Google Play Music starts phased shutdown with YouTube Music replacing Google Play Music by the end of 2020. Google Play Music users have been able to transfer their music libraries, personal taste preferences and playlists to YouTube Music since the beginning of the year. The shutdown of Google Play Music will happen by December 2020 and users of the service will have transfer their music libraries by that time.
In the coming months, Google Play Music users will no longer be able to stream from or use the Google Play Music app. Additionally, there will be changes to the Google Play store and Music Manager. Starting in September 2020 in New Zealand and South Africa — and in October for all other global markets — users will no longer be able to stream from or use the Google Play Music app. Playlists, uploads, purchases, likes and more will still be available until the end of the year after which Google Play Music libraries will no longer be available.
Simple transfer and changes to Music Manager
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.
To ensure users don’t lose any of their content, they’ll need to use a transfer tool to migrate any purchases over to YouTube Music or use Google Takeout to export data and download their purchased and uploaded music. Once the Music Store is no longer available, users will continue to be able to upload any tracks purchased elsewhere to YouTube Music. Listeners can also choose to delete their Google Play Music data, and users will be notified before they lose access to their Google Play Music library and data.
New enhancements to YouTube Music
New Playlists
- Assistive Playlist Creation – Quickly and easily create playlists by adding recommended songs based on existing songs in the playlist, as well as personalised 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
- 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 being able to browse the catalogue of diverse playlists through the Moods & Genre section.
- Android TV – An update for Android TV brings YouTube Music to enabled smart TVs.
- Google Maps – The Android integration lets listeners seamlessly listen to music and get personalised 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 personalised recommendations based on your favourite artists and genres.
Users who decide not to transfer their Google Play Music account to YouTube music will have their subscription cancelled at the end of their billing cycle. This will happen in September in New Zealand and South Africa and in October for all other markets.
Support resources to assist users make the transition from Google Play Music to YouTube Music can be found here.
