Groove Music Pass Review (Featuring Apple Music Comparison)

Deal-Breaker?

Unlike Apple Music, which provides you with a 3 month trial, the only snag with Groove Music Pass is that you only get a 30 day trial.

Cost wise though Apple Music comes with the option of two packages. The first is a single membership of £9.99 a month and this provides access to the full Apple Music Library (stream or download) and unlimited skips on their radio stations. While the alternative Family membership costs £14.99 a month and this allows up to 6 family members access to the core service.

In comparison Groove Music costs £8.99 a month (so slightly cheaper) or they do a 12 month subscription that you can pay up-front and this costs £89.99 (thus 12 months for the price of 10). The latter subscription entitles you to stream to one device at a time or download music on up to 4 devices that you own.

In terms of cost on paper Groove Music seems to be the better deal but Apple Music may have the slight edge in terms of the trial length or if you have a larger set of family members.

Restrictions

While adding a Grove Music Pass unlocks a range of features, such as the ability to access a vast library of music (40+ millions songs in comparison to Apple Music which has 30+ Million) and intuitive Radio stations that form playlists based on the chosen artist. I did find that - unlike Apple Music - you don't get access to the entire library.

For example several albums that I tried to play, such as the ones from Metallica, prompt you with a message stating that you need to buy the album or track due to the request of the copyright holder. Granted Metallica have never been a fan of the streaming services but this was just an example; as there were several other albums doing the same thing. The compilation albums such as 'Now that's what I call music' were also part stream-able and part access denied, which was equally annoying.

Apple Music though had no such problems, as you can stream from their entire library.

Interface

However Groove Music to me does have a more simplified interface and as a result I found it a lot easier to access music than Apple's subscription service (despite it being integrated into iTunes).

For example you can either use the handy search bar at the top or the Explore menu option to the side. The latter gives you instant access to the top songs, albums and artists (this option also includes the latest songs).

You can then further refine your choice(s) based on Genre i.e. Rock / Indie and when you select an album/song you can quickly explore the artist to find other music they have produced or read Bio Info. Additionally you can add the songs you find to your custom radio list/play list.

Songs/Albums can also be downloaded for offline viewing via the 'Add to' Collection option. These of course can be played offline but only for the duration of the membership.

Streaming Quality

I'm not sure exactly what bitrate the streaming quality is set at, but downloads are 192kbps wma (according to the details tab after right clicking the song in File Explorer). This could explain why I felt the streaming quality was not quite as good as Apple's Music subscription service; which I believe is streaming at 256kbps AAC quality (the same as their own iTunes Match service).

Granted my speakers could be better, but I found the streams from Apple Music had more clarity and were a little punchier than the slightly lower undertones emanating from Groove Music.

Don't get me wrong, for casual listening you would still enjoy music from Groove Music, but for better audio quality the Apple Music service won out here.

Of course you do have other subscription based services that you can tap into such as Spotify, but the above were the two applications that I was comparing at the time.

Ace up its sleeve

One ace the Groove Music App does have up its sleeve is its OneDrive integration. If you noticed above I mentioned Apple's iTunes Match service, well this will set you back £22 a year and it allows you to stream your music to any of your iOS devices via the cloud. Groove Music allows you to do the same thing via your OneDrive online storage (which can be accessed from any Windows 10 device you own, such as Xbox One, Windows Mobile, Desktops, laptops etc) but it costs nothing!

Additionally Groove Music allows you to play from a wide range of file formats including .mp3, .flac, .aac, .m4a, .wav, .wma, .ac3, .3gp, .3g2 and .amr. So while the Groove Music Pass is not perfect the standard simplified player still has a feature list worth looking at.

On top of this activating your Groove Music Pass does seem to boost your OneDrive storage. According to my account info it gave me an extra 100GB of online storage! Of course I doubt this will remain once the subscription ends, but it is a hidden gem worth noting none the less.

Summary

The appeal for me with Groove Music Pass is that I can then tap into the same service on the other Windows 10 devices I own, such as my Xbox One, Windows phone and Laptop/PC. However the streamed quality and restrictions placed on certain songs have less appeal. Thus if wanted the best audio streaming quality I would sadly not go with Groove Music Pass. On the other hand I found Apple Music fiddly to access the music that I wanted, but it at least it had better streaming audio quality. You also get a larger community driven aspect with Apple Music, where you can find out more information about an artist(s). Plus with Apple's backing the quality could well win out in the end and with such a long trial you have plenty of time to decide if it's for you!

Groove Music is a tad more flexible mind, as the app can also be downloaded onto iOS and Android phones; whereas Apple Music is limited to Mac's and iOS devices. However for me I think I will stick with the  standard Groove Music service for now and tap into the OneDrive feature to get my music fix!

Ending your Trial

One word of warning is the way the trials on both of the above services work. Each requires your credit card details, so if you fail to cancel before the trial period ends then you will end up forking out for it! With Apple Music you have to log into your Apple account from iTunes and head to Subscriptions. From here go to Edit and then turn off the auto-renew option. What's handy here is that the subscription will still continue until the end of the term - but you won't be charged afterwards.

With Groove Music you need to go to 'Settings' and then choose 'Manage subscription'. This takes you to the Microsoft website where you can then select 'Cancel' under the 'Groove Music' header. Like Apple Music you can continue using the service until the subscription expires!