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When the Microsoft Band was announced one of feature I thought was missing was the ability to control music playback from the Band. With the updated SDK a developer as added music control to Band but with a couple of limitations.

Music Band for Windows Phone adds a music tile to the Microsoft Band where you can control music playback from the Music Band Windows Phone app. The app also pushes track information to the Band so when the track changes it pushes it as a notification to the Microsoft Band.
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The limitation is you have to use the Music Band app on Windows Phone for music playback, it can’t control the Xbox Music app (which is a limitation of the SDK) and it can’t play music from the Xbox Music Pass subscription. It does seem to be able to play music from OneDrive and locally stored tracks.

In practice you just need to use the Music Band app to select your music and then you can control playback from the Microsoft Band. I know the developer has had a lot of issue with the restrictions of the SDK but I think he has done a great job for an initial release. The app is free from the Windows Phone Store and well worth having a play with if you have the Microsoft Band.
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One thought on “Control music playback from your Microsoft Band”
  1. I hope they include something like this for Xbox Music. I use Cortana for changing tracks and starting a playlist or playing an artist, but I would like to have controls and what song is playing right on the Band. I use Xbox Music Pass so this wont work for me, but good to see an app like this!

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