Windows 10: You need a subscription to play <song> by <artist> on Groove - Cortana

How do I fix this? Like 80% of the songs in my music library cannot be played by Cortana either by voice or typing a command in (I just get told I need a subscription when I already HAVE the song--only a few songs play properly via Cortana).

:)

 

cortana cannot play music after w10m update

Hi,

I have a lumia 640.

After the w10m update, cortana can no longer play music when I say play <song name> or play <artist name>

It just shows bing results.

Is this a known problem? Is there a workaround?

Thanks,

cc

 

Cortana doesn't 'play my music'

Hi Andrew,

You can try some of these commands using Cortana to play music:

• Play music.
• Play <genre>
• Play <artist>
• Play <album>
• Pause the music.
• Resume music.
• Shuffle the music.
• Play next track.
• Play previous track.
• Play <playlist>
• What is playing?

Regards.

 

I can't tell by your screenshot what the format of the song is. If it is MP3, you should have no problem. But if you have a file saved in a type that requires a license and it's not on this PC, you won't be able to play it.

 

Everything in my music folder is an MP3. They play fine through normal double-clicking them and opening them up in Groove and whatnot. The problem is 80% of them refuse to be played via Cortana and prompt getting a subscription for whatever reason.

 

Microsoft is heading towards a Subscription based platform now. The changes to Outlook 2016 now has in fine print that you have to pay for a Office365 subscription.

I would go with Winamp or a lightweight media player. Majorgeeks.com has safe software and plenty of choices.

 

Have you set your directories in the settings in Groove so it finds all your music files? Maybe the 80% are actually files from the Internet because it can't find the files on your system.

 

You don't have to pay for an office 365 subscription, there is an option to enter and activate with a product code in office 2016. Just like any other version of office before it. I use Outlook 2016 everyday and don't have a 365 subscription.

 

I've only played around with Groove, mostly on my XBOX. Some functions do require a subscription, I always thought that was just for downloadable content though? I don't have Cortana on my PC, so I can't do much in the way of testing on it. It's also a bit of a pain to get her to work on my XBOX. I don't have a mic anyway. I an however interested to see it you can sort it out as I may be wanting to do a similar thing on my XBOX to play my MP3 files from it. You shouldn't have to have a subscription just to play local content.

 

Yeah, I just use the default locations.

 

What's really great about both the PC and Xbox version, there is a switch to turn off all features related to Music Pass. So if you have enough room on OneDrive and have loaded your MP3 music there, you can access from your PC, Xbox and Phone. All without Music Pass. So I have OneDrive sync with my Music directory and each time I buy an album from Amazon, it downloads to my PC and then OneDrive syncs it.

 

I was wanting to play my media locally but the XBOX won't let you do that. No local storage on its internal hard drive. That means its either a USB thumb drive or OneDrive. I'd have to double check, but I do believe groove wouldn't play from my thumb drive. It didn't see it at all. Looks like its time to start uploading my MP3 collection to OneDrive. Thanks for the tip on hiding the Music Pass stuff. That may be just the ticket to get me using Groove.