Xbox Music taps into Gracenote to tag your tunes
Sony's music-matching service lends a hand to Microsoft to label your Xbox Music albums and stream them across different devices.
Xbox Music users now can identify their music and listen to it across different PCs and mobile devices courtesy of Gracenote.
Buying a $10-per-month Xbox Music Pass entitles you to tap into the new service, which can identify albums and songs you already own and unlock your music online. All of your music can be unlocked, including songs bought through Amazon or Apple as well as those ripped from your CDs.
Gracenote, which is owned by Sony, also lets you edit the metadata for your Xbox Music collection and add missing album art. Finally, you can stream your tunes to a variety of platforms, including Windows 8 and RT, Windows Phone 8, iOS, Android, and the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
"A big frustration for music fans is having to completely rebuild their collections when switching between streaming or download services," Gracenote president Stephen White said in a statement. "Gracenote music recognition and data will make it easy for Xbox Music users to migrate their collections to the cloud without searching, repurchasing, or even uploading."
Microsoft rolled out Xbox Music last year in an effort to compete with iTunes, Pandora, and other online music providers. Initially cooked into Windows 8, the service has since expanded to mobile devices and Microsoft's Xbox One console.