Microsoft's attempt at a streaming service for its niche audience has been shut down. One of the side effects of this is the loss of one of Cortana's skills.
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Microsoft's attempt at a music service for Xbox and Windows users will fizzle out and money will be refunded. Users will have to make bridges to Spotify.
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Nowhere near as popular as Apple Music or Spotify, Microsoft's Groove Music service is at least extremely affordable in its bid to draw in more users.
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The holiday spirit is strong with Microsoft, as Surface Pro 4-headlined “12 Days of Deals” will begin on Monday, just as various Cyber Monday leftovers are set to expire. Meanwhile, today only, i.e. until 11:59 p.m. PT on December 2, or “while supplies last”, US Windows Store visitors can nab a boatload of premium Christmas audio content free of charge.
All you technically need to do is present a valid Groove Music Pass before enjoying your complimentary downloads, or simpler and cheaper yet, sign up now for a free 30-day trial. That’s technically, because it seems the restriction can be circumvented if you really don’t want to try out Redmond’s digital music streaming service, formerly dubbed Xbox and Zune Music.
As for exactly what you’re getting, it’s a bona fide holiday must-have for tree decorators, stocking stuffers, and even heart-growing Grinch copycats. In fact, you can probably put the original soundtrack of Boris Karloff’s 1966 animated classic “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” at the top of your free holiday playlist.
Follow that up with Justin Bieber’s retro and modern “Under the Mistletoe, Deluxe Edition” album mix, Ariana Grande’s first holiday EP, “Christmas Kisses”, “A Mary Christmas” from Mary J. Blige, The Jackson 5’s “Ultimate Christmas Collection”, Rod Stewart’s “Merry Christmas, Baby” deluxe variant, the remastered and expanded “A Charlie Brown Christmas” soundtrack, “A Motown Christmas”, and last but not least, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Dreams of Fireflies.”
In total, that’s nine great albums, typically worth a combined $80 or so, available for free on Windows PCs and phones, iOS, Android devices and more.
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Consider this the answer to Google’s acquisition of Songza. This one’s a little more tricky, though, if only in name.Canadian-made iOS music app Groove is now under Microsoft’s belt. It’s not related to the latter’s streaming media service (formerly called Xbox Music and Zune Music) nor the Microsoft Office shared ...
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You don’t need to be a The Decemberists fan to appreciate the musical necessity of gapless playback. Concept artists (who might or might not get paid well depending on how you buy your music) will usually take great pains painting a story out through multiple, intertwined songs that blend into each other. If you don’t have gapless playback on, there’s a blaring quarter second of awkward silence waiting between those songs instead of a smooth transition.As much as I’m pumping ...
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