While these minor cosmetic changes are welcomed, it is troubling to see no bigger vision for this product beyond its minimal feature set.

The direction of this product is clearly being steered by a focus to maximize Groove Music Pass subscribers. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a subpar experience for those not wanting to use a streaming service. In fact, the Groove Music Player is inferior to the Zune player c. 2008.

It is a mistake by leadership to identify a music app as an ancillary service from which revenue can be driven; instead, it is a core function of a mobile OS that plays a key role in user experience and enjoyment, just like the camera. I can only imagine how great the Windows Phone music experience would be if the same level of resources were allocated to Music as there is to Camera.

I have been a Windows Phone user for 4 years and will likely move to an Android device for one simple reason: There is no app on Windows Phone that allows me to rate songs (from 1-5) and also modifies the tag directly when doing so (just like WMP did). I have waited for years for this functionality to no avail.

It's now obvious that the music experience in Windows Phone is a barebones one, with these other key missing features:

- Dynamic playlists

- Scrobbling

- Equalizer

- Visualization

- Themes/skins

There are also odd inconsistencies and weird behaviors. Firstly, on the desktop Groove app, the album art is pulled from the file, but on the mobile app, it is pulled from the cloud somewhere. Secondly, music files moved to the OneDrive Music folder are seemingly modified in some way, as the Date Modified attribute is updated when a music file is placed there. Why would anyone want their cloud storage files modified, especially without notice or explanation?

These missing features and frustrations outweigh most of the benefits the current app provides, especially when compared to offerings on other mobile OS's. It's very disheartening to see Microsoft not competing to be the best in this space.

Stop making products to steer user behavior to your desires; instead, make products that are desired by your users.