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  • Alexvrb - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link

    This is a good change. Best name it's had in ages... and a lot of people are funny about that.
  • Penti - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link

    Groove Networks with it's Groove products was a collaboration/productivity company that they bought ten years ago :) That tech is integrated into Office now. At least BSkyB or anyone else won't go after them over the name.
  • Byte - Monday, July 6, 2015 - link

    MS needs to hire a better marketing team, or poach Apples. they just can't get it right. Groove brings back some memories. They took over Groove as it was the cradle of "cloud" storage. They destroyed it and made it incompatible with Outlook WHILE bundling it with Office when it worked fine before! How ridiculous is that? It has since been killed off and rebranded as sharepoint workspace and reworked when building "live mesh" technologies, rebranded with their "Live" campaign, and finally accumulating to Sky Drive (not a bad name), but then wussed out when threathed from the Sky channel. One drive sounds worst than X-bone. Its a wonder how anyone knows what the heck is going on when you explain Windows stuff, but everyone knows what iCloud is.
  • Impulses - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    Yeah, Google isn't great at branding but Microsoft makes anyone look better by comparison... The whole hotmail to live to outlook transition for a single service kinda boggles the mind and confuses even the people the do use those.

    Dunno what was really wrong with Zune, other than the hardware never selling well... The old $15 plan with 10 downloads plan is probably the only streaming service I've ever considered. I'm gonna have to look into those $30 Black Friday deals tho...
  • StevoLincolnite - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    Hotmail, Live and Outlook all still exist. Lol.
    I still have the same Hotmaill Email from over 20 years ago...
  • Penti - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    You mean like the old MSN Music service they shuttered? Asking people who bought DRM:ed music to burn CD's and rip their MP3's when the service was to go offline, that was incompatible with the Zune when they overlapped. Replaced (kinda) by Zune music, renamed Xbox Music, renamed Groove Music. What was the point of the Zune service early on if you weren't buying a Zune? They tried to sell music-players from 2006-2009, why? The Zune music service didn't come to X360 until late 2010, why? The track record isn't great and they are pretty great at deprecating stuff in general, not offering a good way forward. I'm sure nobody understands Microsoft's gift card/digital currency system (with different names, points, xbox live currency, Xbox Gift cards, Windows Gift cards etc) either, while they fully understand the gift cards they can buy for iTunes or Spotify.

    But to be fair almost nobody did succeed in downloads or streaming. Those that did stuck with their branding though, and kept people in the service while they expanded it. I think it's a mistake to do as Google does with Google Play here though. You should keep stuff like a video streaming service separate from your store. Preferable cross platform, like they try to extend the office suite now. It might be all fine when you sign in with your Microsoft account all the purchases are tied to, but not when you don't. You should get people to buy into your services not into a platform few use all the features of. Sony used a external partner (Omnifone) for their music service, it's thankfully dead now. Devices should enable people, if they already have committed to a service when you start offering the same you better be much better if you want that market.
  • Alexvrb - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    It is separate from their store. If you read the article they have Groove on almost everything.
  • Penti - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link

    Video won't be separate
  • wrkingclass_hero - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link

    I prefer poached pears.
  • cjs150 - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    The first thing I do when I buy/build a new windows machine is delete the "Entertainment Apps" Apart from being nothing more than an advertising bill board with a very small amount of functionality built in, they provide nothing for me that Windows Media Player (after installing the right codecs) or VLC cannot do - often better.

    If I want to download movies I go to Amazon Prime, TV I go to BBC iplayer (or various other, probably wholly illegal, streaming services!), music I just go to internet radio.

    Maybe some people enjoy them, just not for me
  • jvl - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    So, how well does the service work?
    Is there a non-flash way to stream music in the browser? (I'm looking at you, Google!)
  • jvl - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    So, how well does the service work?
    Is there a non-flash way to stream music in the browser? (I'm looking at you, Google!)
  • Wolfpup - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    Wow, I had no idea people got confused by the Xbox branding. I suppose it's good they changed the names then.

    What's funny on the Xbox itself is these services started out just being branded Xbox or whatever, then they switched the branding to Zune, and then switched back.
  • Oxford Guy - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    "I had no idea people got confused by the Xbox branding"

    I'm surprised that it's a surprise that some people think logically. The name directly implied that one would need an XBox.
  • tolgerias - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    The name of the service is irrelevant to me. What I care about are features and quality. Zune had a terrible name, but the service was actually pretty good. The social aspect was nice in that you could share your playlists, and people could see what you've been playing. I also liked getting 10 free MP3 downloads every month. The desktop client was much better than the Xbox Music one, allowing smart playlists, metadata editor, and rating your tracks.

    Xbox Music always felt like a huge step backwards to me. I don't understand what their aim was by taking features away and releasing a barely usable app. It's like they really don't care anymore. I still have a Xbox Music Pass, because I got their $30 bargain price, but I am seriously considering other options when my subscription runs out.
  • tipoo - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    Hmm. Earlier they said they wanted to tie Xbox services to Windows more. Their signaling on that front is confusing.
  • BMNify - Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - link

    It is quite clear, Xbox video and xbox music were never xbox services, it was just the branding which confused people, so they have changed that now.

    As for tying xbox services to windows more, they are making use of xbox live services, achievements etc by linking it to games on windows store and windows phone store, also the windows 10 will come with xbox streaming.
  • khanikun - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link

    I remember when they created that "Games for Windows Live". No one bought into it and it kind of died out. I remember only like 2 PC games that used it. Red Faction and something else.

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