I’m getting ready to break up with you Microsoft. Not too long ago, Windows Phone 7, Windows 7, and Zune Desktop. . . they all got along great. My music library would always stay in sync. I’d download something to my phone, and it would be on my desktop automatically. Seamless and beautiful. Now what the hell did you do?
I got a Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone App (Desktop and Modern), Windows 8. . . and these bitches are not friends.
The first sin. . . when I download a track on Windows 8 Xbox Music App. . . it will sometimes work in Windows Media Player. . . and sometimes it wont. Why don’t I just use the Windows 8 Xbox Music App? Well, it just sucks.
The second sin, it is painful trying to sync to Windows Phone 8. Here’s what I have to do. When I download a song to Windows Phone 8. . . it’s there forever. There’s no point trying to pull it down to Windows 8. . . your DRM hates that. How do I ensure that the tracks I enjoy on Windows Phone 8 are on my Windows 8 to enjoy? I’ve got to eyeball my phone, and manually download each track through the old Zune program. How do I get my Windows 8 music to my Windows Phone 8? I need to build playlists in Windows Media Player, careful to exclude anything that has Zune or Xbox Music DRM. . . because again. . . your DRM hates that. Then I pop open your terrible Windows Phone 8 App. . . the Desktop one (your Modern one is even more useless). Now I can sync the playlist I created. . . and during the long transfer time, I scroll through my phone and manually download any of my Windows 8 DRM tracks that I want to enjoy on my Windows Phone 8.
The third sin. . . I don’t want my playlist to stay there forever, so how do I change it? I connect my Windows Phone 8 to Windows 8. Then I open up File Explorer in the Desktop, making sure I can view all hidden folders. . . then ghetto delete every single thing I can in the Music folder. This is the only way to ‘clean’ the device without failing. The WIndows Phone 8 Desktop app fails at this task. Oh wait, what about those Xbox Music songs on my Windows Phone 8? Well, as I’m syncing a new playlist I’ll manually scroll through the Store on Windows Phone 8, and download those tracks again.
Really Microsoft? I have spent hours experimenting and reading up on this, and this is the best I can come up with? Don’t even start with the “Cloud Collection” that is near impossible to edit into any usable state. I wouldn’t’ be so bitchy, if you didn’t spoil me so much in the Zune days. Your Zune failed, even with all of the advantages you built into it. What the hell do you think is going to happen with your Xbox Music if you take away virtually all of those advantages and make simple things unreasonably difficult? Yeah. . . just wait and see.
Outside of that, I’m always able to stream a song or download it to the device that’s right in front of me. So I guess I’m getting what I’m paying for. Although, YouTube would also get the job done without all of the sweat and cost. Hmm.
