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It was already long overdue, but Microsoft has finally decided that it’s time to retire all of its Zune services. Thus, the Zune Music Pass subscription program and the Zune marketplace for buying MP3s are no longer available.
Of course, this isn’t exactly a surprise, as Redmond made the announcement a few months ago. New Zune Music Pass subscribers are going to be automatically switched to Microsoft’s new Groove Music service. If you still have an active subscription, then you can cancel the service and receive pro-rated refunds.
As you probably recall, the last Zune hardware product was made back in 2008 and the brand was used for Microsoft’s music and video marketplaces. Now that Microsoft has renamed even its Xbox Music app to Groove Music, it’s time to make sure that this is the single name customers remember.
Microsoft also explains how is the Groove Music Pass different from the Zune Music Pass or the Xbox Music Pass:
- Groove comes with all new features and can be used across all your Groove-enabled devices (including Windows 10, Xbox One, Xbox 360, iOS, Android, Sonos, and through a web browser on your PC)
- While there are no more free tracks to download, you’ll have access to more than 40 million songs in the Groove catalog
- You can also store music on OneDrive and access that music from all your Groove-enabled devices
- Groove is $9.99 per month or $99.90 per year
