If you weren’t already aware, Google has been working tirelessly to transition its users over from the Google Play Music app to YouTube Music. The de facto music streaming service from Google going forward is YouTube Music. Google Play Music, as revealed in an official blog post, will come to a close starting in September in select markets.
Both the streaming services have existed alongside each other over the past couple of years. Google has been hard at work porting useful features of Play Music to YouTube Music over the past year. It even launched a transfer tool to easily take your music from one app to another – giving you enough reason to switch.
Now, it appears like enough people have jumped ship and Google is ready to pull the plug on its older streaming service.
The official blog post confirms that Google Play Music will become unusable in South Africa and New Zealand in September later this year. The rest of the world will follow closely in October. Users will not be able to stream music, starting September but the ability to make purchases (single or albums) from the app is going away at the end of this month.
“Starting in late August, users will no longer be able to purchase and pre-order music or upload and download music from Google Play Music through Music Manager,” an official blog post reveals.
Google Play Music will shut down completely in December 2020. This is the final step in the whole transition process and you will no longer have access to your Play Music content after a said date (to be revealed). Your subscription will automatically be canceled as well. The company adds that it will make sure to “clearly notify all users before they lose access to their Google Play Music library and data.”
So yeah, if Google Play Music was your go-to music streaming service then you either need to transfer your library (including likes, playlists, albums, and more) to Youtube Music. Else you could make the jump to other popular streaming services, such as my favorite Spotify or Amazon Music that comes bundled with the ₹999 Amazon Prime subscription in India. If you haven’t decided on what streaming app you’re switching to, check out our detailed post on Google Play Music alternatives right here.
