Microsoft announced today that it is ending its Groove Music Pass subscription and offering customers a seamless transition to Spotify. The firm will also stop selling music from the Windows Store.

Granted, they’re putting a positive spin on this.

“We’re excited to announce that we’re expanding our partnership with Spotify to bring the world’s largest music streaming service to our Groove Music Pass customers,” Microsoft GM Jerry Johnson writes. “Groove Music Pass customers can easily move all their curated playlists and collections directly into Spotify.”

The switchover starts immediately.

Windows Insiders who are also Groove Music Pass subscribers will be able to move their Groove playlists and content to Spotify starting this week, thanks to a Groove app update.

Then, starting next week, non-Insider customers will be able to do so as well.

And then, on December 31, 2017, Microsoft will close down Groove Music Pass completely.

At that time, anyone who has time remaining on their subscription will get a prorated refund, Microsoft told me.

Additionally, Microsoft will stop selling music from the Windows Store. The software giant said, however, that it would continue to sell movies, TV, and ebook content from the store.

It will also continue including the Groove app in Windows 10. But since it will no longer be able to stream or otherwise access subscription-based Groove Music Pass music, it will be relegated to playing back music on your PC, or in your OneDrive.

Microsoft’s Groove efforts have long felt somewhat forced, but to be fair to the firm, Spotify is the obvious choice for Microsoft fans, especially now that there is an Xbox One app. And I recently revealed my own transition to Spotify, which is so much better than Groove, with one major exception: There’s no way to upload your own music to Spotify. I communicated this need to Microsoft. Hopefully, we’ll see a future update where Spotify can access your OneDrive-based music. Cross your fingers.

Also, a moment of silence for what started off as Zune Music Pass.

Tagged with Spotify