“This is the evolution of our Xbox Music experience”

Jul 7, 2015 04:58 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is making quite a lot of changes to its product portfolio with Windows 10, as the new operating system is a critical turning point for the company, so today the Redmond-based tech giant has officially announced that it’s dropping the Xbox Music branding for Groove.

The new Groove app, which will soon be available for all Windows users, is basically the same Xbox Music app but with a new name and a bunch of new features, all supposed to give more sense to a Windows feature that had nothing in common with Xbox.

In fact, this is one of the reasons the company decided to drop the Xbox branding, with Joe Belfiore pointing out that it makes more sense to use “Groove” as the name of the new app since Music isn’t related in any way to Xbox.

Improved experience on touch devices

Just like all the other apps in Microsoft’s lineup, Groove comes with increased focus on touch-capable devices, so you can pinch to zoom in or out different views, drag tracks to your playlists, or use your mouse to hover the taskbar icon for playback controls.

The other Xbox Music features are still there, so you can access your music on any device running Windows 10, which means that your content will be available not only on PCs but also on tablets and smartphones powered by this OS version.

You can upload MP3s to OneDrive and access them easily on any Windows device or right on the web. Support for Android and iOS will also be coming soon.

A Groove Music Pass subscription will also be offered at $9.99 per month or $99 per year, and you can complete access to stream and download music from the Windows Store. Microsoft says that 40 million tracks are waiting for your click, so you can definitely find something to listen to in the Store.