Music is personal. Music is relatable. Music brings people together. Music inspires.
After Manchester, a concert was held which bought people together. In the 90’s, an event known as Live Aid helped the world come to terms with the AIDS epidemic. When your favourite wrestler walks out on stage, his theme song gets you pumped. When NASA shows off the wonders of the cosmos, the marriage of captivating visuals plus emotional music instils a sense of wonder. Whether people are happy or sad, mourning or celebrating, music is there. The earliest stories we told as a species was to a drum beat.
So in a surprise announcement on Monday, Microsoft stated that it is killing off its music offering. This took a lot of people by surprise. A lot of people, who up till now, were already “loving Windows”.
I was one of those people. I saw the ecosystem of Windows and Microsoft services. I recommended the Windows Store to people. I would hold off on buying a game on Steam if there was a rumour that it would come to the Windows Store. I would tell people, clients that trusted me, that the Windows Store is the future. Now…? I am not so sure. As a consumer, I am a little worried. I see this announcement as Microsoft stepping away from the consumer space. As a consumer, can I trust that OneDrive will always be around, or Outlook.com?
I can no longer recommended the Windows Store. I can no longer recommend the Movies and TV, or the books found on the Store. Simply put, Windows has gone from being an ecosystem to being a platform. A platform for Steam and Chrome.
Music for me is very personal. As it is for most people I know. The music they love, they really love. It’s different to movies. It’s even different to books. Music speaks to everyone on this planet, no matter the language or background.
A Windows Insider MVP I follow in Twitter, @MichaelGillett, has put it best
The shuttering of Groove has been annoying and sad but worse than that I am worried. I am worried for all other consumer facing parts of Microsoft’s business. This after the abandonment of a phone strategy is too much.
From : https://medium.com/my-microsoft-life/groove-gone-too-zune-music-empowers-me-c4f94bc5b33b
Is this a bridge too many for Microsoft fans? We wait and see. And so far, the outlook is not very good.
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Thanks to Michael Gillet for the picture. His Twitter profile can be found here.
Give him a follow. He is a top chap.
2 Comments
Jeremy · October 5, 2017 at 15:58
Agree with pretty much everything here, why should anyone buy into the “Microsoft Ecosystem” if they keep dropping support for their services?
In this modern era where we buy games/movies/music digitally, we are increasingly at the whims of companies who own the servers (the shitstorm which would occur if Valve went bankrupt is almost inconceivable). But I’d much rather buy media and invest in a platform run by a company who’s first instinct isn’t to cut and run whenever they lose interest in a particular venture (makes me very apprehensive about their foray into Mixed Reality)
Kyle D · October 6, 2017 at 07:13
It is something to be weary of. Once they see Apple do AR better, are they going to throw in the towel on that too?
Sadly, I think we’re witnessing them become an Azure company.
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