What's your streaming plan now?

[Todd Allcock]

You have 105 GB because of the 100GB Groove Subscription bonus. When the service goes dark, presumably the 100GB bonus will go away leaving you with 5GB.

An Office 365 subscription ($70 US/year) includes 1TB OneDrive storage, if that helps...

 

[napkatz]

Google Play. The inclusion of YouTube Red put it over the top for me. Decent Chrome extension, and excellent app support on Android. And competitively priced. Tough to go wrong.

 

[Urbautz]

As an music enthusiast i use both, Spotify and Tidal. Tidals "close to lossless"-Streaming is worth gold on my home speakers, only the Radio function is deeply broken. When starting a playlist for Rammstein (German Metal band) i got some songs of David Hasselhoff and some German "Schlager" (bad soft pop) mixed in.

 

[Martijn ter Haar]

I switched to Google Play Music.

Spotify was not an option, because I have quite a lot of music that is not in their streaming library (a lot of underground labels release on physical and BandCamp only, because it pays better). Oh, and Spotify also doesn't support WMA. I have ripped all of my cds to WMA Lossless.

Uploading my entire library was a hassle (it got stuck several times), but now otherwise Groove and Google Play Music are remarkably similar.

 

[blazewon22]

I'm a music head. I pay for both Apple Music and Google Play Music since we have YouTubeRed(which also gives me YouTube Music Player). I guess we also get Amazon Prime Music as well too with the subscription but I never use it.

I tried Groove when I had a Lumia 950 but it was buggy. Also it didn't work with Sonos. Personally, I love Apple Music because the Beats 1 shows are really good and they tend to get new music first. You can listen on demand. I have a pretty diverse music ear and I found that indie music is much easier to find. Podcasts as well. I switched to an iPhone for home and a Android phone for work and both Apple Music and Google Music play well on both.

I liked Google music a little better for uploading my private collection. If I had to choose one it would be Apple Music however. Can't wait for the UWP iTunes App.

 

[DEFIANT NX74205]

I've switched to Spotify and also replaced my windows phone with an android phone. I love that I can use Google Assistant to call up my playlists or any song that I want. I don't like that Spotify doesn't have music videos as that is something I used often on my home theater system via Xbox. I also used onedrive integration with Groove to stream recorded lectures. I'm continuing to use groove for lectures until I find a suitable replacement.

I think discontinuing Groove was a terrible mistake on Microsoft's part. I was heavily invested in all things Microsoft until this happened. This was the huge shove I needed to put the brakes on spending all my money on Microsoft from movie purchases to the higher Office 365 tier. I'm glad that I haven't bought any books on the Microsoft store as they didn't make that available in Canada on launch. I will be sticking with my Surface Pro and Windows 10 for the foreseeable future.

 

[deckerp]

I've been using the free version of iHeart and have been happy there. The paid version would be better still, but as far as I know, there still would be no integration with OneDrive. I also use Google Play Music on my phone to play my own music. Seems like 50,000 songs for free is pretty generous.

Any other iHeart users?

 

[Stephen Pedersen1]

Spoticast is there best option out there for Windows 10 mobile. One time 10$ payment and then you get to stream music for free I definitely. I think it just uses the Spotify playlists bit syreams through YouTube without ads. The work around is pretty crazy but it works! It has bugs but it's still being improved. Its a uwp app too!

 

[cowboy6201]

Originally posted by spicypadthai
Groove Music Pass subscriber here, fully invested in MS ecosystem including a 950XL. I'm a big fan of Groove and disappointed to say the least, but it is what it is. Starting to look around at options but so far, nothing appears to be a direct replacement. No OneDrive integration with Spotify and it looks like the app is garbage on Windows 10 Mobile. Similar situation with Amazon Unlimited which would be my first choice b/c they're the only other ecosystem I'm invested in. It would be nice to hear Spotify at least announce a UWP b/c the tone deaf MS statement makes it sound like they're doing us all a favor and there's a partnership with Spotify in the works. But I read the FAQ and I don't get that impression. So what's everyone doing? Any option that has what makes Groove great: an unlimited music pass with support for local/offline listening, OneDrive integration, and it works on all Windows 10 devices??

Not me I'm not streaming anymore, I'll buy my Music outright and stick to Siriusxm for Music , I have 3 SUV's and they all are on a lifetime subscription as weld as I have a internet radio script as well to listen on my Win10 Desktop Surface 3 and Sorry My Wife and I now have the S8's, but I still have a Alcatel Idol 4S that's active and use for my computer business and my 640XL I use on the fast ring testing the new builds. I'll never ever use an Apple product the can go to h___.

So Groove will be just the Windows Media Player just for music you own outright.
Here's my thought when MSFT Created the Zune software and player here's what they should have done.
Remember the downloading service the had for the media player for $14.99 a month, they should have still made the Zune Player but instead called it the Media Player, a name everyone know's, that player has been around a long time. That would have been the right thing to do.
Well it's been nice knowing you Groove I'll certainly miss u , Dam u MSFT Why?

 

[Davey Carter]

Groove Music Pass subscriber here, fully invested in MS ecosystem including a 950XL. I'm a big fan of Groove and disappointed to say the least, but it is what it is. Starting to look around at options but so far, nothing appears to be a direct replacement. No OneDrive integration with Spotify and it looks like the app is garbage on Windows 10 Mobile. Similar situation with Amazon Unlimited which would be my first choice b/c they're the only other ecosystem I'm invested in. It would be nice to hear Spotify at least announce a UWP b/c the tone deaf MS statement makes it sound like they're doing us all a favor and there's a partnership with Spotify in the works. But I read the FAQ and I don't get that impression. So what's everyone doing? Any option that has what makes Groove great: an unlimited music pass with support for local/offline listening, OneDrive integration, and it works on all Windows 10 devices??

 

[Davey Carter]

Honestly I've been stuck in the fallacy of switching between music streaming apps time and time again and ultimately your best bet is Google Play Music. Why?
1. Offline and Online music all in one library. Only music service to offer this which is amazing.

2. More music selection, that is if youre a fan of hip-hop/rap like me. Spotify is extremely limited in this area

3. This is little known, but you can download a play music app from the windows store for your windows 10 laptop. The app is unofficial but ultimately the same experience. (Type "Get GPMDP - Microsoft Store" on any search engine to find the app)

4. Don't trust Amazon, they are borderline snakes despite their customer service. I've done a study for my senior thesis and the vast majority of PRIME products shipped and sold by Amazon increase in price immediately after the order is confirmed. This goes under the radar because nobody buys the same thing twice, but it's astonishing never the less.

Not to mention, PRIME Music used to come along with a standard Amazon prime membership. They changed that as soon as they had enough committed subscribers however.

5. Google. Google. Google. Have they ever honestly failed us with reliability? Think about the market and amount of services everybody uses subconsciously. YouTube, Gmail, Chrome Browser, Google Search Engine, Theyre the sole operators behind the Android Operating System and they will never sell out or make unnecessary collaborations like with what we saw with Groove (R.I.P.)

Groove Music Pass subscriber here, fully invested in MS ecosystem including a 950XL. I'm a big fan of Groove and disappointed to say the least, but it is what it is. Starting to look around at options but so far, nothing appears to be a direct replacement. No OneDrive integration with Spotify and it looks like the app is garbage on Windows 10 Mobile. Similar situation with Amazon Unlimited which would be my first choice b/c they're the only other ecosystem I'm invested in. It would be nice to hear Spotify at least announce a UWP b/c the tone deaf MS statement makes it sound like they're doing us all a favor and there's a partnership with Spotify in the works. But I read the FAQ and I don't get that impression. So what's everyone doing? Any option that has what makes Groove great: an unlimited music pass with support for local/offline listening, OneDrive integration, and it works on all Windows 10 devices??

 

[Stephen Pedersen1]

Davey Carter, Apple Music unlocks streaming in iTunes and from there you can use your local and streaming. So is Google music really better? Maybe there should be a better comparison of the two services. I know I am leaning towards apple because iTunes was the best music software I have ever used, except for the fact that one you install it it has a mind of its own, you can't shut it off it he back ground, and it constantly updates. This was years ago though, so I don't know how much it has imporved since.

MS on the other hand, god what a mess. They just delete and start over from scratch over and over and over again. Duck them. You couldn't have a windows phone 7 and then upgrade to 8, or go from 8 and go to 10. It was crazy!!! The same went for Zune, they have no continuity, which led to older windows phones becoming obsolete and irrevelant with no support. They can't do that, but they did and that's part of the reason why we are here. What failures.

 

[FAHMI BASSEM]

I switched to Anghami (Described as middle Easterns Spotify)!

Pros:
The best Arabic library you can ever find, with many exclusives!
Has a very good desktop app, Xbox app is coming later this year.
Web app works perfectly both on PC and Mobile (supports background play!).
Supports Lyrics and Videos.

Cons:
Phone app is garbage, works but PITA.
Not a UWP, yet.
No OneDrive integration ☹, can't be used as a loval media player.

 

[Daniel Hulse]

WTF!!??? Damn, First they screwed me and themselves when they ditched Zune Marketplace (I refused Groove Pass) and now I just came around to accepting Groove! What hell! I'm beginning you rethink my Windows only support. Bad enough I am shamed and told I must be a friggin moron when ever people find out I have a Windows phone! Worse when they relize my first and only smartphone has always been a Windows phone....I don't like crApple and Google is pure evil! I'm pissed and bitter!

 

[offroad73]

I switched to Tidal a few days ago and still can't believe the audio quality. For the time I still have my 950 I'll use Tidal unofficial which works a charm AND I can download all the songs at will (roughly 230 GB just for that). On the living PC I use the official Tidal software and set it up so the songs are converted by my DAC.

I'm the audiophile type of guy so sound quality is of utmost importance and that's why none of the other streaming services are to my taste. As per my 3000+ CD collection which I converted to audio files over the time I'm more or less adding these to my Tidal collection as time goes by. I've added to my favorites 400 of them to date and am just preserving my old 320/MP3 and lossless WMA for another time. Most of the albums on Tidal are of higher quality than most of my own recordings... the little 24/96 light on the DAC is green often.

 

[pseudoware]

I've been putting this off, but I guess it's time to face the music.

Groove has always been my go-to, but I've also mixed in Pandora, Google Play Music (because it used to be Songza, which was awesome) & Amazon. I just got a new phone, and with the death of Groove, I'm going with the 3 months for 99¢ Amazon offer.

Gonna completely cut the Groove cord. I have all the mp3's I've downloaded over the years and will recreate some playlists on Amazon. We'll see how the 3 months go, then make a decision whether to stay or look around again.

I've never used Spotify, never installed the app on any device, don't recall ever going to the site.