Is it OK to delete Google Play Music?

Google Play Music was an online music locker, music store, and music streaming service developed and operated by Google. It launched in November 2011 as an extension of the Google Play media store on Android. The service allowed users to upload and stream their music library to any device, as well as purchase songs and albums from the Google Play Music store. At its peak, Google Play Music had over 50 million songs available and offered both free and subscription options for streaming music. However, in May 2020 Google announced it would be retiring Play Music later in the year in favor of YouTube Music, its new dedicated music streaming service.

With the discontinuation of Google Play Music, users have needed to migrate their music libraries and playlists to YouTube Music or find alternative services. This has led to some frustration for loyal Play Music users. This article will provide background on Google Play Music, explain why it is being shut down, and offer guidance on options for users as the service winds down.

Background on Google Play Music

Google Play Music was launched in 2011 as a music and podcast streaming service and locker that allowed users to upload up to 50,000 songs from their music libraries to the cloud for free (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Play_Music). Key features included the ability to stream songs, download music for offline listening, and access uploaded music from any device. At its peak, Google Play Music had over 40 million songs available and was available in 63 countries.

Over time, Google Play Music gained millions of users who enjoyed the service’s streaming catalog and music locker features. According to a 2013 announcement, over 20,000 Google Play Music users had already reached the 50,000 song upload limit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Play_Music). However, the service faced stiff competition from services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

Why Google is Shutting Down Play Music

Google decided to shut down Play Music primarily due to the high costs of developing and maintaining the service in the face of stiff competition from other music streaming platforms. According to sources, Google found it too expensive and redundant to keep investing in Play Music when they already had YouTube Music, their other music streaming app.

Industry experts note that Play Music struggled to gain traction against competitors like Spotify and Apple Music, which dominated music streaming. With over 60 million paid subscribers, Spotify was the clear market leader, making it difficult for Google’s services to effectively compete.

Rather than splitting resources across two apps, Google decided to focus their efforts on YouTube Music. This allowed them to consolidate music offerings under one service, while leveraging YouTube’s massive user base. Shutting down Play Music was intended to provide a smooth transition for users to switch over to YouTube Music.

Impact on Users’ Music Libraries

One of the biggest concerns when Google Play Music shuts down is what will happen to users’ music libraries. Google has provided a tool for users to transfer their Google Play Music libraries to YouTube Music, Google’s new streaming music service. According to The Verge, this includes “songs, albums, playlists, and recommendations” (1). However, the transfer tool has limitations and there is potential for data loss.

Playlists can be transferred but the underlying music may not if the user uploaded or purchased tracks that are not available on YouTube Music. According to WhatHiFi, uploaded and purchased music will need to be downloaded separately before the Google Play Music shutdown (2). So while playlists themselves can be preserved, the ability to re-download all purchased content is uncertain. Users risk losing access to tracks they had previously bought through Google Play Music unless they manually download before it shuts down.

Alternatives for Storing Music

When Google Play Music shuts down, users will need to transfer their music libraries and playlists to another service. Some of the top alternatives for storing music include:

YouTube Music

YouTube Music is Google’s intended replacement for Google Play Music. Users can transfer their Play Music libraries, uploads, purchases, and playlists to YouTube Music before Play Music shuts down. YouTube Music offers over 70 million official songs, albums, playlists, and artist radio stations. It also has a large catalog of remixes, live performances, and other user-generated content from YouTube (Source).

Apple Music

Apple Music has over 90 million songs available to stream or download for offline listening. It allows uploading up to 100,000 personal songs to iCloud Music Library. Apple Music is deeply integrated into Apple devices and works seamlessly for iPhone and iTunes users. Subscriptions allow sharing with family members (Source).

Spotify

Spotify gives access to over 70 million songs, including 4 billion playlists created by users. Spotify Premium allows downloading songs for offline listening. Spotify Connect lets you control playback on multiple devices. However, Spotify does not allow uploading your own song files (Source).

Local Storage

Storing music locally by downloading song files gives you full ownership and control. Songs can be stored on a computer hard drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, or burned to CDs. However, managing a large local music library takes effort. Music files must be manually organized into playlists and properly backed up.

Migrating Playlists

Fortunately, Google provides a built-in tool to help migrate your playlists from Google Play Music over to YouTube Music. According to The Verge, when you access the transfer process in the YouTube Music app, it will display all of your Play Music playlists that are available to move over.

To migrate your playlists, simply follow these steps:

1. Open the YouTube Music app
2. Tap on your profile picture, then go to Settings > Transfer
3. Select “Transfer from Google Play Music”
4. Review the playlists available to transfer
5. Tap “Let’s Go” to begin the migration process

According to What Hi-Fi?, the transfer tool makes it easy to move your Play Music playlists over to YouTube Music. The migration should happen seamlessly in the background once you start it.

Downloading Purchased Music

Google Play Music users who have purchased music through the service can download those files before the service shuts down. According to Google’s support page, users have until December 2020 to download or transfer purchased music [1].

To download purchased music from Google Play Music, users can visit music.youtube.com/purchased and click on the three dot menu next to each album or track to select “Download.” The files will download as 128 or 320kbps MP3 files. Downloads are limited to 2 devices per purchased track.

However, some users have reported issues accessing their purchased content. According to one Reddit user, their entire Google Play Music purchase history was missing when they tried to download previously bought music [2]. Users facing this issue will need to contact Google Support for help recovering purchased content before it’s too late.

Cancelling Subscriptions

If you are subscribed to Google Play Music through a paid monthly subscription, you will need to cancel it before the service shuts down in order to avoid being charged. Here’s how to cancel your Google Play Music subscription on both desktop and mobile:

On a computer, open the Google Play Music website and click on the menu icon in the top left corner. Select settings and then click “Cancel subscription”. Follow the on-screen instructions to confirm the cancellation. (Source)

On mobile, open the Google Play Music app and tap the menu icon. Go to Settings and select “Cancel subscription”. Confirm that you want to cancel when prompted. (Source)

Once you cancel, you will no longer be charged for Google Play Music on a monthly basis. Make sure to cancel before Google shuts down the service to avoid paying for a subscription you can no longer use.

Data Deletion

After migrating content and canceling your Play Music subscription, you’ll want to ensure that all your data is fully deleted from Google’s servers. According to Lifehacker, this involves going into Play Music’s settings and selecting the “Delete local data” option [1]. This will clear Play Music’s cache and remove any personal data stored locally on your device.

For additional peace of mind, you can also use Google Takeout to export a copy of your Play Music data before initiating deletion from Google’s servers [2]. Just be aware this can be a time-consuming process, as the full archive contains your entire Play Music library and listening history.

Once you’ve safely backed up your data, you can visit music.youtube.com/delete_my_music to initiate account closure. Google states this will permanently and irrevocably delete all your Play Music data from their systems. So be certain you’ve migrated or downloaded anything you want to keep beforehand.

Conclusion

In summary, Google is shutting down Google Play Music by the end of 2020. This will impact users who have stored their music libraries, created playlists, purchased songs, or subscribed through Play Music. Users will need to download or transfer their content to another service like YouTube Music before Play Music is discontinued.

The best advice is for Play Music users to act sooner rather than later. Take the time now to download any purchased music, migrate playlists, cancel subscriptions if desired, and move your music library to another service. This will ensure you don’t lose access to your content when Play Music shuts down. Be sure to understand the timeline for the shutdown process and complete each step before the deadlines.

While the sunsetting of Play Music may be disappointing for some, Google is trying to make the transition smooth by providing tools to transfer libraries and playlists to YouTube Music. This new service will be the home for music streaming through Google going forward.