So Groove ... why not LIVE Music and LIVE Video?

[dawindbag]

Lots of debate today on the re-branding of XBox Music to Groove. Maybe Groove will be a good name, maybe a bad name, but if Microsoft was going to dig up an old brand name and re-purpose it, I think they picked the wrong one.

Microsoft should have chosen to recycle the LIVE brand. LIVE Music and LIVE Video would have been perfect, Microsoft already owns the live.com domain and all the branding. Old school Microsoft fans and legacy users would immediately associate the LIVE brand with with Microsoft while new users on Android and iOS wouldn't be coming in with any of the baggage that names like Microsoft Music, Windows Music or Xbox Music carry.

LIVE Music carries all the right connotations you want from a music streaming and radio service. Active, current, alive. Not antiquated and stale like the retro-feeling Groovy.

Seriously, why not LIVE (stylized with the caps and everything!) found online at music.live.com?

 

[Zachary Boddy]

Live wouldn't have worked, precisely because it'd be recycling an old name. Not only would it he recycling an old name, it'd be recycling an old name in use.
Live is an email client.
It's Xbox's multiplayer service.
I don't think it would've worked. I'm sure someone at Microsoft presented it, but it was turned down.

 

[Marcos Buccella]

The Live brand is dead.

 

[bo_woods]

MS Music? MS Video?

Don't care for Groove much... It sounds corny to me lol, but whatever I don't really care...

It's just that with a name like groove I don't see it ever being an app that gets popular cross platform like Spotify, Pandora, or Beats Music was (Now Apple Music & probably going to be Apple only)

 

[Laura Knotek]

"LIVE" would sound like it only played live concert recordings. Some people might think it didn't offer any studio recordings.

Sent from my rooted Nexus 7 (2013) using Tapatalk

 

[PepperdotNet]

Groove is also a recycled name. It's the forerunner to SharePoint "OneDrive for Business" and found as groove.exe hiding in installs of Office.

 

[xandros9]

I think Groove is pretty good.

Beats Google Play Music.
Something like Microsoft Music would be too... dry.

I'm not a fan of Live Music either, I think Xbox Music isn't bad as it was. I liked "Zune" as well.

 

[dawindbag]

Live wouldn't have worked, precisely because it'd be recycling an old name. Not only would it he recycling an old name, it'd be recycling an old name in use.
Live is an email client.
It's Xbox's multiplayer service.
I don't think it would've worked. I'm sure someone at Microsoft presented it, but it was turned down.

The email client is effectively dead. Hasn't been updated in 4 years and it's highly unlikely it will be supported on Windows 10. In any case, there probably wouldn't be any confusion since the products are so different. I think it is perfectly complimentary to XBox Live. LIVE music is a music service. Xbox Live is a multi-player gaming service.

LIVE is a potentially great brand especially for a cloud service. Microsoft's checkered past of splattering it all over products where it made no sense - Live Essentials, Live Defender, Live Search - ruined it, but this is a opportunity to capitalize on it.

 

[Zachary Boddy]

I still don't think it would've worked. It would've caused too much confusion.
Live as a brand isn't doing great, and it has been ruined by Microsoft using it haphazardly. It would've just been ruined further by pasting it onto yet another different service. Groove is fine.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I think Groove is pretty good.

Beats Google Play Music.
Something like Microsoft Music would be too... dry.

I'm not a fan of Live Music either, I think Xbox Music isn't bad as it was. I liked "Zune" as well.

I didn't know what Zune was until I joined this site. Nobody I knew had one.

 

[bo_woods]

They should have came up with a cool word like Zune, or just simply named it Zune.... Groove just sounds so lame... I do not see "Groove Music" or "Microsoft Groove" ever catching on or being popular...

Not gonna go well with this gen's teens n young adults... It's corny... Simple as that IMHO

but it's just a name...

And also unlike Play Music or Apple Music... Groove Music just doesn't sound like a phones stock music app... When ppl test out a windows phone in the store & only see Groove Music or Microsoft Groove in the apps list, they're most likely just gonna see it as/think its just some bundled music app from the store like having a phone bundled with Pandora or Spotify...

Just my Opinion

Lets just hope that they either change it really fast before W10 or W10 for phones releases, or actually STICK with it and market the heck out of it to the point its burned in peoples heads like Beats Music...

MS needs to buy Apples marketing team lol

 

[dawindbag]

One advantage that LIVE Music has....MS actually owns the domain. Groove.com is currently owned by someone else, unless MS has some shell company sitting on it for them or already have a deal in place to acquire it, you'll be typing in a bunch more characters to use it in the browser.

 

[dawindbag]

I still don't think it would've worked. It would've caused too much confusion.
Live as a brand isn't doing great, and it has been ruined by Microsoft using it haphazardly. It would've just been ruined further by pasting it onto yet another different service. Groove is fine.

Its possible that MS has spoiled the brand, but I'm less convinced by the confusion argument. Rolling out a new brand that no one has ever heard of will create a lot of confusion of it's own, particularly for Windows 10 users who view it as bloatware. This combined with the fact that another music streaming service already exists with that name makes me pretty dismissive of the argument that LIVE is in any way more confusing than Groove.

 

[xandros9]

One advantage that LIVE Music has....MS actually owns the domain. Groove.com is currently owned by someone else, unless MS has some shell company sitting on it for them or already have a deal in place to acquire it, you'll be typing in a bunch more characters to use it in the browser.

eh, XBOX Music uses music.xbox.com so there's that

 

[johnson_patrickw]

I didn't know what Zune was until I joined this site. Nobody I knew had one.

No one had one

 

[rhapdog]

LIVE Music and LIVE Video would have been perfect

LIVE Music carries all the right connotations you want from a music streaming and radio service.

Exactly, LIVE Music carries connotations of music streaming and radio service, which is exactly why I would have immediately deleted it from my phone, not knowing what it really was.

I want a music player that can play the music on my SD card. I do not stream music, as I do not wish to blow my data that way. I rarely get access to Wi-Fi, except when using my phone as a hotspot. LIVE would have been unacceptable for me, because it gives the WRONG connotation for me. A lot of people feel as I do. It needs to be a name that can mean music from anywhere, on any platform, for anyone. I think Groove accomplishes that just fine.

 

[photobriangray]

I go see Live Music all the time. Groove is better. Plus, MS has trademark rights given it is the original name of the SharePoint stuff.

 

[photobriangray]

...now how do I get my free downloads? #zunelegacy

 

[Bobvfr]

"LIVE" would sound like it only played live concert recordings. Some people might think it didn't offer any studio recordings.

Sent from my rooted Nexus 7 (2013) using Tapatalk

Groove sounds like it only plays vinyl, having a real bad day with MS, Groove, 10 not showing the promise I was hoping for, Skype going only desktop (Fine on a desktop, but crap on a tablet).

To be honest with three Xbox ones, three WP's five PC's and four tablets in the house I would happily throw the lot in the bin today if I could find something better......

 

[ShaneRay]

I don't have any issues with the Groove name. I, and many others, have been shaking our heads over the Xbox branding for music and video since the beginning, anyway. That was horrible and a mistake.

Was there a better name to use? Maybe, but none of the offered alternatives you see posted around the net are any better and I can't think of one.

Anyway, MS has a bad history of naming its products poorly. Let's see how long this one lasts before someone trying to earn their paycheck comes up with something "better".