“Xbox, music” and why I wish fact-checking was standard practice.

Before leaving work, today, I came across an article (Digital Spy) that says that Steve Ballmer had announced Xbox Music would be coming in the Fall. Now this becomes a problem with the internet. Soon more people pick up on that article as fact and suddenly a story becomes widespread. So much so that no one decides to do any due diligence and figure out what the hell is going on.

I scoffed not because the story was written, but because I knew that people were going to cite the story and make it seem like this blockbuster announcement had been made. The crux of the article says that Ballmer made this announcement during the Worldwide Partner Conference. That, to me, seemed like an odd place to make such an announcement. You would think that it would be at something like SXSW or E3.

So I decided to watch Ballmer’s keynote myself and I think I see where the problem is.

Here’s that portion of the keynote:

STEVE BALLMER: I want to show you the 2012 Xbox experience. This will be available this coming Christmas, and it’s where you can use your voice to control entertainment through the magic of Kinect. Whether you want to play games, watch movies, listen to music, or share with friends the voice should be your own, no buttons, nothing in your hands.

I’d like to introduce Ellena, who comes from our Xbox team. And Ellena is going to show you how it works.

ELLENA STIFF: Xbox music.

STEVE BALLMER: Instant access to 11 million songs.

ELLENA STIFF: Xbox games.

STEVE BALLMER: All the games you love, and even more of the experiences that you’re looking for.

ELLENA STIFF: Xbox video.

STEVE BALLMER: Simple and effortless voice and motion control. Everything that you care about, all the content types integrated. But, it’s only a beginning. Our goal for this year is to increase the content in our entertainment catalogue from hundreds of thousands of entertainment experiences to many millions of entertainment experiences

When giving the demonstration of upcoming Xbox features, the young lady says into the headset “Xbox Music.” Ballmer then goes on to talk about the Music Marketplace and the Fall update. Apparently the writer must’ve assumed that Xbox Music is what he was talking about. He might not understand that when you want to say a command to your console you start EVERYTHING with “Xbox.” That way the console knows it’s being addressed.

Now, come on. How long did it take me to get to the meat of this? Some time watching the keynote. If other journalists would do the same then they might not come with the immediate conclusion that they’ve discovered a scoop and rush to their Windows Live Writer trying to be one of the first in the lexicon with the story.

“Xbox, music.” seems to be the story to me.