Report: Xbox Music to be part Rhapsody, part iTunes

Microsoft’s new foray into the world of digital music won’t be a one-size-fits-all platform.

According to Bloomberg, Xbox Music will be a multi-faceted experience and it will be up to the users to decide how they want to use it.

That is to say, instead of focusing on one aspect of music delivery like streaming or individual track downloads, it will offer both of those channels.

So if users prefer, they will be able to pay a monthly fee to access as many songs as they want, but everything will be stored in the cloud and only playable on Xbox Music-enabled devices (Windows 8, Xbox 360, Windows Phone, etc).

Or, for those who don’t like that kind of set-up, Xbox Music will also offer pay-per-download music files just like iTunes or Amazon MP3.

The new service was announced earlier this month at E3, but it was unveiled as part of a whole slew of new Xbox 360 entertainment features, most of which, including Xbox Music, were not really expanded upon.

It is a competitive space, but just the sheer number of Xbox 360 consoles that are taken online every day provides an attractive outlook for where it could head.