Google has announced that it will be shutting down its Google Play Music service in October and focusing on YouTube Music instead.
The past several years have completely changed the way we consume music, with digital purchases starting to give way to subscription services such as Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music. Google Play Music offered both a subscription service and direct digital purchases, but failed to gain as much interest as competing music apps, and Google has now announced that it will be discontinued in October.
Google Play Music has gone through several iterations with several different names, starting as a cloud music storage and digital music store in 2011 and added streaming services in 2013. Despite the fact that it came pre-installed on Android devices and was the default music player, it failed to gain the same level of user activity as Spotify or even the native Apple Music app on iOS.
Google later launched the YouTube Music app in 2015, and internally it even merged the development teams for the two services some time later. The decision was ultimately made to shut down Google Play Music and focus on YouTube Music instead, which won't have a store but will offer over 60 million songs on a streaming service.
If you use Google Play Music, you will have until December to transfer your playlists and music purchases over to YouTube Music. Though YouTube Music doesn't have a store, you'll be able to keep all of the purchases you've made through Google Play Music.
Source: BBC News
