Why do I get ads on Xbox Music on Windows 8.1?

I used to be a Microsoft fanboy, really, used to be. I had Windows Phone back when it was SmartPhone or Windows Mobile, or whatever they wanted to call it (too long ago to remember, and it was always changing). I purchased a 30gb Zune the day they came out (unboxing video), I purchased a 4gb zune after those devices came out. I had a Zune Pass for too many years to count.

But I got sick of Microsoft’s lack of functionality in the mobile space and I left, I switched to Android when the Motorola Droid came out in November 2009, and haven’t looked back. Up until recently I actually still had my Zune pass, why I don’t know, but I did. I kept paying Microsoft monthly for it. Last fall I spent a few months trying to cancel it, for some reason I couldn’t do it online, and the customer service reps took forever to actually get it completed as well.

Since January 2010 I’ve been a paying user of Pandora, and a happy one at that, I have 12 stations or so, but only 3-4 that I regularly listen to. When Google’s Music Subscription started, I signed up for that. So now I shift between Pandora and Google Music. This morning I decided it was kind of silly that I don’t listen to any of the music I own, so I fired up the Music app on my Windows 8.1 desktop. I got in, and picked out some music I haven’t listened to in a long time.

1 song in it quit playing, I switch back to the APP and see it is playing a playlist that had bunch of music on it that I had added when I had the Zune pass, so it was playing music I didn’t have rights to. Easy fix, I switched to play my music locally, that is on my file server here in the basement.

Three songs in to the (HED) PE album Broke and I get an Xbox Music Pass advertisement. Say what? A music advertisement playing when I am playing local music? After doing a little digging it appears my Xbox Music app wasn’t pointing to the file server, so it was playing music from the “cloud”. After digging around for 5 minutes I believe I’ve turned off the “cloud” access, and setup my file server again.

Time to switch to another artist/album, Pearl Jam, always a good choice. This time I make sure to choose “collection” and what do you know, a song or two in, I get another Xbox Music advertisement playing.

So long Xbox Music on Windows 8.1. I will never turn you back on. I’m off to Google Play Music for the rest of the day, or maybe I’ll fire up Pandora.

Dear Microsoft, please bring back the Zune Software and Marketplace