Microsoft is giving a big boost to its Xbox Music business this fall, partly by expanding its digital music service to both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platform. The change is the first in a series of efforts to vault Microsoft’s digital music business from a weak also-ran to a useful asset in its larger entertainment business.
Xbox Music’s features.
The addition of an Xbox Music app on the other platforms shows that Microsoft isn’t religious about extending its music business to its competitors’ offerings. And it also shows that the company is pressing its push into the entertainment business on all fronts, even in areas where you could easily argue that it hasn’t won.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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