Also being rebranded is Xbox Video, to the unimaginatively named “Movies and TV”. And one of their latest moves include rebranding Xbox’s Music and Video services to “Groove” and “Movies & TV“, respectively.
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The name changes announced today appear to show Microsoft moving away from its “Xbox all the things!” strategy for entertainment services.
Before the Groove, there was the Zune. However, the service will initially not be available for the Apple and Android devices. Or is Microsoft selling off Xbox Music?
Microsoft fanboys will recall that Groove has been used by MSFT in name a non-music property back in 2005. Ray Ozzie the Groove founder joined Microsoft shortly thereafter as the Chief Software Architect. Microsoft later integrated features from that acquisition into the Office suite. Brandon LeBlanc, Windows Communication Manager said that users can expect Microsoft’s media push across several other devices. Groove: Smart Music Player, which has been designed for Windows Phone and Windows 8 devices, links with Last.fm to fetch a user’s music interests.
To be honest Microsoft should have acquired the Groove Music App and incorporated its tagging, friend sharing, content discovery and automatic playlist creation and added these to the now named Groove music service. The service will continue as is, because the charges remain the same. It costs $9.99 a month or $99 a year. 120 per month for single account; Rs.
Along with the name change both apps and services will undergo a rejig, with different menus created to both work via touch and the more traditional mouse and keyboard. The application is also available for iOS users. Playlist management will also be easier and you will have the ability to drag songs between lists, or right-clicking to pin an album to the Start menu.
The announcement had a lot more in store for Windows 10 fans, but Xbox Music’s transition to Groove was certainly the icing on the cake.
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The new Movies and TV service also has “direct integration with the Windows Store”, where you can buy or rent movies and TV shows in HD.
