Google kills Play Music, offers transition tool for users to migrate to YouTube Music

After October 31, subscribers will no longer be able to use Google Play Music.

When Google launched YouTube Music in June 2018, the company had announced it would give time for the existing Google Play Music subscribers time for hassle-free migration to the new service. Well, the time has finally come to finish the job.

Already, the process has finished in New Zealand and South Africa last month. Users in the rest of the world have time till the end of October. After that, users will no longer be able to stream from or use the Google Play Music app.

However, Google assures users that their precious things such as likes, uploads, and curated playlists, which have been updated over the years will be saved for longer, but only till the end of December. There won't be any more extension.

Also, users can choose to delete their data in Google Play Music and once the latter is shutdown, subscribers will be notified of the same.

Data Transfer feature on Google Play Music and YouTube Music. Credit: Google

"To ensure users don’t lose any of their content, they’ll need to use the simple 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," Google said.

To encourage the faster transition, Google has made a lot of improvements to YouTube Music including Player Page redesign, explore tab to find the artists and music easily, assistive playlist creation, new programmed playlists like Highline, Caribbean Pulse, Conditions Underground, and more.

Also, Google has integrated YouTube Music with Android TV and Google Maps, where users can listen to music and also get recommendations all within the navigation app for pleasant driving experience.

Also, users can now ask the Google Home and Nest smart speakers such as 'Hey Google, play recommended music from YouTube Music.' Then, Google Assistant will share personalised recommendations based on the user's favourite artists and genres.

Google Play Music subscribers can use these two tools-- data transfer (here) and Google Takeout (here)-- to migrate to YouTube Music.

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