Groove Music Heads to Android, Xbox One and Web

This got buried a bit in all the excitement around Windows 10, but Microsoft this week released Groove Music—the replacement for Xbox Music—to Android devices, Xbox One and the web. Separately, Sonos announced beta support for Groove Music on its popular lineup of connected speakers.

These releases join Groove Music on Windows 10 and, in beta, on Windows 10 Mobile. Missing in action, of course is Groove Music for iPhone or iPad. (I assume the iPhone update is happening any time now.) But it’s not clear whether Microsoft will rebrand Xbox Music on legacy platforms like Windows 8 or Windows Phone. (I’m guessing no.)

Here’s what’s happening.

Microsoft Groove for Android

The Microsoft Groove app is now available in the Google Play Store, replacing Xbox Music. You may recall that Microsoft issued a major update to the Android version of Xbox Music about three weeks ago; that update added a number of new features, the most important of which were support for OneDrive and offline music sans a music pass. It doesn’t appear that this app version is much different from that, aside from the Groove branding, and a change to a black UI rather than the Xbox-style green from before.

Groove Music for Xbox One

No big deal here per se, but the Xbox Music app on Xbox One has been renamed to Groove Music. I’m in France, so I can’t actually see/test this, sorry.

Groove Web Player

The web-based version of Groove Music is called Groove Web Player and can now be found at music.microsoft.com. The old address was music.xbox.com, which was easier to type, but c’est la vie. And if you do go to music.xbox.com, you’ll be directed to a new intro page for Groove.

Groove Music now in beta on Sonos

This week, Sonos announced that Groove Music was now available in beta on its connected speaker systems. “To try it in beta, select Add Music Services from the Sonos app on your phone or tablet,” Sonos explains. “From your PC or Mac controller, scroll down to select Sonos Labs. You can head over to the Groove Music app page for more info including subscription info and key features.”

Groove Music is available on Sonos in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.