After publishing a post about the limits of the free streaming being offered with the Xbox Music Service this past weekend, Xbox Music Free Unlimited Music Streaming Will Dry Up in April, I had a couple of questions from readers regarding when the counter actually begins for the unlimited streaming offer.
As a result of those questions I reached out to Microsoft and received the following statement from a spokesperson:
Once you log in with your Microsoft account, we offer unlimited free on-demand streaming for six months. After that you can still access free streaming but will have a limit of 10 hours / month. We believe music discovery is very important and we are committed to offering a free streaming option as part of our Xbox Music service. We will do so in a way that is great for both consumers and the music industry. If consumers want unlimited “all-you-can-eat” ad-free streaming access, we have Xbox Music Pass for $9.99 / month.
So based on that statement the six month unlimited streaming clock actually begins for each individual when they first log into the Xbox Music Service using their Microsoft Account. That means the expiration of that offer will be a rolling target for everyone based on their first official use of the service and then six months later the 10 hour per month limit will be imposed.
The first cycle of expirations will still be coming up around the end of April 2013 as I wrote this past weekend because that will be the six month mark for anyone who started using Windows 8 and the Xbox Music Service at General Availability back in October 2012.
