Google has added another fine addition to its ever-growing graveyard of dead apps and services. This time, it’s Play Music, the company’s music and podcast streaming app, which will sigh its last breath in October (September for New Zealand and South Africa). Play Music’s death may not necessarily be missed, though, since most of its functionality has been replicated by YouTube Music – Google’s other music platform.
“YouTube Music will replace Google Play Music by December 2020,” Google wrote. “Users will have the opportunity to transfer their music libraries from Google Play Music to YouTube Music in that timeframe. Second, in the coming months, Google Play Music users will no longer be able to stream from or use the Google Play Music app. Additionally, we are making changes to the Google Play store and Music Manager.”
Google is urging users to transfer their content as soon as possible, which can be done through a simple transfer tool or Google Takeout. For those who aren’t familiar with YouTube Music, here are some of the latest additions:
- Playlists: We’re continuously evolving the way listeners can create and enjoy playlists, including:
- Assistive Playlist Creation – Quickly and easily create playlists by adding recommended songs based on existing songs in the playlist, as well as personalized signals, such as watch history and likes.
- Collaborative Playlists – Collaborate with other music fans to create shared playlists for any occasion.
- New Programmed Playlists – Explore newly launched programmed playlists like Highline, Caribbean Pulse, Conditions Underground, and more.
- New Features and Improvements:
- Player Page Redesign – Updates to the player page, available for Android mobile users, provides a more modern design that allows better playback controls and easier access to related music and other features like song lyrics.
- Explore Tab – The new Explore tab, available on both mobile and the web is the consistent destination to find new releases including albums, singles, and music videos, as well as browse our vast catalog of diverse playlists through the Moods & Genre section
- More Ways to Enjoy YouTube Music:
- Android TV – An update for Android TV brings YouTube Music to the big screen, letting listeners enjoy videos and live performances from their favorite artists, along with all their favorite music.
- Google Maps – The Android integration lets listeners seamlessly listen to music and get personalized music recommendations within the Google Maps interface.
- Discover music with Google Assistant – You can now ask your Google Home and Nest smart speakers, “Hey Google, play recommended music from YouTube Music.” Then, Google Assistant will share personalized recommendations based on your favorite artists and genres.