Groove Music

Last updated

Groove Music
Developer(s) Microsoft
Stable release
Windows 1010.21102.1042.0. / October 27, 2021;2 years ago (2021-10-27)
Preview release
Windows 11: 11.2110.34.0
Operating system Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Windows 11
Platform x86, x64, ARM, ARM64 [1]
Predecessor Windows Media Player
Successor Media Player (2022)
Available in113 languages [2]
Type audio player
License Freeware
Website music.microsoft.com   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Groove Music (formerly Xbox Music and Zune Marketplace) is a discontinued audio player software application included with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Contents

The app is also associated with a now-discontinued music streaming service, Groove Music Pass, which was supported across Windows, Xbox video game consoles, Windows Phone, as well as Android and iOS. [3] As of 2014, the Groove catalogue had over 50 million tracks. [4] [5] Its subscription service Groove Music Pass was officially discontinued on December 31, 2017, and the Android and iOS versions of the Groove Music app were discontinued in December 2018, restricting the player to its native Microsoft Store base.

Groove Music was superseded by Media Player in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The update was rolled out to Windows 10 users between January and June 2023.

History

Microsoft had previously ventured into music services with its Zune brand. The Zune Marketplace included 11 million tracks. The line of Zune players and Zune music store were somewhat unsuccessful, and the brand was largely discontinued at the beginning of the 2010s, although it continued to exist on different devices and the Zune Music Pass offered unlimited access to songs for US$9.99 per month. [6]

During its E3 2012 press conference, and in the wake of the upcoming release of Windows 8, Microsoft announced the relaunch of the service as Xbox Music. With the accompanying announcement of Xbox Video, this move was intended to position Xbox as the company's main entertainment brand. Both services launched on October 16, 2012. [7] [8]

On July 6, 2015, Microsoft announced the re-branding of Xbox Music as Groove to tie in with the impending release of Windows 10. The new brand utilized the Microsoft-owned "Groove" trademark formerly used for the unrelated product Microsoft Office Groove (now OneDrive for Business). Joe Belfiore explained that the re-branding was intended to disassociate the service from the Xbox product line, making it more inclusive to non-Xbox platforms. [9] [10] [11]

On October 2, 2017, Microsoft announced that its subscription service, Groove Music Pass, and music purchases on Windows Store would be discontinued after December 31, 2017, leaving support for playing music stored locally and on OneDrive. At the same time, Microsoft began advertising the competing service Spotify, displaying a banner ad for the service within the Groove Music user interface, [12] and offering the ability to migrate music collections and playlists to Spotify. As a side effect of the discontinuation, on May 31, 2018, Microsoft additionally announced that the Groove Music apps for Android and iOS would also be discontinued and cease functioning on December 1, 2018, with users being redirected to Google Play Music and iTunes Match for similar cloud synchronization functionality (the OneDrive app still offered limited music playback functions within). [13] [14]

Microsoft began replacing the Groove Music app with a new Windows Media Player app in January 2022 via an update from the Microsoft Store; it initially applied to Windows 11, with Windows 10 following suit in January 2023. [15] [16]

Groove Music Pass

Groove Music Pass (formerly Xbox Music Pass and Zune Music Pass) is a discontinued pay subscription service that allowed unlimited streaming of the service's catalog on any device with the service installed. The pricing in the U.S. included monthly and annual subscriptions. [17] A one-month trial offer was available, but those who previously tried the Zune Music Pass subscription prior to the rebranding were ineligible for this offer. [18] An advertising-supported streaming tier was previously available, but discontinued effective December 1, 2014. [6] [19] Music could also be purchased directly from Windows Store. [20]

Users' purchased music, and playlists consisting of songs available on the service could be synced through OneDrive and accessed from multiple devices. Songs in a user's local library on a Windows 8.1 PC could be matched and made available to other devices if available on Groove Music Pass. [21] [22] Custom "radio stations" could be generated using songs related to user-selected songs. [23] Songs could be downloaded for offline listening on smartphones. [24] Uploading of non-Groove music became available on Windows 10. [20]

Windows 10's Anniversary Update allowed users to hide features that require a Groove Music Pass from the interface.

On October 2, 2017, Microsoft announced the discontinuation of the Groove Music Pass service effective December 31, 2017. Existing subscribers were refunded, and Microsoft began promoting Spotify as an alternative by allowing saved playlists to be migrated to the service. [25]

Cloud Collection

Groove Music lets users create a collection of songs and playlists that roam through the cloud on all the supported devices. [21] The songs can be added from the Groove Music Store or matched (within the Groove Music Catalog) to songs either saved locally on the user's machine or uploaded to the user's OneDrive account for the country the user is in.

APIs for developers

The Groove Music API provides access to RESTful web services for developers to leverage the catalog and features of the service in their application or website. [26]

Geographical availability

Blue: Groove Music Pass was available Dark Blue: Only Groove Music Store was available Availability of Groove Music in the World.svg
Blue: Groove Music Pass was available
Dark Blue: Only Groove Music Store was available

Countries where Groove was available included: [27]

Supported formats

The app in Windows 10 supports a number of formats, [28] [29] including:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Media Player</span> Media player and media library application by Microsoft

Windows Media Player is the first media player and media library application that Microsoft developed to play audio and video on personal computers. It has been a component of the Microsoft Windows operating system, including Windows 9x, Windows NT, Pocket PC, and Windows Mobile. Microsoft also released editions of Windows Media Player for classic Mac OS, Mac OS X, and Solaris, but has since discontinued them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Playlist</span> Curated list of video or audio files

A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of television broadcasting, radio broadcasting and personal computers.

The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the original Xbox console on November 15, 2002. An updated version of the service, adding the Xbox Live Marketplace, became available with the Xbox 360 console launch in November 2005, and a further enhanced version was released in 2013 with the Xbox One. The service is used on the latest Xbox Series X and Series S and, in addition to a Microsoft account, is the account for Xbox ecosystem; accounts can store games and other content.

Xbox Games Store was a digital distribution platform previously used by Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console and formerly by the Xbox One. The service allowed users to download or purchase video games, add-ons for existing games, game demos along with other miscellaneous content such as gamer pictures and Dashboard themes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zune</span> Microsofts former digital media brand

Zune was a brand of digital media products and services that was marketed by Microsoft from November 2006 until it was discontinued in June 2012. Zune consisted of a line of portable media players, a music subscription service known as Zune Music Pass plus Zune Marketplace for music, TV and movies, streaming services for the Xbox 360 game console, and the Zune software media player for Windows PCs which also acted as desktop sync software for Windows Phone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zune software</span> Discontinued media management software by Microsoft

Zune is a discontinued software program that was developed by Microsoft for Windows that functions as a full media player, library, media streaming server, mobile device management, and interface for the discontinued Zune Marketplace. The software is used to sync with all devices with Zune functionality including the Zune 4, 8, 16, 30, 80, 120, Zune HD, Windows Phone 7, and Microsoft Kin. Zune devices work exclusively with the Zune software, which applies many design principles of Microsoft's Metro design language.

Digital music stores sell copies of digital audio, for example in MP3 and WAV file formats. Unlike music streaming services, which typically charge a monthly subscription fee to stream digital audio, digital music stores download songs to the customer's hard disk drive of their device. The customer will have the copy of the song permanently on their disk, provided the track is not deleted by the customer, the disk does not get physically damaged, or suffers from being corrupted. Major examples of digital music stores include iTunes Store, Amazon Music, Bandcamp and 7digital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Phone</span> Family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft

Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design language. Unlike Windows Mobile, it was primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.

Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. As of June 2024, it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services, with over 626 million monthly active users comprising 246 million paying subscribers. Spotify is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zune HD</span> 2009 portable media player by Microsoft

The Zune HD is a portable media player in the Zune product family released on September 15, 2009, by Microsoft. It was a direct competitor with Apple's iPod Touch series of mobile devices. It was initially released in 16 and 32 GB capacities. A 64 GB version was released on April 9, 2010. It has a touchscreen interface for navigation and included Wi-Fi for synchronization, access to the Zune Marketplace and Web browsing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MixRadio</span> Online music streaming service

MixRadio was an online music streaming service owned by Line Corporation. The service was first introduced by Nokia in 2011 as Nokia Music for Windows Phone, serving as a successor to Nokia's previous Nokia Music Store/Comes with Music/Ovi Music Store initiatives, which was based on the LoudEye/OD2 platform. After its acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone business, the service was briefly maintained by Microsoft Mobile Oy before it was sold to Japanese internet company Line Corporation in 2015. Following the acquisition, MixRadio expanded to Android and iOS in May 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Style Jukebox</span>

Style Jukebox was a hi-fi high-resolution audio cloud music streaming and storage player for the Windows, iOS, Android and Windows Phone platforms. A Web Player was also available for Mac, Windows and Linux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Store</span> Digital distribution platform for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and Series X/S

The Microsoft Store is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It was created as an app store for Windows 8 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps. With Windows 10 1803, Microsoft merged its other distribution platforms into Microsoft Store, making it a unified distribution point for apps, console games, and digital videos. Digital music was included until the end of 2017, and E-books were included until 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xbox (app)</span> Software

The Xbox app is an app for Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, Android, iOS and Tizen. It acts as a companion app for Xbox video game consoles, providing access to Xbox network community features, remote control, as well as second screen functionality with selected games, applications, and content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Movies & TV</span> Digital video service

Microsoft Movies & TV, or Microsoft Films & TV, previously Xbox Video and Zune Video, is a digital video service developed by Microsoft that offers full HD movies and TV shows available for rental or purchase in the Video Store as well as an app where users can watch and manage videos from their personal digital collections stored locally. The service is currently available on Xbox consoles beginning with Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows computers beginning with Windows 10.

Microsoft mobile services are a set of proprietary mobile services created specifically for mobile devices; they are typically offered through mobile applications and mobile browser for Windows Phone platforms, BREW, and Java. Microsoft's mobile services are typically connected with a Microsoft account and often come preinstalled on Microsoft's own mobile operating systems while they are offered via various means for other platforms. Microsoft started to develop for mobile computing platforms with the launch of Windows CE in 1996 and later added Microsoft's Pocket Office suite to their Handheld PC line of PDAs in April 2000. From December 2014 to June 2015, Microsoft made a number of corporate acquisitions, buying several of the top applications listed in Google Play and the App Store including Acompli, Sunrise Calendar, Datazen, Wunderlist, Echo Notification Lockscreen, and MileIQ.

The following is a list of on-demand music streaming services. These services offer streaming of full-length content via the Internet as a part of their service, without the listener necessarily having to purchase a file for download. This type of service is somewhat similar to Internet radio. Many of these sites have advertising that supports free-to-listen options as well as paid subscription-based premium options.

<i>Microsoft Solitaire Collection</i> 2012 video game

Microsoft Solitaire Collection is a video game developed by Microsoft Casual Games and published by Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Windows. It combines the Solitaire, FreeCell and Spider Solitaire titles that were included with previous versions of Windows. It also introduces Pyramid and TriPeaks to Windows for the first time, as well as new daily challenges and themes. Unlike the games included in Windows 7 and earlier versions, Microsoft Solitaire Collection is freemium adware with Xbox Live integration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phone Companion</span> Discontinued Windows 10 app

Phone Companion is a discontinued app advertising and file transfer utility included with Windows 10 and available for Windows 10 Mobile. It provided a partial list of Microsoft apps that are available on Android, and Windows 10 Mobile. In order to use the Phone Companion, users had to sign in with a Microsoft Account, which would sync installation progress across devices. It was replaced by the Phone Link app in the October 2018 Update, but can still be accessed on prior versions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xbox Cloud Gaming</span> Microsoft cloud gaming service

Xbox Cloud Gaming is a cloud gaming service as part of Xbox offered by Microsoft Gaming. Initially released in beta testing in November 2019, the service later launched for subscribers of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on September 15, 2020. Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming is provided to subscribers of Ultimate at no additional cost. Xbox Cloud Gaming operates by linking the device to a remote server in the cloud.

References

  1. ↑ "Get Groove Music". Microsoft Store. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  2. ↑ "Get Groove Music". Microsoft Store. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  3. ↑ "Xbox Music launches on iOS and Android, free streaming on the web". theverge.com. 9 September 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  4. ↑ "Xbox One: Xbox Music". winsupersite.com. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  5. ↑ "Xbox Music service announced, coming to Xbox, Windows Phone, and Windows 8". theverge.com. 4 June 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  6. 1 2 Brodkin, Jon (4 June 2012). "30 million-track Xbox Music service coming from Microsoft". Ars Technica. Condé Nast Digital . Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  7. ↑ Wingfield, Nick (15 October 2012). "Xbox Music Leads Microsoft's New Push to Challenge iTunes". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  8. ↑ Warren, Tom (4 June 2012). "Xbox Music service announced, coming to Xbox, Windows Phone, and Windows 8". The Verge. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  9. ↑ "Microsoft rebrands Xbox Music to Groove". The Verge . Vox Media. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "Windows 10 preview turns Xbox Music into 'Groove'". Engadget . AOL. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  11. ↑ "Xbox Music is now Groove, as Microsoft recycles and rebrands". Ars Technica. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  12. ↑ "Groove Music now shows an ad for Spotify, lets Windows Insiders transfer their music". MSPoweruser. 4 October 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  13. ↑ Bright, Peter (31 May 2018). "Microsoft killing off the Groove Music apps for iOS and Android". Ars Technica. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  14. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (2 October 2017). "Microsoft Will Soon Shutter It's Music Store and Streaming Service, Move Users to Spotify". TechCrunch. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  15. ↑ Baxter, Daryl (5 January 2022). "New and improved Windows Media Player is rolling out to Windows 11 users". TechRadar . Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  16. ↑ Baxter, Daryl (13 January 2023). "The beat stops for Groove Music in Windows 10 as it's replaced by Media Player". TechRadar. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  17. ↑ "Xbox Music API – Music for Every App" (Press release). Microsoft. 4 April 2014. Archived from the original on 5 April 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  18. ↑ Packham, Matt (16 October 2012). "Can Microsoft's New Xbox Music Service Do What Zune Couldn't". TIME techland.
  19. ↑ "Microsoft to discontinue free Xbox Music streaming". PC World. 22 October 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  20. 1 2 "Updates to Entertainment in Windows 10". Blogging Windows. Microsoft. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  21. 1 2 "Digital Music: To the Cloud". winsupersite.com. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  22. ↑ "Understanding Xbox Music". Thurrott.com. 11 January 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  23. ↑ "Xbox Music For Windows 8.1 Preview Adds Pandora-Like Radio Feature". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. 26 June 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  24. ↑ "Xbox Music". Xbox. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  25. ↑ "Microsoft retires Groove Music service, partners with Spotify". The Verge. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  26. ↑ Viswav, Pradeep (20 December 2013). "Microsoft Launches Xbox Music API And Affiliate Program". Microsoft-News. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  27. ↑ "Xbox on Windows feature list". Microsoft. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  28. ↑ "Windows 10 Helpful Links - Microsoft Community". Microsoft Community.
  29. ↑ "File Formats Supported By Groove Music App In Windows 10". Into Windows. 29 June 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.