Microsoft has announced a new upcoming service that will be offered by its strongest brands Xbox and Windows. Xbox Music will offer users about 30 million songs from a global catalog for free listening on computers and tablets running the latest version of its Windows software, as well as on the Xbox console.

Photo: Xbox Music, clickable

Xbox Music announcement comes along with the close release of Windows 8 that starts selling on October 26 and a preview of the first Microsoft’s tablet called Surface. The service will be available for Windows Phones too. With Xbox Music, Microsoft is “entering a landscape thick”, says The New York Times, as music remains a strong service for the biggest brands including Apple, Google and Amazon allowing them to sell more gadgets.

Through Xbox Music fans will be able buy songs as well as listen to Pandora-like radio stations that can be customized depending on the listener’s preferences and similar-sounding music. Like on Spotify, Window’s 8 users will enjoy music for free from their computer, though they will get audio and visual advertisements, though the option of buying a $10-a-month ad-free service is also offered. They will be able to create music mixes and playlists and use Smart DJ to create playlists with unlimited skipping.

According to Scott Porter, principal program manager for Xbox Music, Microsoft will release versions of the Xbox Music service that run on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS devices next year.

«There are a lot of individual services that do a good job, but today there isn’t a service which can pull together the benefits of download-to-own, music subscription, or free streaming services,» Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment division, said in a press release.

«With Xbox Music, what we wanted to do is bring all of that value in one simple, easy-to-use service, then build some additional value on top — make it really beautiful, and have it work across all of your devices.»