Microsoft has announced that it’s replacing its Groove Music streaming service with one of the leaders in the industry, Spotify. This comes the same day as the company also announces the discontinuation of Groove Music in favor of other music streaming platforms such as Spotify. The company had the following to say on the change.
With the continued advancement of music streaming today, all the world’s music has become easily accessible across a variety of devices, unlocking new ways to discover and experience music. As we continue to listen to what our customers want in their music experience we know that access to the best streaming service, the largest catalog of music, and a variety of subscriptions is top of the list.
Which is why we’re excited to announce that we’re expanding our partnership with Spotify to bring the world’s largest music streaming service to our Groove Music Pass customers. Beginning this week*, Groove Music Pass customers can easily move all their curated playlists and collections directly into Spotify. Plus, you may be eligible for a 60-day free trial of Spotify Premium.**
According to Microsoft, beginning this week with Insiders and later expanding to all Groove Music subscribers, users will be able to migrate their music collection over the Spotify to make the transition from service-to-service easier. If you haven’t previously been a Spotify user, Microsoft notes you may be eligible for a 60-day free trial of Spotify Premium. Exact instructions regarding how to go about this can be found here.
As for what the Groove Music service and its apps will result into, the apps themselves will still be capable of playing your local music collection, but starting December 31, 2017, you’ll no longer be able to stream, download, or buy music. Basically, Groove Music will soon become a sort of stock audio player for Windows users to play MP3s.
With Microsoft bowing out of the music streaming industry, this leaves Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and Amazon amongst others to compete. Groove Music never really felt like a worthy competitor to Spotify but rather a proprietary solution to stream music across Windows devices (e.g. Windows Phone, Windows 10 PC, Xbox). Now that it’s gone, Microsoft is pledging its support for Spotify and looks to continue to expand the service’s reach across its products. And thank God, because Spotify is popular for a reason.
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