Xbox Music renamed ‘Groove’ as Microsoft gears up for Windows 10 release

But it seems the new Microsoft Groove and Groove Music Pass have nothing to do with Zikera. Zikera did not return an immediate request for comment. “And you can also infuse your personality in to Groove – choose

a light or dark theme for the app depending on your mood, or pick an accent color in Windows Settings and the Groove app makes it shine”,

says Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft.

Groove will have an updated interface aimed at better music management and an “improved listening experience”.

Alongside its refreshed name, Grovve is getting some new features, including redesigned menus and navigation controls suited for either a mouse and keyboard or touch screens and built-in OneDrive integration so you can access your music across devices.

Should that remind you of Xbox Music Pass then you’re not wrong.

Elsewhere, Microsoft has announced the name for the ex- Xbox Video app too.

Some might wonder why Microsoft is in the music and video business at all.

The past couple of weeks have included some big streaming music news thanks to the debut of free radio stations on Google Play Music and the launch of Apple Music.

And there won’t be free ad-supported streaming either, after it was ditched previous year in favour of subscription-based service.

There’s nothing on Zikera’s site that indicates they have been bought by Microsoft. For others, the title Groove is a lazy, misguided attempt from Microsoft to rehash an already tarnished service. That Groove app ties into Last.fm to figure out what music you like.

Over the years, Xbox Music has been a pretty decent service, but it lacks the showiness and hype of immensely popular products like Spotify, and more recenly, the just launched Apple Music. I argued at the time-and still feel-that MixRadio was a crucial piece of the music service puzzle, and did/does things that Xbox Music simply doesn’t do.