Xbox One owners have been able to play music in the background while they play games since last August. But with the Creators Update, this capability is even simpler to use.
Note: This article replaces Xbox One S Tip: Enjoy Background Music, and it documents changes to this behavior that arrived in the Creators Update.
To get started, start music playback in your favorite app: I’m using Microsoft Groove in this example.
Then, use the Guide to switch to the game you wish to play (or some other app). Music will continue playing, in the background, while you do so, adding to whatever audio and soundtrack is available in the game.
To control playback, tap the Xbox button on your controller to display the Guide. As you can see, music controls are available right there in the Guide, where they were hidden in a Multitasking interface in previous versions of the Xbox experience.
The controls work as expected—Reverse, Fast Forward, and Play/Pause obvious enough—but if you select the album, you will return to the music app.
The volume slider is particularly useful: This changes the music volume only, so you can make sure it’s the right volume compared to the in-game audio and music.