From the looks of things, it would seem Microsoft had accidentally leaked the pricing for its new music streaming service, Xbox Music. The leaked information came from an Xbox Live Dashboard update that allows some users to test the new Windows 8-styled user interface.

The leaked information suggests that Xbox Music will offer potential users unlimited music streaming for a monthly or yearly subscription, which is not too different from Zune Pass and other major music streaming services. Screenshot of the leaked dashboard information showed prices in UK currency, which is £8.99 per month or £89.99 per year. Pricing for the US market shouldn't be too different from what Zune Pass was offering. So expect prices to be along the lines of $9.99 monthly, or $100 yearly.

The big turn off here, is that the service requires the user to have an Xbox Gold membership or else, things won't work as intended. This restriction is only for the Xbox 360. Users should be able to use Xbox Music without Xbox Live's Gold Membership on Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 devices.

The biggest shocker in the leaked information suggests there will be free version of Xbox Music. However, it will be ad supported and most likely would be available only in the United States for the time being. Xbox Music free will definitely require the user to have an Xbox Live Gold Membership to work across all devices from Xbox 360, Windows 8, right down to Windows Phone 8.

Initially, Microsoft was championing Zune Pass as its music streaming service. However, it didn't catch on as the company would have liked, and thus the decision to change things over to the more popular Xbox brand came into play. Time will tell if Xbox Music will have what it takes to walk on the same level of the likes of Apple iTunes and Spotify.

Xbox Music was announced back in E3 2012. The service is expected to have over 30 million tracks to choose from, more than Apple iTunes' 28 million and double that of Zune Pass' 15 million songs. Launch date is slated for October, along with many other Microsoft branded products.