Groove Music + Sonos

Well, here’s some good news: Microsoft announced today that Groove Music is now supported on Sonos. That means you can now enjoy your own music or Groove Music Pass music on the high-end smart speaker solution.

First, the quotes.

“With Groove, Microsoft gives you an easy way to access millions of tracks on demand alongside your personal collection,” Sonos Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten said in a prepared statement. “We’re excited to welcome another great service for listening out loud at home on Sonos.”

“Groove Music support for Sonos is now available!” the Windows team writes in a post to Blogging Windows. “This means you can now use Groove to listen to your favorite music on your Sonos speakers. Enjoying Groove Music on Sonos is easy.”

This is big news, and when you consider how routinely Microsoft’s digital media services are ignored by the wider world, this announcement is a nice shift in tone as well. Sonos devices are expensive, but they’re well-regarded, and the lack of Sonos compatibility made Groove—and before that Xbox Music and Zune Music—a non-starter for many. Now they will need other excuses.

I’m sure everyone reading this site already knows this, but Groove is Microsoft’s music service and, in Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile, the app used to access music in your own collection—via OneDrive, for example—and in the 30-million-plus song library in Groove music store via the Groove Music Pass subscription. Groove works with Windows 8.1, Windows Phone, Android and iOS, as well, and there is a nice web client.

Sonos, meanwhile, is a Wi-Fi-based smart speaker system for the home. You can buy one or more Sonos speakers, put them around your home, and control them via a Sonos app, which is available for PC, Mac, iOS or Android. (But not Windows phones. Not yet at least.)

For Groove users, the weird bit is that you have to access your collection from the Sonos app to play it over Sonos hardware. And Groove will appear as just one of many choices in the services list.

But whatever. This is good news and a nice step forward in a year that has seen its share of retreats.