Just ahead of the big release of the new Windows 8 operating system, Microsoft is launching something called Xbox Music, initially for the Xbox gaming console.

While you can still buy music by the song, Apple-style, there are other options, like one that lets you pay about $10 a month to listen on-demand to lots of music without ads. All this in a video game machine?

“An important messaging change over the last year was increasingly positioning the Xbox not as a gaming console but as a media hub for consumers,” said Michael McGuire, who follows the digital music business for Gartner Research.

Microsoft has a checkered past trying to go after iTunes. You may remember Zune taking the world by storm and vanquishing iTunes for good? Oh, you don’t?