Today, Microsoft announced that it's killing off its Groove Music Pass service, just over a month after the company ran a promotion that offered six free months of the service with the purchase of one month. The firm plans to assist customers in migrating their libraries and playlists over to Spotify.
The Groove Music app will be updated this week for Windows Insiders with the ability to move their music to Spotify, and it will be generally available on October 9.
Microsoft says that it will continue to invest in the Groove Music app though, but it will only be for playing back owned music (including music uploaded to OneDrive), which you also won't be able to purchase anymore. The Windows Store will no longer sell you music, although according to Thurrott, you'll still be able to buy movies, TV shows, and ebooks (ebooks support was only added to the Store with the Windows 10 Creators Update).
The app will stop offering the "option to stream, purchase, and download music" beginning on December 31, and you'll have the option to move your library over to Spotify until the end of January. But there's more fine print; while you'll still be able to play your purchased music, you won't be able to download it, so if you plan on uploading it to another service, you need to do that before the end of the year.
If you've prepaid for Groove Music Pass, you'll still be able to use the service until the end of the year, but you'll get a refund for anything after that. If you have a Pass that you haven't cashed in yet, Microsoft says that it will be offering a 120% refund for use in the Windows Store.
Those on Windows 8 and 8.1 won't get the option to move their music over to Spotify. You'll need a Windows 10 machine or an Xbox One to do this.
If you want to download Spotify, there are three separate apps, including ones for Xbox One, Windows 10 PCs, and Windows Phone 8 or higher. If you're on Windows 8.1 or earlier, you'll have to stick with the Win32 app.
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