I was happy to see that Microsoft Groove was still playing back my MP3 files off my OneDrive.
In case you forgot, Groove was at one going to be Microsoft’s streaming service app. Groove was the app, and something called “Groove Music Pass” was going to be Microsoft’s streaming service. By the tail end of 2017, however, Microsoft realized that streaming music wasn’t their core strength, so Groove Music was shuttered in favor of a partnership with Spotify.
I’m not much of a music streamer. Call me old-fashioned, but I like my music local, arranged and curated by me, and not relying on network connectivity or a partner whose business dealings may change. Most of my music has accumulated on my Mac’s iTunes app, about 100GB worth.
I started copying my music up to OneDrive primarily in order to have a backup. Since the initial dump, it’s been easy to drag new tracks bought every now and then. With my Office 365 subscription, I have a full terabyte of storage in OneDrive. Like many other files, my music collection has been part of a larger “backup to OneDrive” strategy.
Then, one day, I opened Groove on my Xbox, just to see what it was all about. Lo and behold, all my music was there, and Groove could play it.
Of course my iTunes playlists were not. I had to find and filter my music based on typical criteria such as album or or artist name. But it was there. I could play through on my TV’s speakers, which were better at filling the living room than my Mac’s.