Google has asked its users to start saying goodbye to Google Play Music, as the Music streaming app is set to be shutdown completely by December, 2020.
“Starting in September, 2020, in New Zealand and South Africa – and in October, for all global market – users will no longer be able to stream from, or use the Google Play Music app,” Google says in a blog post.
Google said that starting this month, the company will stop accepting subscriptions on the Google Play Music app, however, users will have the opportunity of transferring their playlist, and other data to YouTube Music.
The window for transferring of user data is between August and December, 2020, after which, the app will be completely shutdown, and users will no longer be able to transfer their content to the new platform.
It is obvious that YouTube is telling the world that the next level of music playing would be streaming, and the company is working hard to make itself a force to reckon with, in the movement.
As at last year, YouTube Music has about 20 million user, which is a lot lower that the users on rival platform like Spotify – which has about 270 million users, and Apple Music with close to 70 million users.
One of the plus that YouTube Music has to offer its users is better recommendation. The recommendation will be improved because YouTube has more data at hand. These data will be gathered from user’s searches on YouTube, and other Google apps, and would be tailored into making better recommendation for its users.
The good news is that, Google has made it easy for users to transfer their content from Google Play Music to YouTube Music.
Back in May, YouTube Music released a tool that is meant to help users move their musical content – playlists and other preference – over to its platform.
According to YouTube’s official blog, users can follow the steps to transfer their content to YouTube Music:
- Download the YouTube Music app for Android or iOS.
- Click on the transfer button in YouTube Music, and all uploads, purchases, added songs and album, and other contents, would be moved.
- Your added recommendation will appear immediately on the YouTube Music home screen, and you will be notified by email and notification when your music library transfer is complete.
A video tutorial on how to transfer your content can be watched here.
Alternatively, users can use Google Takeout to export the content of their library safely, while they decide what to do with it.