Anyone Else Sad to See Groove Music Pass Go?

[jonnob]

Well I guess Microsoft pulled the plug on Groove Music Pass. I'm sure they did it for all the right reasons and it made business sense to do so -- at least I hope.

Looks like the Groove App will remain in tact and isn't going anywhere, but the ability to search and download and seamlessly add music to playlists, along with its seamless integration across my desktop, tablet, android phone, and xbox is going bye-bye.

Looks like they'll be "partnering" with Spotify. Not quite sure what "partnering" means, because you have to go use their software, their app, and while it looks and feels like Groove, I'm not sure what is going to happen to all my songs I've had since 2001. My library is huge.

I've been using Groove Music Pass since 2014, so I haven't bought any songs. I must have hundreds of Music Pass songs. All of which are integrated into my playlists. So I've got songs that are 10 years old, that I out-right own, and I've got other songs that are Music pass only. I understand Groove is porting all of my Music Pass music over to Spotify, which is fine, but what about the songs I own out-right? Do I just have parsed playlists now?

If they were really "partnering" with Spotify, they'd integrate the streaming service into Groove and keep everything seamless.

Sad to see Groove grow with the fluent design, adding music videos, the album art...all of that. Only to be chopped at the knees.

Anyhow, I'm just grieving and venting. Nothing more than that.

I really enjoy the ability to use Cortana to recognize music player on the radio and then seamlessly add it to my library.

 

[spaceOpia1]

Really pissed too. Everyday on Windows central I see people giving up ok Microsoft. At first I thought "MS must have a grand plan" and I kept holding on my plan to keep with the entire MS ecosystem (Windows mobile, Windows, groove music, office 365, movies and tv, ...).
Now I an considering switching entirely to something else.

 

[og-gq]

I'm bummed for a few reasons.... I have had the pass since the Zune days. I have backed Windows Phones for a very long time and still use it to this day. I love my phone, but the decision to back out of Groove and move to Spotify doesn't leave me with much of a choice considering the Spotify app on Windows 10 Mobile opens only half the time. I have been constantly getting "The audio could not be started. Please restart the application." And it's been driving me crazy. I use my phone to listen to music all the time. Also, not integrating the Onedrive function to listen to my owned music really sucks as well. Maybe they add this function later.... But it seems like that won't happen for W10 mobile, because they can't even fix the app now!

 

[ushodax]

meh... i couldn't care less.

i'm one of the few that doesn't stream music. i've always downloaded the files to my internal storage or sd, and well... while i loved groove on my lumia 930, now i have an android phone and i can't browse my local files. that's a big NO NO for me.

 

[cool8man]

I just watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and all I could think is how cool and stylish the Zune logo/UI and brand was compared to what we ended up with in bland Xbox Music and Groove. Groove started getting better with Fluent Design UI, but Zune was already beautiful and functional from the start and shouldn't have been scrapped. MS hits refresh too often and has a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater. MS pioneered the subscription music model and to see them surrender and give up on music is disheartening. MS were innovators in this space long before Zune or iTunes even came to market.

I don't want to see MS become an enterprise company because they are too important to the consumer tech industry. Xbox wasn't just a me too product, it brought innovations at every step of the way from standard Ethernet and hard drives to Xbox Live and Kinect. Despite the perception of those who never had one Zune wasn't just an iPod clone, it brought innovations like music sharing, subscriptions, automatic playlists and curated playlists. It is easy to look at Tablet PC/UMPC, Windows Mobile, SPOT IoT watches/MS Band, Ultimate TV/Media Center/webTV/IPTV, Zune/Xbox One/Kinect, SYNC, etc and think MS rarely gets the consumer market right so they shouldn't even try. The truth is that on all of these products and now that includes HoloLens they are the visionaries. I don't know who you attribute this to, but MS has been the one daring to try to take consumers into the future for decades.

What I've learned is that consumers are fearful and resistant to ambitious change, especially when that change comes from a company they no longer trust. What killed Xbox One's ambition was a total distrust for MS and it's motives. I've also learned that MS lacks confidence in their vision and a commitment to keep advancing and promoting it. Apple is hardly a forward thinking company and yet consumers reward them for holding back and waiting. To an early adopter that consumer reaction is sad and frustrating. So where are we consumers without companies like MS and it's bold forward thinking? Waiting longer and longer for a glimpse of what comes next. Zune Pass was what came next after iTunes and it frustrates to no end that MS can never seem to capitalize on the brilliance of their vision.

 

[e94mli]

Switching back to Spotify would be easy if the apps actually worked on Windows. Not just talking about mobile but regular Windows as well. Spotify still doesn't play on a Surface Pro when the screen turns off and it goes into connected standby. The only reason I've been subscribing to Groove were the apps. One might think they would have made Spotify fix their apps for Windows and phone in exchange for the promotion but that doesn't seem to be the case. Now I'm going to miss the the Groove apps, but not the service, and be pissed with Microsoft for not making Spotify work before forcing it on us.

 

[cool8man]

Do people recommend the $10 Spoticast app in the app store. It seems to be a legitimate UWP app unlike the pure garbage that Spotify has produced for Windows.

 

[Gooldan]

I'm giving up on Microsoft and I will be moving to Google service. Not because I don't want to use there service, it is because I don't believe in them anymore when it comes to consumer space. For now on the only thing I will use from Microsoft is Windows 10, and find replacement for Groove,Skype,Xbox,movies and tv and maybe onedrive.

 

[anon(10272511)]

I was really pissed, but after they refunded me with Microsoft Credit (I used Bing to get me a year pass) I was happy. I've switched to Google Play Music at the moment and enjoy it

 

[IzaacJ]

Well I guess Microsoft pulled the plug on Groove Music Pass. I'm sure they did it for all the right reasons and it made business sense to do so -- at least I hope.

Looks like the Groove App will remain in tact and isn't going anywhere, but the ability to search and download and seamlessly add music to playlists, along with its seamless integration across my desktop, tablet, android phone, and xbox is going bye-bye.

Looks like they'll be "partnering" with Spotify. Not quite sure what "partnering" means, because you have to go use their software, their app, and while it looks and feels like Groove, I'm not sure what is going to happen to all my songs I've had since 2001. My library is huge.

I've been using Groove Music Pass since 2014, so I haven't bought any songs. I must have hundreds of Music Pass songs. All of which are integrated into my playlists. So I've got songs that are 10 years old, that I out-right own, and I've got other songs that are Music pass only. I understand Groove is porting all of my Music Pass music over to Spotify, which is fine, but what about the songs I own out-right? Do I just have parsed playlists now?

If they were really "partnering" with Spotify, they'd integrate the streaming service into Groove and keep everything seamless.

Sad to see Groove grow with the fluent design, adding music videos, the album art...all of that. Only to be chopped at the knees.

Anyhow, I'm just grieving and venting. Nothing more than that.

I'm seriously starting to lose all my faith in Microsoft. With the non-existing phones, decline in quality in a lot of their services, and now, the death of THE one thing I was happy to use and was working perfectly, Groove Music.

What about the awesome Groove Music integration in Forza Horizon 3? That's a real lifesaver cause the in-game stations are crap when it comes to my taste of music.

I think Microsoft should go all-in to not disappoint loyal Groove subscribers (like myself, since 2010, that's 7 YEARS of subscribing to Xbox/Groove Music Pass) and gift us with a couple of free months of Spotify premium, and yeah, I am serious. I dislike Spotify, always have, always will, which is why I happily neglected and Spotify and other similar services, and also got quite a few people to switch over from Spotify to Groove Music. Some has just recently done this.

This does not only hurt peoples faith in Microsoft, but also the faith for those who promote everything Microsoft, including dev tools, software, music, video, gaming and office.

It seems Microsoft is determined to get rid of all consumer focused services and the trust for the few consumer services that will stay alive, and focus mainly on corporate services and applications.

 

[Manus Imperceptus]

I loved Groove back when I still had my 950XL; now that I've had to switch to Android (ZTE Axon 7), Groove is pretty useless, since I only play my own music stored on my Micro SD card. I've yet to find something that works as well on Android as Groove worked on Windows Phone, so all in all a big bummer, but with limited Groove usability on Android, I don't really care all that much...

 

[scumdogmillionaire]

Am I sad? No. But it's the last time I've been abandoned by Microsoft and will definitely stop investing in anything that's not Windows, Office or Azure. Because if it's not one of those three things, it can (and will) be killed without a moments notice.

I've used Groove Music Pass since it was Zune Music Pass. And I have three, yes, three, annual subscriptions since there was no family plan. So they were getting all sorts of money out of me.

However, I had recently started investing in Amazon Echo, and have several Echo/Echo Dots around the house. So, without Groove support there, the decision was becoming easier and easier to just move to Amazon Music Unlimited. I did try Spotify yesterday, which seemed cool, but a family on Spotify with Echo's didn't work great. Could basically only play music on one device at a time. So if I'm listening on my office Echo, as soon as my daughter starts listening to music on hers, I get booted off. So... that's a non-starter and will go all in on Amazon Music.

Anyways, the list of things Microsoft has left me feeling like a chump on is lengthy. Most recently Microsoft Band, Windows Phone and Surface RT. All of which I recommended to friends and family, then I look like an idito. So... I'm done with Microsoft as a consumer. As a professional, Azure is amazing. Office is irreplaceable, and I develop for .NET so Windows is kind of where it's at with Visual Studio. However, with Visual Studio for Mac now, there is little holding me hostage on Windows now.

 

[Mr_Atomic]

Initially I was peeved, but I moved over to Spotify and I can see why Microsoft are doing what they did. Spotify is a fully realized service and I've signed up.
The main thing that bothers me with Microsoft's recent actions in the shuttering of their services, products, etc... is their seemingly lack of commitment to the everyday consumer products, services, etc... I understand not holding onto a money losing proposition, but you can't always hit a home run every time at bat. Sometimes a single and/or a double is just as good.

 

[Bigsteelguy]

Yeah I am, I love Groove music, and I think it's a terrible move by Microsoft. So now people won't be able to play their favorite Playlists on their Xbox. It's basically effecting their Xbox platform. I was using Groove music mostly on my phone but also on the Xbox one and my PC with 400 watt speakers.

 

[theefman]

No one should be doing anything but buying their own physical music and at the very least backing up any digital downloads. These companies will remove items you've already paid for without warning and leave you high while happily taking your money for other purchases. For me OneDrive is my secondary backup for streaming while my main backup is my home server.

Sent from mTalk

 

[Monte Constable1]

Sad to see it go, but it make total sense. It is just not making money.

 

[Danjp]

For me it come down to cost, with my plan ending in August and my wife's plan ending here soon I was already looking at other options that provided a family plan pricing. I think spotify would be great if it added overdrive integration, it would definitely be my number one choice then.

 

[badtzbuzz]

I have nothing but foul things to say...just bought my daughter alcatel idol 4s to replace her broken 950xl....one week later, groove dies.

Spend more money on advertising...like they did with Surface a few years ago.

 

[sweatshopking]

I have never subscribed to a monthly radio program, so this change doesn't impact me greatly, except that it's another in a long line of disappointing anti-ecosystem moves. Microsoft is abandoning users left and right and i'm now buying my first android phone ever for my wife. I don't like google, but at least they support their stuff.

 

[bellyer]

I'm very sad to see Groove go. I'm just plain sad about most consumer-focused Microsoft stuff these days really. I've tried multiple smart watches and fitness bands since the Microsoft Band was killed off and can't find anything as good as the Band. 2 was. Now, I've picked up a Samsung Galaxy S8 to move away from Windows 10 phone (Lumia 950) and, aside from having many more apps, the Android OS is horrible compared to Win10. Microsoft really has had some great stuff over the past few years for consumers and it really sucks to see the direction they seem to be going with less emphasis on consumers. I will really miss Groove!