It has been on the books for quite a while and now it officially has a date — Google will begin shuttering Google Play Music from September this year and will be done by December.
Beginning in New Zealand and South Africa in September with all other countries beginning in October users will no longer be able to stream music from or use the Google Play Music (GPM) app. Users will have until December to transfer all of their playlists, uploads, purchases and likes from Google Play Music over to YouTube Music. After December though the GPM app will no longer be available.
Even sooner though, end of August, you will no longer be able to purchase and pre-order music or upload and download music from Google Play Music through Music Manager — apparently people still buy music?
For those not switching over to YouTube Music you will be able to extract your music library out using Google Takeout to transfer over to the competitor you are heading off to. If you are continuing on to Google’s YouTube Music then using the dedicated transfer tool is the easiest way to move your music history over. You can transfer from either within the YouTube Music or GPM apps or from the dedicated website.
Google have made some major improvements with YouTube Music over the past few months and they finally have it at a place where they are happy with its feature-parity with GPM and the time has come to either make the switch or move onto something else.
If you decide not to transfer over to YouTube Music Google will cancel your subscription at the end of your billing cycle come December.
Now that we have a final date for GPM who is transferring to YouTube Music and who is opting for other services? Let us know your decision and why in the comments below.
I have a fmaily plan and loved that I could have my personal library alongside streaming content, but now my 9 YO daughter can’t use any of it. If Google can’t sort out their under 13 policy soon I’ll be moving elsewhere.
YT music indicates you can download your play list of your own uploaded music for free like GPM but the app will not let that happen unless you subscribe.
I’ve migrated over. And I’ll still use it but really hope they make some improvements.
I hate how uploaded and YTM libraries are seperate and I still get a 1-2 second gap between songs when Casting (I have a premium account but it’s still a thing). It’s 2020 FFS. That shouldn’t be an issue.
YTM is a disaster. It is soooo slow, does not work in Android Auto without a subscription and you can’t cast without a subscription.
Google have once again jumped the shark and they can shove their latest pile of crap where the sun doesn’t shine.
I have a subscription, and I still cant cast from my web browser. Need to use the browser cast – so, my google hub sees my full screen. YouTube Music isnt ready for prime time.
Pitty. The whole point of using Google play music was to listen to my own music without ads, but still having it accessible elsewhere.
Will I be using YouTube? No. If I need to suffer through ads to listen to music, I would just use Spotify
Google might be happy with with the feature lack of parity YTM has to GPM. Users are not, though. Now with a firm date for the murder, Google are hoping GPM users will move to YTM simply to hang on to YT Premium.
I still dont quite understand that means for those of us who have purchased all the songs on our music list. Any ideas
This is just a money grab, I won’t be transferring over. Instead I got a home NAS that I can access from anywhere and copied all of my music onto that 👍
The GPM family function was the best part about GPM for mine. I will now have to move to Spotify as my kid is under 13 and won’t be able to use YTM. Really annoys me when they do this stuff without considering their user base.
Yes, people still like to buy albums. People in my age group , like to own their own music collection rather than paying for a subscription. That is simply gouging people for money ..
If I can not not buy albums , then I will have to switch. Google have stabbed long term customers like me in the back ..
Wait, can Google Takeout transfer your library too? Not playlists… Library… I haven’t found any decent service so far that will transfer the GPM library to Spotify, it goes to Spotify as a playlist instead 🙁
Tried to transfer music from the YT Music app but couldn’t see how to do it but it worked fine from your transfer link 🙂
Kids with Family Link managed Google accounts still can’t use it because it’s branded as YouTube 🙄 So they’re going to lose access to their music when GPM dies.
What’s the point of having a YouTube Premium Family Plan if you can’t share it…
*they* maybe happy with where they are at, but many long time users of GPM are not. There are still so many bugs with YTM’s basic interface and missing features and brain dead UX design issues (I mean why do you have a repeat/repeat track button for playback, but which disappears when you are casting to speakers? No logic at all, and wasn’t the case in GPM, gapless playback doesn’t work, did in GPM, no endless playlists etc etc) I’ve submitted literally hundreds of pieces of feedback in the hopes that since of these would be fixed before turn off,… Read more »