Soon users of Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service will be able to upload and seamless stream from their own catalog of albums instead of relying solely on an Xbox Music Pass.
Microsoft Windows executive Joe Belfiore announced music storage and streaming were coming to OneDrive today during Microsoft’s Windows 10 Media Briefing. He also gave users a brief look at the version of Xbox Music coming to Windows 10 devices with screen sizes smaller than 8-inches.
In fact, in the screenshot in his presentation also provides the first look we’ve gotten of the Windows 10 Music app. The app pictured in this photo taken by The Verge has none of the familiar Xbox Music colors. That being said, the design is an evolution of what we have today. Along the side are options for browsing by Artist, Albums & Songs. It appears users will also create playlists and shop for more music using the left navigation. The only thing missing is to Radio, the feature that creates playlists for users today. It originally debuted in Zune as SmartDJ.
In theory, being able to store your own songs on OneDrive and then stream to the different Xbox Music clients should work out far better than what we have now. Today, Xbox Music scans user’s collection and then makes a matching version of that song available on other devices. The problem is that sometimes Xbox Music gets these dead wrong. It also means that albums that are a part of your collection but not in the Xbox Music catalog stay stranded on your device.
Belfiore says users can expect OneDrive music storage in the next couple of months. Windows 10 won’t launch for phones, desktops, notebooks and tablets until later in 2015. There’s a test version that’ll be available to the public coming in the next week.