Microsoft’s Zune Music Services To Retire November 15

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Microsoft’s Zune portable media player was the company’s answer to the original line of Apple iPad products, with the first model launching in 2006. However, with the evolution in the way people access and listen to music, reinvention of the service has been inevitable. If anything, it’s surprising and somewhat impressive that Microsoft has kept those services alive all this time. The music service, which was started to counter the growing popularity of online music streaming services, has always played second fiddle to the more established players in the market. Groove service already works with Xbox One, Windows 10 as well as Android and iOS platforms.

And yet, the company has announced today that it’s retiring Zune services on November 15 and you would no longer be able to stream music or download content to your device. If you’re a Sonos owner and Microsoft Groove Music fan, this should be exciting news all around.

If you downloaded files with DRM from Zune, they might not work any more if Microsoft can’t preserve the license in the transition. However, at this point, it is unclear whether older devices will be compatible with the services.

Why this matters: Microsoft stopped producing Zune hardware roughly four years ago and dismantled the Zune brand a year later, instead using “Xbox” as an entertainment catch-all. Basically, paying subscribers will automatically be converted to Groove Music Pass. If a user chooses to not continue as a Groove subscriber, Microsoft promises to send an email soon with detail on how to cancel and obtain partial refunds for any pre-paid time periods.