Spotify coming to Groove Music Pass customers

[Rorey]

What’s happening to the Groove Music Pass?

As of December 31, 2017, the Groove Music Pass streaming service will be discontinued and Groove Music Pass music will no longer be available. The built-in Groove music player will continue to play all your owned (local) and OneDrive music files, but will no longer stream Groove Music Pass content.

For those that stream Groove Music Pass content, don’t worry! We’ve partnered with them so anyone currently using the Groove Music service can transfer their music collection to a new or existing Spotify account and continue enjoying the music streaming experience.

How do I transfer my Groove Music collection to Spotify? 

From October 9, 2017, Groove Music Pass subscribers will be able to transfer existing music collections and playlists they created to Spotify with just a few easy steps:

1. Open Groove Music on an up-to-date Windows 10 PC or Xbox One. You’ll automatically be prompted to transfer your music to Spotify.
2. Follow the on-screen steps to create a Spotify Free account or log into an existing Spotify account and then transfer your music to it. Your music will be available for transfer until January 31, 2018. 

If you’re not prompted to transfer your music, check:

1. You have the latest version of the Groove Music app. This requires you to be on the Anniversary Update (or newer) of Windows 10.
2. You have (or have had) a Groove Music Pass trial or subscription. 

To manually transfer your music, go to Settings in Groove Music and select Move my music to Spotify. It’s not possible to transfer your Groove Music collection on a mobile device, or using an Xbox 360.  

I'm a current Groove Music Pass subscriber, will I get a refund?

Monthly Groove Music Pass subscribers are eligible for a refund for the remainder of their subscription if they cancel before December 31, 2017. Refund eligibility will be determined by your next billing date and the unused time already paid for on the monthly subscription.

If you paid for an annual pass or prepaid subscription card, you’re eligible for a refund of the remainder of your subscription, either when the subscription is canceled, or on December 31st 2017, whichever comes first.

All Groove Music Pass refunds are processed by Microsoft. To request one, or for more information, we recommend contacting Microsoft.

Will my Groove Music Pass subscription automatically transfer to Spotify?

Your subscription won’t automatically transfer over to Spotify. To convert a monthly Groove Music Pass subscription to a Spotify Premium subscription, you first need to transfer your Groove Music collection to a new or existing Spotify account. To do this, simply open Groove Music on an up-to-date Windows 10 PC or Xbox One and follow the on-screen instructions.

If you create a new Spotify account, you’ll start out on the Spotify Free service. Once you’ve transferred your Groove Music collection to Spotify, you’ll automatically receive a 60-day free trial for Spotify Premium when you upgrade. Remember to cancel your existing Groove Music Pass subscription if you move to Spotify before December 31st, 2017.

If you’ve claimed a trial offer with Spotify before, or if you were previously subscribed to Spotify Premium, then you won’t be eligible to claim the 60-day free trial. For more information, check out the 60-day trial terms and conditions.

How much does Spotify cost after the 60-day free trial?

Spotify has a number of different subscription options available. Check them out and choose the one that’s right for you.

 

How do I receive a 60-day free trial for Spotify Premium?

If you’re a Groove Music Pass subscriber and you transfer your music to Spotify before December 31, 2017, you’ll automatically receive a 60-day free trial for Spotify Premium when you upgrade from Spotify Free.

If you don’t receive your 60-day free trial offer, first check if you’re eligible. If you are, contact us and we’ll help.

What happens to my music after I move it to Spotify?

All the music that has a match in Spotify will appear in your Spotify library and playlists. All your purchased or uploaded music will remain untouched in the built-in Groove Music app. Groove Music Pass content will continue to be playable until December 31, 2017. Music in OneDrive and on your hard drive will be untouched and continue to be playable through the built-in Groove Music app.

I can’t find all my music from Groove after moving my collection to Spotify.

We do our best to preserve your collection and playlists when moving them, but there may be some cases where we can’t find a matching song in our catalog. A list of the songs we are unable to move can be found in a file on your computer named spotify_migration.txt. The file is in your music library folder, which for most users is found at C:\users\[username]\Music\ (also known as %userprofile%\Music\).

Any music in your OneDrive and on your hard drive will be untouched and remain playable through the built-in Groove Music app.

Heads up: Only playlists you created will be moved to Spotify. Any editorial playlists you’ve saved from the Groove Explore page will not be moved, so we recommend you add those songs to a new playlist before moving your music to Spotify.

 

I’m not a Groove Music Pass subscriber. How does this affect me?

Nothing will change for you. You can continue to play your owned (local), OneDrive, or purchased content through the built-in Groove Music app. But, if you want to streams music from Spotify’s catalog of over 30 million songs at no cost, check out Spotify Free.

Will I still be able to play local files or music I’ve purchased?

Yes. Songs you’ve purchased can still be streamed and downloaded to your Windows devices, provided they’re still available in the Groove Music catalog. Owned (local) files on any of your devices will still be playable in the built-in Groove Music app, which will remain available on both iOS and Android.

 

Does this mean I should backup all my purchased music?

There will likely be a decrease in the size of Groove Music’s catalog. To be on the safe side, we recommend downloading any tracks you’ve previously purchased and store them in OneDrive to ensure you don’t lose access to them.

 

[user-removed]

Actually I may have thought of a REAL solution....  

I have an Office 365 account, paid $99 for the 1TB Onedrive account.  Which is less than $9.99 per month.   Put all your songs that you bought and paid for from the Windows Store out there.  Put all the CD/MP3's that you also have that Spotify doesn't have out there.  Put over 10K of them out there, space permitting.   Then, either A) buy from Itunes the new releases or B) torrent download them.  Then place those out on Onedrive and you have a music management system using Groove and not using Spotify.  Right now they aren't listening to customer feedback, and Microsoft is forcing their users of Groove into Piracy really.  So, like my screen shot attached - I have been starting in that direction already..

[hdd113]

I only played 1 out of maybe 20 songs on my playlist from Groove Music Pass, but it was still worth it, because it could so seamlessly fill in the small gaps in my collection, and I could even get great editorial playlists as well. If Microsoft really thought Spotify was a viable substitute to what Groove could do, and if Spotify really thought they could really replace Groove, they are terribly misunderstanding what it is that they are dealing with right now.

And the Spotify app is no match for the design, performance and quality of the Groove music app. I won't pay the music company that can't even make a better music app than a default music app that comes bundled with an operating system.

[steven495 · Accepted solution]

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@alanbradwell wrote:

I would welcome any assistance, from the community. Like you all, I have had the message to move to Spotify. OK, not the end of the world...except I have a laptop that is running Windows 7 Professional, not Windows 10, so I can’t transfer my Groove catalog to Spotify. 

I contacted Spotify twice & they unfortunately haven’t been of much use, just directing me here, in stead of actually helping. 

Many assistance that could be offered, will be gratefully received. Many thanks. 

---

I'd suggest getting a friend who has a windows 10 computer to allow you to create a profile on their machine. When that is done then follow the migration instructions. When it's completed and you log onto your windows7 computer, Spotify there should be synchronised. 

[kiwidoc]

Don't bother. Spotify is **bleep** compared with Groove. Terrible library management and search. Offline is barebones.
Deezer is basic, but I think will be more rapid to change.
Some omline tools to stranger library

[snakebittenbum]

I was going to go back to Deezer. How do I transfer my music? Deezer sound was always echo filled. Hope they improved. Spotify is a joke

[snakebittenbum]

You must be joking

[errorstribe · Accepted solution]

I just talked to spotify's support and they said they don't support Window 10 Mobile

[snakebittenbum]

How the **bleep** can a MICROSOFT PARTNER NOT SUPPORT WINDOWS TEN MOBILE??? SPOTIFY SUCKS 

[errorstribe]

This whole process is a cluster flop, I'm not happy with how horrible Spotify is. Was all ready to move over but it wouldn't load on my brand new X3 phone, it was convenient to have a service that will have "all" the music. Guess I'm going back to buying CDs and ripping.

[snakebittenbum]

Totally. And it only allowed me to sync groove once. So all of my new stuff needs to download to my computer this week. Groove is better than itunes, Spotify, I heart, Pandora. Why would they get rid of the best features and force us to suffer the lame **bleep** Spotify? I am so angry

[kiwidoc]

Come over to Deezer. Work needs to be done, but I think that week happen. I usually get a response pretty fast on their community from staff asking more detail about suggestions. Sadly I'm still paying $ to Spotify for family pass. (my daughters just want to go worth the herd) but I've deleted it from my phone.

Just leave Spotify.

[daddy12]

I did the transfer....and looked and found this wonderful summary on my PC : "89 songs could not be transfered".

Great, there goes that money.....thanks MICROSOFT FOR FU$KING US ALL TO SAVE A BUCK!

[TannarCrossman]

Hello, I am having an issue transferring my Groove Pass content to Spotify. To begin with, opening thr Groove app on the Xbox One does not automatically prompt me. And when I go through the manual steps above: clicking "move your collection to Spotify" in settings, logging in with my preexisting Spotify account information, I end up at a white screen which says "Connect Groove to your Spotify account. Groove to Spotify. Groove will be able to receive this Spotify account data." There is more, including a brief privacy policy statement, anf the page ends with "You agree that Groove is responsible for its use of your information in accordance with its privacy policy."

It seems like I'm supposed to agree to these terms, but there is no option to do so. In fact the only thing on the screen with which I can interact is a drop-down list of the personal data they are referring to. Am I meant to move past this screen in order to transfer my collection, or does this screen signify that that process as begun and that there are no further actions for me to take? Because the latter would seem strange, but there doesn't seem to be any way of getting past this screen.

Please help.

[TannarCrossman]

In reality what I'm going to do is just cancel the account. This entire thing has been the most absurdly convoluted process imaginable. I stopped using Stopify about a year ago when I discovered Groove. It had some issues, sometimes it crashed for no reason, but for the most part it was better. And I was annoyed when I heard it was all moving to Spotify.

I understand mergers, it's whatever, doesn't matter; it was a business decision that Microsoft and Spotify made, but there should be a big emphasis on making the transition as smooth as possible for the customers, and it just doesn't seem like there was.

This customer service is so bad that I'm asking a community for advice instead of actual support staff. No offense to all of you, you all have had pretty good advice, that's just not the point. It is Spotify's job to do this, not yours. It's like going to a restaurant and asking customers to wait on one another instead of having a wait staff.

Was it impossible to buy the rights to the Groove app and operate it alongside the existing Spotify platform? If it was that seems like a way in which you could have avoided this entire situation.