In yet another phase of Microsoft realizing it just doesn’t have what it needs to compete in certain categories of products, they have announced that they will be shutting down their Groove Music service. Groove Music is a subscription-based streaming service that competes with the likes of Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, Google Play Music, Apple Music, and more. However, like some of their other products hitting retirement they haven’t been able to make the dent in the market that they were looking to accomplish.
Thankfully, current subscribers don’t have to worry about losing any purchased music (per se) since they have partnered with Spotify and will be providing instructions on moving everything over. It won’t be a 100% match though since Spotify’s download/subscription system is a lot different from Groove Music. So hopefully Microsoft will be able to make the transition as smooth as possible in order to avoid a mass wave of complaints.
Customers will then be expected to pay for Spotify’s subscription instead from that point forward. Support for Groove will end at the finish of the year (2017) and the app will only be available for that point forward to play local files (files already downloaded or copied to the device). This is yet another big change for Microsoft since their decision to step out of the smartphone market temporarily while they obviously regroup and focus on the upcoming Andromeda OS.
