As we all know, Microsoft wants to take over living rooms through the Xbox 360 console-- and as it happens it now launches Xbox Music, a streaming music service for the 360, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.
Xbox Music liberally borrows features from all familiar online music services. It offers around 30 million songs, with Spotify-style streaming, artist-based radio, cloud storage and an iTunes-style music store. The UI is also familiar, since it uses the tiles Microsoft likes so much.
Pricing varies from free (if ad-supported) to monthly subscriptions and pay-per-song.
Xbox 360 users will get Xbox Music first, as a Dashboard update. The service also comes pre-installed in Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices, with all versions sharing the same UI.
Windows 7 or Windows Phone 7 users will not be able to access the service though... and have to stick to the Zune Music Service instead.
The service will be available in 15 global regions on launch, a list Microsoft plans to expand to 22 in the future.
