Wow, this is a huge change. I have used Groove Music Pass in the past, and found it decent, though I realized I save a lot more money buying MP3s than paying for streaming. (I add less songs to my playlists monthly than the cost of a sub.)

This article also doesn't mention: Will they continue selling music in the Windows Store? I am assuming this just ceding the subscription model only. Will they keep the existing "Groove" name for the app, or will this someday once again be "Windows Media Player"?

EDIT: To answer my own, Microsoft's original blog post says they will stop selling music altogether: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/10/02/micro...

My first reaction to this announcement is disappointment and "well, it was only a matter of time". I'm going to miss the OneDrive integration which lets you stream whatever music you have in OneDrive. I'll also miss the app itself, although maybe I'm alone there being one of seemingly few that enjoys UWP apps. Granted, Spotify recently released an app for the Windows Store [1], but it's not a UWP app. Rather it's just their regular desktop app packaged up for the Store with Project Centennial.

[1]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/spotify/9wzdncrfj4wk

The Groove/ music app appears to be staying. It will still support playing music from OneDrive and local files (apparently the iOS/ Android apps won't be going anywhere either).

The things that are going away after Dec. 31st are the streaming service and music store (i.e. purchasing albums/ individual tracks). You won't be able to download any music from the store after Dec. 31st.

Here's the FAQ: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4046109/groove-musi...

Microsoft gave up on Groove years ago when they themselves wrote the "official" Spotify client for Windows Phone. Spotify couldn't be bothered to invest a dime of resources into the development. Free is free.