One of the handy dandy features of the Xbox 360 is being able to play music while playing any game. Be it an Xbox Live Arcade game or a regular game, you can always pick your own music to play with which automagically replaces the in game music.
So one day I’m playing with my custom music which I’ve either added via ripping my own CDs onto the console or via streaming from my Mac. Yes, I said streaming music from my Mac to my Xbox 360, I’ll talk about that in a second. Anyway, so I decided to listen to some of the free tunes that is given with every Xbox 360 hard drive. I happen upon this song Happens All The Time from Cold. I’d never heard the song nor have I ever heard of the band. So, I hop on iTunes and check them out. I wind of spending $20~ on new music all because of my 360. Ironic I know. And of course, I now ripped that music back to my 360 for later enjoyment.
Mac to Xbox 360 music streaming. There is a great shareware product out there called Connect360. Turn this puppy on and you’ve got instant access to all your music and photos stored on your Mac (limited to 100 songs/photos before you register) as well as the ability to stream internet radio. There is one small problem of course, you can’t play purchased music from the iTunes store due to the DRM (Digital Rights Management). So, the fix for that is to burn a CD with the songs and rip them directly to the 360.
Add to this that the Xbox 360 supports playing music from any attached USB storage device, I think I’ve found my new music playing device for the home theater.