
Microsoft to Bring Spotify to Groove Music Pass Customers - MikusR
https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/10/02/microsoft-to-bring-spotify-to-groove-music-pass-customers/
======
niftich
Summary: 'Groove Music Pass', Microsoft's music streaming service, is being
discontinued on 2017-12-31; subscribers get a prorated refund and an
opportunity to get a 60-day trial of Spotify Premium; Groove app will offer
playlist migration for your personally-curated playlists into Spotify.

Key facts:

\- Read their official FAQ [1]

\- If you subscribed to 'Groove Music Pass', you will (probably) need to back
up music you downloaded using that particular service

\- Windows Store-bought music files, or any other 'hard-file-on-disk' music
files are unaffected; this announcement concerns a streaming service

\- Groove app will remain available as a music player and (local) playlist
manager, and will retain the integration with OneDrive to play files that are
in your OneDrive

\- Your OneDrive storage tier may shrink if right now you are getting more
storage because of Groove Music Pass

[1] [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4046109/groove-
musi...](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4046109/groove-music-and-
spotify-faq)

~~~
WorldMaker
> Windows Store-bought music files, or any other 'hard-file-on-disk' music
> files are unaffected; this announcement concerns a streaming service

Per the FAQ, the Windows Store is shutting down its music section entirely as
well. You will have until December to download any purchased song files from
the Store before it shuts down. The FAQ does state that all purchased songs
that have been downloaded will continue to play, and suggests moving them to
OneDrive (if you hadn't already) to continue to sync them and make them
available on all your devices.

------
nxc18
I had been a streaming customer from early 2008 until 2014. Zune was an
amazing service. Xbox Music as a service was compelling, but the switch from
Zune to Xbox Music was a great loss in quality & capability.

I switched to Spotify because it had the social features I liked from Zune,
but I actually had friends using it (esp. via Facebook integration). It had
more songs, better cross platform, and a much more stable desktop interface.

Props to Microsoft for taking the dog behind the shed and ending things. If
only they had preserved their dignity and just ended it with Zune rather than
stringing customers along on what was definitively not the most competitive
offering.

------
madamelic
This is quite the way to say a service is shutting down.

"We aren't closing, we are just transitioning our space into a new business
and that business will take care of your needs from now on."

~~~
stingraycharles
Usually that’s called an acquisition, but I guess Spotify got this one for
free ?

~~~
cwyers
I am betting Microsoft got some kind of deal with Spotify out of this. Spotify
had an exclusivity agreement with Sony that kept the Spotify app off the Xbox
One; that agreement lapsed and Spotify is on the Xbox One now. I would not be
surprised if that and other things were in a deal between the two firms.

~~~
arcanus
Alternatively, MSFT is interested in buying Spotify.

They have purchased Swedish companies before..

~~~
Spivak
That would actually be a really cool partnership.

* Add OneDrive integration to seemlessly play your music with Spotify.

* "Check out this song" Skype integration to share music with each other. Have a Playlist populated from all the songs you've shared with each other.

* "Make your highlights epic" easily add the perfect track to your Rocket League snippets.

* "What was that song?" Bing integration to play directly from search results. Subscribers get the while track, otherwise get a 1m preview.

* "Cortana, drop the base!"

~~~
KGIII
Maybe make it have one click to play the song, live, in a Skype chat. Instead
of listening later, it can be easily shared together.

You should email 'em.

------
criddell
Will they finally let me uninstall Groove music on Windows 10 without having
to pull out PowerShell to invoke some incantation?

Or will I be forced to have a Spotify application now?

------
remir
Here's what MS should have done: make Groove available on the web, macOS,
Roku, and give more love to the Android/iOS apps. Implement social
functionality, Last.fm integration, live performance, innovate more.

I never saw an ad for Groove. For a lot of people, that's just an icon in
Windows they'll probably never clicked on. No wonder it failed.

~~~
nu5500
Actually, it is (was) available on the web. But yea, no marketing...

[https://music.microsoft.com/](https://music.microsoft.com/)

~~~
remir
Wow, I didn't even know they had a web client! It's truly unbelievable that MS
spent resources on this product only to let it fail.

~~~
Schlaefer
Give the non-canceled rest a try as long as it's there. – Did you ever upload
your own music in the cloud with Apple or Google but everything got messed up
quickly and you had to fight with opaque upload mechanisms and servers
representations? Give OneDrive with Groove a try. Just put music files into
OneDrive's Music folder. No duplicates, no deleted songs, reliable, app on all
mobile platforms, web-player, suggested playlists based on your own music in
the cloud, Cortana integration, download for offline-play; best experience I
ever had.

------
theDoug
Great news for Spotify! It’s a shame Microsoft couldn't find a way to keep MSN
Music, Zune Music, XBox Music, or Groove Music sustainable for their users.

~~~
ben_jones
There's two types of streaming service:

"Let's vertically integrate this new service we have little experience with
for profit and as a funnel to our other product lines"

"Let's make a great streaming service that creates enough value for our
customer that we remain profitable"

~~~
Amezarak
The old Zune Pass was a pretty good deal. Unlimited streaming plus 10 drm-free
mp3s a month. MS has actually been in the streaming music business longer than
Spotify, when their myriad product lines are taken into account.

That said, they didn't execute well. Zune Music was too dependent on the Zune.
Groove had no selling points outside the ms ecosystem.

~~~
umeshunni
> MS has actually been in the <X> business longer than <current dominant
> player>, when their myriad product lines are taken into account.

> That said, they didn't execute well.

Generalizable to most things Microsoft is involved in.

~~~
mfoy_
Their business model is largely a shotgun approach: Go for a plethora of
services and products then see what sticks.

~~~
fgonzag
Their main problem is that conceive the service as value added for the
platform, which is basically non existent now except for Xbox.

If they instead spun off a group of engineers and allowed them to create a
great streaming service with no restrictions or handcuffs because windows or
office or IE or whatever is being pushed this month, and then use the platform
as a value added for the service you would get much better result IMHO.

That would mean develop for every mobile OS + windows and osx as a minimum
from the start, not as an afterthought. No windows live or whatever it is
called now ( linkable if you want), etc. Things Microsoft would never approve.

------
ArchReaper
Maybe I just live under a rock, but this is actually the first time I've heard
of Groove music. I don't know if that's saying more about me or MS' marketing
department.

~~~
cjsuk
Groove Music is the label attached to the state of disappointment that
teenagers suffer when their parents buy their first smartphone as an
affordable choice. They wanted Apple Music but it didn’t happen because they
got a Lumia.

Apparently it’s on Windows 10 but everyone just installs iTunes or Spotify
much like no one gives a shit about Edge and just installs chrome these days.

That says more about the platform than you or their marketing. The whole thing
is rotting from the outside in.

~~~
vile
The popularity of tech is almost entirely shaped by marketing, something which
is Microsoft's weak spot.

~~~
cjsuk
It's really not. The discard rate of MSFT tech is pretty high. The amount of
times I've seen people discard their WP handset decrying it as a "fucking pile
of unreliable broken shit" is quite ridiculous.

------
karim
I wonder what is going to happen to the team developing it – IIRC they had a
huge team in Paris and Seattle working on it.

------
romanovcode
Nice! But what's the point of the app now? Shouldn't they discontinue the app
itself as well then?

Also, would be amazing if it would work both ways - you can play Spotify
content in your Groove app because then you don't even need to install
anything.

~~~
chadgeidel
I'm hoping they don't remove the app. I use Groove to play my MP3 collection.
It's built in and gets the job done.

~~~
fwn
They could just enable the default uninstall procedure without killing the app
itself as a whole.

------
sebazzz
I hope they still keep Groove alive for OneDrive streaming, but I fear the
worst.

~~~
niftich
At time of writing, their FAQ [1] says:

> _Will I still be able to play music from OneDrive?_

> _Yes. Music you own that 's uploaded to your OneDrive music folder can still
> be streamed and downloaded on your devices with the Groove Music app._

[1] [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4046109/groove-
musi...](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4046109/groove-music-and-
spotify-faq)

------
cwyers
I was a Groove subscriber for a few months while playing Forza Horizon 3, for
the in-game integration with Groove. I am guessing this is the end of that
feature, which is a shame, and reduces some of the replay value of that game
for me. There's a Spotify app for Xbox finally, after their PlayStation
partnership ended, but I'm doubtful that games with Groove integration are
going to get updated.

~~~
WorldMaker
Groove integration in Forza Horizon 3 supports OneDrive playlists as well.
(I've used that.) The use of the Groove app for its OneDrive integration still
exists, so supposedly that feature will still work for OneDrive playlists.

------
bobberkarl
I was a zune then xbox music then groove music subscriber. It's a shame. They
were right at the beginning. What happened to them?

------
dingo_bat
If Microsoft wants to be competitive in browsers, they must make edge cross
platform. It's a very capable browser and can hold its own against Chrome and
Firefox. And it is continuously getting better. But if they keep it so tightly
tied to windows 10, they are gonna have to discontinue it just like groove. I
like to use edge on my laptop but there is no sync possible between my phone
and it, because there's no edge for Android. Things like this keep people from
adopting what is actually a good browser. Groove had the same problem. The app
on desktop was pretty good, the service was pretty good, the app on Android
was shit and not available in India.

If they continue like this we will soon see shutdown notices for Cortana, edge
and others. A counterpoint is onedrive. They have excellent iOS and Android
apps. The service is good in its own right. Onedrive ain't going anywhere.

TL;DR if you want to compete then compete.

~~~
nitemice
Looks like Microsoft were listening...
[https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/10/microsoft-kinda-
brin...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/10/microsoft-kinda-brings-edge-
to-ios-android-to-improve-cross-device-experience/)

------
reiichiroh
Microsoft "PlaysForSure" Part II

~~~
0x0
Ha, I was just going to post that.

Launching a DRM platform with the name "PlaysForSure" and then repeatedly
making content not play for sure isn't really building trust in your company
and branding.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PlaysForSure)

------
zeusk
and what exactly happens if I have prepaid for the service? My current
subscription ends May 2020 >:(

~~~
cwyers
Pro-rated refund, they say.

~~~
zeusk
Where does it say that; can't find that part in the blog.

~~~
niftich
The very bottom of the blog post links to the FAQ [1].

The FAQ says:

> _If your Pass subscription goes beyond December 31, 2017, we will give you a
> prorated refund or a Microsoft gift card (see details below)._

> _Your recurring annual Groove Music Pass will continue through December 31,
> 2017. If your Pass subscription extends beyond December 31, 2017, then by
> February 1, 2018, Microsoft will give you a prorated refund from December
> 31, 2017 onwards (if we are able to issue a refund to your credit card
> /payment instrument on file). If we are unable to refund your payment
> instrument on file, Microsoft will provide 120% of that prorated amount in a
> Microsoft gift card in your Microsoft account to spend at the Microsoft
> Store._

> _If you cancel your annual Groove Music Pass subscription before December
> 31, 2017, then:_

\- _If you cancelled your subscription within 30 days of the start of your
subscription, we 'll give you a full refund if we have your credit
card/payment instrument information and it supports refunds._

\- _If we can 't refund your payment instrument on file, we'll provide 120% of
that amount in Microsoft gift card value. If you cancelled your subscription
after 30 days from the start of your subscription, we'll give you a prorated
refund (if we can issue a refund to your credit card/payment instrument on
file). If we can't refund your payment instrument on file, Microsoft will
provide 120% of that prorated amount in Store credit._

\- _To cancel your Groove Music Pass online, please go to
account.microsoft.com /services._

\- _If you run into problems with cancelling, please contact customer
support._

> _I 'm a monthly Groove Music Pass subscriber. What are my options?_

> _You can continue your subscription through December 31, 2017. If your
> subscription extends beyond December 31, 2017, then by February 1, 2018,
> Microsoft will provide you with a prorated refund from December 31, 2017
> onwards (if we can issue a refund to your credit card /payment instrument on
> file). If your payment instrument on file does not support refunds,
> Microsoft will provide 120% of that prorated amount in a Microsoft gift
> card. You can also turn off auto-renew for your monthly Groove Music Pass
> subscription at any time. If you do, your subscription will finish at the
> end of your billing cycle._

[1]
[https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/10/02/micro...](https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/10/02/microsoft-
to-bring-spotify-to-groove-music-pass-customers/)

------
dagaci
This makes perfect sense, these music services are not profit centers and
without Windows Mobile Groove has no audience.

Plus Spotify is leaner, faster and a more streamlined app made by a company
which is really focused on winning consumer.

------
javiramos
Does this mean that Microsoft hung up its gloves will now want to acquire
Spotify?

------
voltagex_
I wonder what happens to the Groove Music integration in Forza Horizon 3.

~~~
Tsiklon
Hopefully they'll go back to allowing custom playlists like they did in past
versions.

------
drumttocs8
Well, they pretty much have to- Spotify will run in the background of games on
an Xbox. Groove is completely unnecessary- smart to partner with the leader to
stay relevant.

------
microcolonel
This is a refreshingly responsible way to retire a service.

No _amazing journey_ , no abrupt disappearance.

------
gambiting
So what happens in Forza Horizon 3 which has Groove integration for in-game
music?

