Microsoft rebranded its Xbox Music app as Groove Music. The Groove Music app now comes with Windows 11/10. One of the reasons Microsoft has rebranded is, many users were confused with Xbox in the name and didn’t use it as they didn’t have Xbox though one didn’t need an Xbox to use it.
Groove Music app for Windows 11/10
Microsoft Groove Music app is described in the Store as ‘All your tunes, all in one place, on all your devices. That’s rightly said. One can enjoy the music of his liking in one simple Windows 10 app on various devices. With the Groove app you can listen to your favorite songs, artists, make your own playlists, keep up to date with the latest hits. You can discover new music with customized radio stations based on the artist of your choice. Using the Groove app one can browse and manage their personal music collection.
Now talking of its interface, it has a simple menu on the left side.
If you hold a Groove music pass (earlier called Xbox music pass), then two more menu options Radio, Explore will also be added. Xbox music pass is available in select countries. With an Xbox Music Pass, you can stream your music collection from the Xbox music site. While Radio can instantly create customized playlists based on your favorite artists. One can download too for offline listening. From the menu itself, one can access Store with ‘Get music in Store’. So it opens up the Music option in Store. And the Store to has an option ‘Your music library’ to get back to the app. The menu can be collapsed by clicking on the hamburger icon.
Adding music & other options:
Clicking on the Settings icon (gear icon) provides various options. And to add local music files, click on ‘Choose where we look for music’. A recent update to the app also provides an option to import iTunes playlists.
Downloads option lets you automatically download music on the device after it has been bought on other devices. So all your streaming collection will be available offline
Media info option automatically retrieves lost Album art and metadata.
Using Reset option, one can delete all your Playlists and any other music added from Groove Music catalog
You can have the choice of light or dark Background option
Using Groove Music pass, you get access to online music which can be streamed or downloaded. Apart from that music files on OneDrive can also be Streamed on various devices using Groove app. To access files on OneDrive, one can filter them.
And this can be streamed on various devices such as Android or iOS devices. The apps here too will soon be renamed to Groove and are still called Xbox Music app. Here also filter it to Streaming to access OneDrive Music files. All streaming music files have an icon ((o)) beside them so can be identified. Music files Below image are from Phone Xbox Music app
Some small but neat features of the Groove app such as
- ‘Now playing’ option provides a nice effect of the album art or background of artist-related images when played in full-screen mode.
- While playing, you get a music bar timeline with play controls at the bottom of the window.
- While open & playing or minimized on the taskbar and on hovering over the taskbar icon, you get mini controls for Play, Pause, Next and back
- The song being played is also shown on Groove Live Tile on the Start menu.
Also hoping users respect various music copyrights when dealing with music files.
These are some of the features of the Groove app in Windows 11/10. Give it a try, add your music and play it on any device to enjoy your music experience.
If you are looking for an option, take a look at these Music apps for Windows which are available in the Windows Store.
Read: VLC for Windows Store vs Microsoft Groove Music. Which is better?
See this post if Groove Music crashes frequently. This post will show you how to completely uninstall the Groove Music app.