Microsoft's Xbox Music to compete with iTunes

Xbox Music puts an end to the ignominious Zune era.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Microsoft will launch Xbox Music on the Xbox on Tuesday. The platform heads to PCs and Microsoft Surface devices 10 days later.

There will be three levels of service: free streaming access to a 30 million-song catalog, an ad-less Xbox Music Pass subscription for $9.99 a month or $99.99 annually, and an mp3 download-to-own store. The free-streaming option won’t be available on phones, though the subscription service will.

“Within a year we’ll be launching an iOS and Android client, so it’s not just on Windows phones,” Xbox Music GM Jerry Johnson said. “Today we’re announcing we’re going into 22 markets. That number will continue to grow over this year. It’s hundreds of licensing deals we’re doing globally. We should be the first one to have free streaming of ad-supported content in Canada.”

After more than a decade of dominance, iTunes is now being challenged head-on by Google, Amazon, and soon, by Neil Young’s hi-fi Pono service, in addition to Microsoft.

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