Microsoft Groove Music - Review 2022

How many name changes must a streaming music service suffer? Microsoft Groove Music, previously known as Xbox Music and Zune Music, has had many identities, just its goal remains the same: to bring more than than 40 million songs to music fans' ears. Groove Music boasts a streamlined, piece of cake-to-navigate interface and skillful sound quality, but information technology's missing several features found in rival services. I reviewed the spider web-based Groove, but Microsoft offers Groove on many platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows Phone, PC, and Xbox One.

Dropping a Coin in the Jukebox

Groove has a deep catalog, merely you'll accept to whip out your credit bill of fare to truly explore it. Yes, Groove lets you lot heed to 30-2nd song snippets, but that is by no ways the proper way to mind to music. Competing services, such as Spotify and the Editors' Choice accolade-winning Slacker Radio offering truly free, ad-supported basic accounts. Sure, there are limitations associated with those free accounts, such equally limits of six song skips per 60 minutes, but nearly streaming services give at least some way to listen to a song in its entirety without forking over whatsoever dough.

The $9.99 per month Groove Music Pass subscription lets you stream music to whatsoever device on which you accept Groove installed. This includes music from Groove's large song catalog, as well as tracks that you upload to your Microsoft OneDrive account. Groove lets you effort the service for free for 30 days, only that too requires removing your plastic from your wallet for the trial. Groove automatically bills y'all at the end of the 30-day trial flow, so call up to abolish the service if yous decide not to go a subscriber. The service also offers a 12-month plan for $99.90, which shaves $19.98 from the toll of the monthly plan over the same time menstruation.

Like Slacker Radio, Microsoft Groove lacks a family unit programme that lets additional household members stream music for ane depression, monthly fee. It'southward a shame that Groove lacks this, as Apple Music and Spotify let six people under the same room sign up for a premium program for a total of $14.99 per calendar month. That'south big savings.

Unfortunately, Groove Music does not let you record audio. If you want that unique feature, check out SiriusXM Internet Radio, the Editors' Pick for streaming audio services focused on live audio.

Dancing the Groove

Groove has the well-nigh streamlined interface of all the high-profile streaming music services I've tested. Unlike Slacker Radio's panel-driven interface, Groove'due south main content area highlights merely Top Songs, Top Albums, and a handful of featured projects. That gives Groove an extremely clean look, only it also reduces music-discovery opportunities. Slacker Radio'due south homepage invites y'all to dig deeper with themed playlists like 101 Greatest New Wave Songs and Slacker xx: NSFW.

A Shop icon takes y'all to a section where you can buy music. Albums tend to fall in the $viii.99 to $thirteen.99 range, while individual songs generally price $1.29. Purchased music lives in the Collection area (more on that in a scrap), along with the digital music you uploaded to your OneDrive account and streaming Groove tunes yous've added to the section.

The Radio section encourages you lot to enter an creative person's proper noun to build a themed playlist. Groove created an entertaining station featuring '68 Improvement, Blacktop, and other indie rockers in response to my "The Dirtbombs" entry. Like many other streaming sound services with a paid option, Groove lets you skip an unlimited number of songs per hr.

The Groove Music Experience

Dragging a song or album onto the New Playlist listing opens a small window that lets you name and relieve your new playlist; dragging a rails or album to Collection creates what is essentially a shortcut to your favorite content. You can besides build a Playlist and add to your Drove by clicking the arrows next to an album or vocal listing and choosing the appropriate destination.

Oddly, Groove doesn't let you delete an album from the main Drove screen unless you lot switch to the Songs tab. Instead, you must click the album and so the trash icon. That seems similar an extra and unnecessary pace.

Groove doesn't list music genres, but yous tin can explore individual artists, such as Imagine Dragons or Lil Uzi Vert, or themed playlists like "10 Songs You need to Hear This Week" and "Hip Hop Pump!" That said, the Groove mobile apps does permit you navigate your Collection by genre.

Content and Sound Quality

Groove, like Slacker Radio and most other major streaming music services these days, doesn't take any egregious holes in its 40-1000000-song-strong music library, so I had no problem finding Arcade Fire, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Minnie Ripperton content. I discovered a comedy album or 2 missing in action (such as Joe Rogan'due south "I'm Gonna Be Dead Anytime..."), but overall I was pleased with the catalog.

That said, Slacker Radio withal outclasses Groove with its ESPN live radio, men's and women's lifestyles offerings, Weather Channel content, and themed channels (such as the "33 Greatest All-American Divas"). Groove merely can't friction match the richness of Slacker's offer.

Groove's audio quality, on the other paw, is quite skilful. I thoroughly enjoyed my Paul's Boutique listening session in Groove's loud, crisp audio over a pair of headphones. The sound quality doesn't lucifer Tidal's uncompressed FLAC streams (information technology's 128Kbps), but it's all the same worth a mind. However, in the course of this listen, I discovered that the service lacks song lyrics. That may not be a very big bargain for some listeners, just I occasionally similar to report the words that ride the music. Amazon Music Unlimited and Pandora, on the other hand, have song lyrics.

Radio Days

Groove Music has the potential to be a stiff contender in the streaming music space, with its satisfying audio quality, deep library, and easy-to-navigate interface. Only some of the missing elements—lyrics, a family programme, a fully fleshed out costless version, the ability to scan past genre—may deter hardcore music fans. As a result, Slacker Radio remains the PCMag.com Editors' Choices for streaming music services, thanks to its robust music-listening features.