14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft hasn't been much of a pioneer for the past decade, or maybe it has never been, but this hasn't stopped it. It's been trying to build a search engine to compete with Google for many, many years and, while Bing isn't bad, it's not exactly popular either.
However, Microsoft is taking "coming late to the party" to a whole new level with Xbox Music, which has finally moved beyond Microsoft-built operating systems with the launch of an Android and an iOS app.
Along with a new web-only free version, it looks like Microsoft is ready to take on the on-demand music streaming market.
Whether it will actually make a dent remains to be seen, since Microsoft's offering is coming months or years behind laggards like Google or Amazon, not to mention pioneers like Spotify or Deezer.
Granted, Xbox Music is not new, as the initial service launched a year ago and even that wasn't completely new, being built on the ashes of the Zune music service.
But it's only now that Microsoft is offering a complete package similar to Google Music's All Access, Amazon's Cloud Player, Pandora, and Spotify, in various ways.
Still, the new service has a few things going for it. For one, it's available in a lot more places than most of its competitors, apart from Deezer.
Second, Microsoft has a huge platform with the Xbox to push the service to millions of users. Granted, Google has an even bigger advantage with the billion or so Android users, but that hasn't translated into a huge market for the search giant. At least, it doesn't look like it, as the company hasn't disclosed any sort of usage numbers for the service.
That said, even the most "successful" online music companies, like Pandora and Spotify, aren't actually doing all that great. Both companies are struggling to turn a profit, due to the high cost of music licensing. That's less of an issue for the likes of Google and Microsoft, who can afford to operate at a loss.