Microsoft Discontinues its Groove Music Streaming Service, Partners with Spotify

It seems the Windows Mobile OS isn’t the only product Microsoft is discarding this year. The Redmond giant announced last month in a blog post that they will no longer continue with their Groove Music Streaming service, rather, they’ve chosen to partner with the world’s largest Streaming service, Spotify. Microsoft has been offering Music streaming to its users since it launched Zune in 2006, before they brought Xbox Music Pass, which now evolved into Groove Music Pass. Probably not foreseeing a palatable future for their homegrown service or being unwilling to invest in it any longer, they’ve chosen to leverage on Spotify’s huge catalogue of songs and wide reach, as a way of bringing a fresh music streaming experience to its customers. Groove Music Pass subscribers are expected to download all songs purchased from the Windows Store and have them locally stored on their device before December 31, 2017, as after December 31, 2017, music will no longer be available for purchase or download in the Windows Store or for streaming in Groove. However, Microsoft will continue to update the Groove Music App for users, who choose to listen to music stored locally on their device or on the OneDrive cloud service. Groove Music Pass customers will be notified on the Groove Music app to move all their curated playlists and collections directly into Spotify. You’d get the notification on your PC. Eligible users will get a 60-day free trial of Spotify Premium to ease the move. Users who have a valid Groove Music subscription that exceeds December 31^st will be refunded pro-rata or be given 120% of the pro-rated amount in a Microsoft gift card, sometime before February 2018. Xbox users will also get a dedicated Spotify app for their console. Featured image credit: Spotify.com