Microsoft (Photo : Reuters)
Three weeks before the official launch of the Windows 10 operating system, Microsoft announced that it is rebranding its Xbox Music streaming service to Groove. Microsoft said that the change in name was made to avoid confusion over the Xbox brand.
In previously released Windows 10 build, Xbox Music was simply called Music.
Microsoft made the announcement over an official blog post saying, "We're proud to introduce the evolution of our current Xbox Music experience, no titled Groove, with new features we think you're going to love. Groove describes what people feel and do with music and is more intuitive for our Windows 10 customers on what they'll find with the app."
The new Groove service does not offer a free music streaming. However, Groove will allow users to upload music on Microsoft's cloud storage service OneDrive. Once upload on OneDrive, users will have the ability to access the songs completely for free on any device running on the Windows platform and other supported platforms like the Xbox console, Android and iOS devices.
Much like the Xbox Music service, Groove is available for $9.99 monthly or $99 annual subscription fee. By subscribing to the service, users can access stream and download music directly on the Windows Store.
Aside from the Groove rebrand, Microsoft also announced that the Xbox Video service will have a new name. The Windows 10 app version of the service will be called Movies & TV. The feature will allow users to buy or rent TV shows as well as movies.
The Movies & TV service will be released on all devices that support the Windows 10 platform as well as Xbox consoles, according to The Verge. Microsoft has yet to announce whether the feature will be supported on Android and iOS devices.
