Doing More with Music

While the Music app provides a handy, consumption‑only interface for music, those who have more advanced needs will need to turn to some classic Windows applications that have been kicking around for several years.

Note, however, that neither of these options are available to Windows RT users: Only Windows 8 provides any support for these legacy desktop‑based music applications.

All versions of Windows 8 include Windows Media Player, which is shown in Figure 9‑37. This application has historically been used as a media management system, but it hasn’t really changed since Windows 7, for better or worse.

Figure 9‑37: Windows Media Player

Windows Media Center, meanwhile, started life as a consumption‑only application, like today’s Metro‑style apps, though it picked up more sophisticated capabilities over time. It features large, touch‑friendly controls, works well in full‑screen mode, and has a particularly nice Now Playing interface, which is shown in Figure 9‑38.

Unfortunately, finding Media Center is a bit problematic.

First, Media Center is not available on Windows RT or the base version of Windows 8, which is called Windows 8 Core. Instead, you must have Windows 8 Pro before you can get Media Center.

Second, even if you have Windows 8 Pro, Media Center isn’t free: You can buy it for a small fee from Microsoft using the new Add Features to Windows interface. (You can easily find this through Start Search.) Why bother? If you have to ask, you don’t want Media Center. And frankly, the world has moved on anyway.

Figure 9‑38: The full‑screen Media Center music playback experience