provders ala Apple?

You can just have it via USB or a Spotify like service? Come on man.

Regardless, I almost never use this feature, but for those that do, I can understand the frustration.

You can already play your own music that way on the xb1. Groove (formally zune -> xbox music) is pretty great. Works just as well as Spotify (and predates it).

The only issue here is doing all of that in the background vs snapped.

I'm not sure what makes it so complicated, but i imagine most here are simplifying it tremendously. I imagine much of the complexity is coming from the way they designed their app/os structure on xbox one. Many things that were "standard" on the 360 were built into the OS, and this gen they've moved to an app-centric system.

That complexity isn't necessarily bad because on the previous system, you couldn't have any music app (such as xbox music) playing in the background. With this set up, they can make all music apps behave this way.

I hope it gets sorted out soon because I'd love to have it.
 
Not sure how you're getting at this conclusion. They said it's coming. It just seems like they want to improve on the 360 solution and are aiming at background music/audio for all apps. At least that's what I'm getting from it.
It wasn't a conclusion; hence the "I wonder" part.
 
This was fully functional at the launch of the Xbox 360 exactly 10 years ago today. 2 years is not "taking your time." Horse shit.
 

Head.spawn

Junior Member
This is one of those love/hate thing I have with MS; sometimes there is a new feature and I feel like they take too long to implement things, but when they do get to it, it usually is above and beyond what I would've thought.

If I had to guess, I'd imagine that when this feature comes it will coincide with other features... like maybe a streamlined way to control music, smartglass/Xbox app integration for controls, voice-commands, apps will probably be redesigned or adjusted to accommodate instead of just making it purely background music, new configuration settings & behavior options, probably adding some kind of "PlayTo" over network implementation, hopefully some way to let me play Spotify/Google Music etc etc.

I wouldn't think it would be as simple as; play music in the background. Playing music in the background, I would think would completely change the behavior apps, compared to the frozen state that they currently have.
 

RdN

Member
Bullshit excuse. The 360 did it perfectly. Out of the box. 10 years ago.

I find it unbelievable. It's like they don't remember how incredible the core features were on the 360.

Every single core feature is worse or completely missing on the XBO. Not even the NXOE made things loke friends, achievers, messages, etc, as good as they were on the 360.
 
Ms did this quite well on the 360. it blows my mind both ms and Sony are this annoying about the most basic features like the ps3 did a fantastic job at folders and customization but the ps4 it's no were to be found. And is taking ages to implement and now the one can't even hook background music up which the 360 perfected
 
Unless they are creating some beast of a player that lets you choose the source (Soundcloud, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIN) and works perfectly with all if them. I don't see what could take them this long to do it.
 
Unless they are creating some beast of a player that lets you choose the source (Soundcloud, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIN) and works perfectly with all if them. I don't see what could take them this long to do it.
That's most likely what they're doing. The 360 one was pretty barebones that the music had to be ripped from a CD to the hard drive. Sometimes you could get iPod's to work but it was very picky. This will probably let you choose with source for streaming, hopefully they will let me plug in my phone via USB and listen to music off my phone's memory that would be cool.
 

Bsigg12

Member
Unless they are creating some beast of a player that lets you choose the source (Soundcloud, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIN) and works perfectly with all if them. I don't see what could take them this long to do it.

With how streaming music has become the main way most people get music now, developing the Universal Windows Platform to allow apps to play sound in a closed or hidden state seems to be the route they're taking.

The way the new guide is, they can very easily add a section for music that then connects to whatever apps you have that are updated to work with it. They could also integrate Cortana go be able to go within the apps and play the music you ask it to.

Mind you this is speculation, but seems very reasonable to me.
 

Rembrandt

Banned
Unless they are creating some beast of a player that lets you choose the source (Soundcloud, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIN) and works perfectly with all if them. I don't see what could take them this long to do it.

That seems to be the way they're taking, but people would rather have a quick version that's exactly similar to the last one than something substantially different and improved. I'm guessing tones will change upon release.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
The biggest question I have is who uses this and why? Such an unneeded feature.
I am curious about how many people use this feature too.

I used it all the time on the 360 while playing multiplayer games. It's great when you're jumping between lobbies and just want some downtime.

I don't get what's so hard to understand about that for some people in this thread.
 

btrboyev

Member
I used it all the time on the 360 while playing multiplayer games. It's great when you're jumping between lobbies and just want some downtime.

I don't get what's so hard to understand about that for some people in this thread.

Well it's not 2005 anymore and you probably have 5 devices in your living room that can stream for you...not sure why your game console has to anymore.
 

btrboyev

Member
That's most likely what they're doing. The 360 one was pretty barebones that the music had to be ripped from a CD to the hard drive. Sometimes you could get iPod's to work but it was very picky. This will probably let you choose with source for streaming, hopefully they will let me plug in my phone via USB and listen to music off my phone's memory that would be cool.

You could stream off a PC for music
 
So this basically means they tried to release it earlier but ran into issues or feel they don't have the music apps which are strong enough to support it.

Can't argue with that, I mean look at the reactions in this thread imagine if they half assed it!
 
Top Bottom