Stream music from OneDrive, play music and artwork on your TV, and more with the Groove Music app in Windows 10. Here are Roland Waddilove’s best tips
1 Store Music In OneDrive
The Music folder on your PC’s disk drive is the obvious place to store music files like MP3s and other audio types, but there are advantages to using OneDrive. One of the most important of these is that OneDrive is synced across all the PCs you use, so you have access to your music library from any computer.
Open Explorer and go to the OneDrive folder. If there isn’t a Music folder, create one, and then move any music files in the C:\Users\YourName\Music to the OneDrive Music folder. The amount of music that can be stored in OneDrive depends on your account. Right-click the OneDrive folder at the right side of the taskbar in the pop-up tray and select Settings. On the Account tab is the space used and the maximum available. It can be anywhere from 5GB to 1TB. If you have only 5GB, then you might want to put just your favourite albums and tracks in OneDrive.
There aren’t any facilities in Groove Music to copy your CDs to your PC’s disk, but there are other tools that can do the job. iTunes can be used, for example, which will save music tracks as AAC, MP3 or WAV, all of which Groove Music can play. You could use iTunes to rip your CDs, copy the tracks to the OneDrive Music folder and then enjoy streaming music all for free.
After adding music, open the Groove Music app and wait while it scans for music files and adds the album artwork. It can take up to half an hour for all the artwork to appear, so be patient.
2 Set Music Locations
If you have a large music collection and a small disk drive in your PC, you might have your music stored on an external USB drive. A network drive can also be used for sharing music files across computers and devices instead of using OneDrive. Configure Groove Music to look in these alternative locations for audio files.
Open Groove Music and click the gear icon at the bottom of the left panel. Under Music on this PC, click ‘Choose where we look for music’. Your personal Music folder and OneDrive Music are already listed. Click the plus button to add another location and use the Select Folder window to choose the drive and folder.
3 Show Live Tile
The Start menu live tile is useful because it shows the artist and the track or album being played, along with artwork. The tile looks great. Right-click the Groove Music tile on the Start menu and select Resize > Large. Then right-click it and select More > Turn live tile on.
4 Pin To Start
To make it quicker and easier to access your favourite music, you can pin tracks, albums and playlists to the Start menu. Right-click any track or album and select ‘Pin to Start’ from the menu that is displayed. Select a playlist in the left panel, and under the title on the right is ‘Pin to Start’. Click it. Clicking a tile on Start opens Groove Music and begins playing.
5 Stream Music
One of the best features of Groove Music is that you can stream your music to any phone or tablet, no matter where you are. Your computer does not need to be switched on, and it makes use of OneDrive.
After adding tracks and albums to the OneDrive Music folder, go to the app store on your phone or tablet and search for Groove Music. Install the app, open it and sign in using your Microsoft account (OneDrive, Outlook, Xbox username/password). Groove Music shows all the music on OneDrive (give it a few minutes to get all the artwork), and you can select and play it.
Watch out for data charges, though. It’s best to stream music on wi-fi, where your data allowance is unlimited. Tap the menu button, select Settings to find two options to turn off mobile data for downloading and streaming if you’re worried you might forget.
6 Import iTunes Playlists
If you have iTunes on the computer and have created playlists, they can be imported and played in Groove Music. Click the gear icon on the left to open Settings and then click ‘Import iTunes playlists’. The music be available either on your PC or through Groove Music Pass, because it doesn’t import the music, only the playlist.
7 Choose The Theme
Two graphical themes are provided for the Groove Music app, and you can choose between light and dark. Click the gear icon, and in the settings, scroll down to the bottom and select ‘Dark’ or ‘Light’ under Background.
8 Buy Music
You can’t buy music from within Groove, because it’s purchased in the Windows Store instead. Open the Store app and select the Music section at the top. Browse the music and click the price button to buy albums and tracks. If you use more than one computer or if you use the Groove Music app on your phone or tablet, go into Settings and enable the option to download music purchased on other devices. You can then buy music anywhere and listen to it anywhere.
9 Avoid Duplicates
If you have music in OneDrive and you sign up for Music Pass, the all-you-can-eat streaming music service, you will have duplicates, because a track on OneDrive is also in Music Pass. To remove the duplicates, go to Settings in Groove Music, and in the OneDrive section turn on the switch, ‘When I add a song to OneDrive, remove any version that came from Groove Music Pass’.
10 Play Groove Music On TV
If you have a big screen television and a great sound system for it, you can output Groove Music and artwork to it and it makes a great audio visual show. It’s brilliant!
You need Chrome for this. Open it and click the hamburger icon to show the menu. If you have a Cast menu item then you’re okay, but if you don’t, go to Help > About Google Chrome to get the latest version or go to chrome.google.com/webstore, then search for and install Google Cast.
1. Click Cast on the Chrome menu and a Cast to menu appears top centre in the browser window.
2. Click the down arrow, and the menu changes to ‘Select Source’. Choose Cast desktop.
3. Select the Chromecast device in the menu.
4. A message box appears: “Chrome Media Router Screen Sharing Request”. Under ‘Do you want Chrome Media Router to share your screen and audio output’, click Yes.
5. Start Groove Music, select a track, album or playlist and play it.
The audio volume on the TV is independent of the volume control on the computer, so you can turn down or turn off the computer’s speakers and sit back and listen on the TV, using the TV remote to turn up the volume.
Your PC’s desktop and audio is sent to the TV, so the final thing to do is to select ‘Now Playing’ on the left in Groove, then click the double-headed arrow on the album artwork to make it full screen. It then fills the TV screen too. A Ken Burns style effect adds a bit of movement, and text at the bottom of the screen shows the album and track that’s playing. It’s perfect for a relaxing evening.