Groove is to depart (ne-na-na-na now)


Back when everything was black and white, we had something called MSN Music. That launched in 2004 and had 1.5 million tracks available. It was designed to compete with the iTunes Music Store, but the catalogue quickly dwindled. No matter though, because Microsoft had an idea!

Let’s kill it and replace it with Zune!

So, with MSN Music not compatible with the hot new Microsoft Zune music player, MSN Music was killed off in November 2006 and Zune came out instead. That was then killed off in November 2015, but in the interim Xbox Music was launched (in October 2012).

Keeping up with this?

Xbox Music didn’t really have the right “name” for the new Windows 10 customers, so they relabeled it “Groove” in July 2015. Not too long ago at all.

Then Microsoft had a new idea!

Let’s kill that and send customers off to the competition because, well, this really isn’t working out, is it?

And so, Microsoft is discontinuing the streaming service – Groove Music Pass. This will happen on December 31st, but those using this service will see a helpful option to let you migrate your playlists to Spotify.

Although Microsoft tell us that the Groove app (in Windows 10) will hang around, and you’ll be able to play tunes you’ve purchased, you won’t be able to use the streaming service after this year.

So now Microsoft is without a mobile operating system and, after 13 years, they have no music service either. With consumers increasingly using mobile handsets instead of PCs, it’s a sign that the Microsoft share of regular customers in the street is diminishing.