Windows 10 Tip: Copy Your Own Music to OneDrive and Play It In Groove

Thanks to deep integration within Microsoft’s apps and services, you can copy your own music to OneDrive and then access it from any Windows 10 PC or device using Groove Music.

This capability is completely free, and it works with any music you’ve ripped from your own audio CDs, purchased from services like iTunes, or otherwise acquired. And if you are a Groove Music Pass subscriber, it works alongside that service, letting you mix and match your own music with that in the subscription.

The only potential limit you’ll run into is OneDrive. But since everyone with a Microsoft account gets 15 GB of free storage, and it’s possible to get unlimited storage if you have an Office 365 subscription, this won’t be an issue for most.

First, of course, you need to get your music into OneDrive. Microsoft’s storage service provides a Music folder for this very purpose, and you’re free to place music in there in any organizational scheme you prefer. (I use top-level artist folders with album folders within, which is pretty standard.)

There are two methods for getting your music into OneDrive.

With a web browser. You can navigate to OneDrive with your favorite web browser and then drag and drop music files into the correct folder. But as I explained previously in Xbox Music Tip: Access All of Your Music from (Almost) Any Device, only Google Chrome will let you drag and drop entire folders (rather than individual files) so if you’re going to use this method, you really need to use Chrome.

With the OneDrive sync client in Windows. Configure OneDrive to sync your Music folder to your PC, and then just use File Explorer to copy in the music you wish to store in OneDrive. Later, you can free up space on your hard drive by removing those folders from what’s synced to the PC.

Once you’ve copied your music to OneDrive, you can access it from Groove Music on any PC or device running Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, iPhone, or Android handsets. (It even works in Xbox Music on Windows 8.1 or Windows Phone 8.1.) And while you don’t need to do this, the Windows 10 version of Groove Music lets you filter the view so that you only see the music you have in OneDrive.

From here, you can stream any of your own music as long as you have an Internet connection. But you can also download albums, songs, or playlists so they’re available offline as well. This is particularly useful on portable PCs and devices, of course.

Point being, once you put your own music into OneDrive, it’s available to you at any time, on all of your devices. Pretty sweet.