As of December 31, 2017, Microsoft will be killing off the Groove Music Pass and eliminating music purchases from the Store. That means that the pre-installed Groove Music app that comes with Windows 10 is going to lose a whole bunch of its features.
But while the streaming subscription will die, Groove is still a great music player for your own local and cloud stored music.
Here’s everything you need to know.
How to move your music out of Groove
Microsoft has partnered with one of the biggest players in streaming music, Spotify, to make it simple for its customers to move their music somewhere new. Inside the Groove app there’s a simple one-click method to move everything across to Spotify for you, assuming you set an account up first.
If you’re going elsewhere for your streaming, there are ways and means to move your playlists. The guide below tells you what you need to know.
How to move your Groove playlists to any other streaming service
Local music
Whether you’ve got a collection of personal music from your own sources or amassed through online stores like iTunes and Google Play, the Groove app on Windows 10 will catalog it and play it for you. In most cases, all you need to know is where on your PC the music is stored and tell the app where to find it.
The links below are specific to two of the bigger online services, iTunes and Google Play, but several of the basic steps apply to any form of local music you have on your computer.
- How to import your iTunes playlists into the Groove music app on Windows 10
- How to import your entire iTunes library into the Groove music app on Windows 10
- How to get your Google Play Music into Groove on Windows 10
Key settings
The Groove music app is actually pretty simplistic. There’s no huge list of confusing menus and settings, and it’s very easy to get going with. But, should you go looking, here are what some of the key settings are and what they do for you.
Music on this PC
- See the above section on “Local music” for more on these settings.
Media info
- Automatically retrieve and update missing album artwork and metadata: If you’re a stickler for keeping your music collection in line, make sure you keep this turned on to replace any album art that went missing somewhere.
Background
- Are you a light theme or a dark theme kind of person?
Streaming your own music from OneDrive
Groove doesn’t just allow you to stream music from its online catalog; you can also create your own personal cloud locker with OneDrive.
By adding your music to OneDrive, you can point the Groove apps to play it on all your devices. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, check out the video above or the link below for everything you need to know.
How to use OneDrive to stream your own music
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Selecting and playing music
We’ve just about covered everything you need to know about getting your music into Groove, but what about actually finding something to play? The three main tabs are “Albums,” “Artists” and “Songs.”
Albums are shown as squares, artists as circles and songs as one giant list.
There are a couple of ways to deal with your music once it’s playing. The bar along the bottom of the window keeps your timeline scrubber and play controls at hand. But, if you hover your mouse over the Groove icon in the taskbar you get mini controls for play and pause, skip back and skip forward.
Oh, and if you fancy going full screen, there’s that option, too. You’ll get a background of artist-related images, some text and not a lot else. To access this, tap on the “now playing” segment on the bottom left-hand side of the media control bar, then hit the full-screen icon on the artist title bar.
Playlists
We’ve already covered how to bring over existing iTunes playlists, but what about creating your own within Groove? It’s super simple, and they can sync across your different devices, too. The option for “New playlist” is right there in the sidebar, just hit it and give your new creation a name.
Supported file formats
Groove Music supports more file formats than you may think. It won’t play everything, but it covers the most popular bases.
List of file formats that Microsoft’s Groove Music app supports
Updated December 15, 2017: We removed all information on Groove Music Pass and introduced information on how to move your music away before it shuts down.
— Update: 28-03-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article What Is Groove Music and How to Use It from the website www.maketecheasier.com for the keyword add music to groove app windows 10.
A surprising hidden gem in Windows 10 that few people talk about is Groove Music. While it used to be a music player and digital music subscription service/store all in one, now it’s just a music player. If you’ve never taken the app for a test drive, you’re probably not alone. However, once you spend a few minutes using it, you’ll find it’s ideal for managing music stored on your PC and in the cloud.
What Is Groove Music?
I know everyone loved iPods, but personally, I liked the Zune better. It had more storage and was cheaper, but sadly, Microsoft quit supporting it. As that faded away, so did the Zune music manager. The replacement for that became Groove Music. At first, it functioned much like the Zune app. You could buy music, subscribe for additional listening, and manage your music collection.
As Windows 10 was released, Microsoft decided to phase out Windows Media Player and transition to Groove Music. For many users, Windows Media Player is still on your system, as users didn’t really want to give it up. At first, neither did I, since you could rip music from purchased CDs on your PC.
Now, years after its release, Groove Music has become an impressive, yet easy-to-use music player and manager. It modernizes Windows Media Player and the Zune music manager to create something even better.
Groove Music Features
The app is pre-installed in Windows 10, so there’s nothing to download. You actually don’t even need a Microsoft account to use it, though you can if you want to.
The main purpose of the app is to play music files stored on your computer. It currently supports the following file types:
- mp3
- wma
- flac
- wav
- aac
- m4a
- 3gp
- 3g2
- amr
- ac3
That covers most audio files you’d usually play. It’ll also support playing CDs if you have a disk drive on your desktop or laptop.
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If you were using Windows Media Player, your current playlists are automatically imported. Plus, you’re able to create your own. A favorite feature of mine is being able to shuffle all audio files without creating a playlist.
Some other features you’ll enjoy include:
- Search box to find artists, albums, and songs
- View your entire collection filtered by artist, album, or song title
- Quickly return to recently played albums and playlists
- Size the player to normal, small, or full screen
- View your upcoming songs in your playlist
- Sort playlists to find what you want quickly
- Adjust the equalizer for custom sound
- Change the theme to your current Windows 10 theme, Light, or Dark
- Set multiple areas to search for music to import
How to Use Groove Music
The interface is minimal and puts all the focus on your music, which I like. Honestly, the player looks nicer than Windows Media Player, though it does have fewer options.
Open Start and type Groove Music to open the app.
By default, the app starts to import music stored in your Music folder in Windows 10. If you use a different folder, change this by going to the Settings menu in Groove Music. This is at the bottom-left edge of the window.
Select “Choose where we look for music” to select the folders you want to pull from. If you’ve stored your music on an external hard drive or cloud storage service to save space, you can choose those folders, too. You’ll need to link your cloud storage folder to your computer as, Groove Music doesn’t work directly with cloud services. Obviously, it works well with OneDrive.
You can also change the equalizer settings within Settings. While there aren’t any advanced options, you can make some basic changes. This helps you get a more custom sound.
Playing Music
Use the hamburger menu at the top left to quickly search for music and access playlists. You can even start a new playlist from here.
Select any song, artist, album, or playlist to start playing music. Click the currently playing song at the bottom to expand the player to the size of the window and view upcoming songs, or minimize the player using the minimize button to the right of volume control.
If you have a list of random songs playing, hover over any song to quickly add it to a playlist, remove it and other songs from the list, or start playing that song.
When you check a song, you’ll see a list of options at the bottom of the player. Easily edit your current playlist exactly how you want it.
Overall, Groove Music is incredibly simple to use. It doesn’t really have any extra features. It’s a music player that lets you manage your collection and does its job well. For a free app, it’s a good choice. Of course, there are other free options available if you’re looking for something different.
Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/everything-you-need-know-about-groove-music-app-windows-10