Skip to main content

Xbox Music Center could be Xbox's version of Spotify - report

XRox.

Dark blue icons of video game controllers on a light blue background
Image credit: Eurogamer

A brand new music service may be on its way to Xbox, according to a number of job listings.

Twitter sleuth Superannuation noted in his debut column at Kotaku that numerous job postings have gone up suggesting Microsoft is working on a new music service for the Xbox.

A handful of openings for a Paris-based "Team Xbox Live Music" have appeared on Microsoft's career site. Sometimes referred to as "Xbox Live Paris," the listings (translated into English) describe the team's goal as: "building a massive catalog of music content from multiple vendors and development of innovative user interfaces for music consumption on Xbox, Windows, mobile phones and the web."

This matches the description in a March job listing for Microsoft's Parisian Musiwave subsidiary, suggesting Xbox Live Music/Xbox Live Paris is a rebranding of Musiwave for the console.

Musiwave was acquired by Microsoft in late 2007. Then, it specialized in services that allowed mobile carriers to wirelessly sell song and ringtone downloads. Its services were used by carriers in the UK, Europe, Africa, New Zealand and Australia, but not in the US. In 2009 Microsoft pulled the service from wireless carriers and shifted Musiwave's service towards the Zune Marketplace.

It's looking likely that the new service will be called "Xbox Music Center," a title that appears on several LinkedIn profiles as well as a third-party listing of one of the recent Xbox Music openings. According to the report, a full reveal is expected at Microsoft's press conference Monday.

Read this next