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Google has long since switched its music focus to YouTube Music. Despite that, Google Play Music has reached five billion downloads.
Yep, you read that right. Google Play Music is only the sixth app to reach that impressive milestone. YouTube, Maps, Gmail, Search, and Chrome were all first. Of course, it helps when all of these apps are pre-installed on Android devices.
That’s why Google is making YouTube Music the new default music player for Android 10.
Google Play Music has strong support from early adopters. Google offered a limited-time promotion for $7.99/month when the music streaming service launched. Those who were grandfathered in at that price are hesitant to leave, but that day is fast approaching.
I enjoyed Google Play Music for years before switching to Spotify. The switch happened when Google stopped offering updates for the GPM app and started taking away features. I made the switch this year and haven’t looked back.
Most die-hard Android users are making the same decision as Google falters. Can you name any other company with an app that has achieved five billion downloads that is left out to dry?
You’d be hard-pressed to find any app that reaches that level of success in the first place. It’s unfortunate, but something Google fans have come to expect over the last few years.
Google has a well-known reputation for re-inventing the wheel and killing products with no rhyme or reason. Google Play Music will join the heap of dead Google projects like Reader, Waves, and Allo.
At this point, it’s better not to get invested in any Google ecosystem too much. You never know when an app or service will be up on the chopping block. Google can’t even be consistent with its successful products like YouTube. Instead, they brand and re-brand YouTube premium subscriptions on a whim.
When I download music, I always go to Google Play. If I understood right, they aren’t killing the music store but only the streaming.
Yes to all of this. But especially, “I enjoyed Google Play Music for years before switching to Spotify. The switch happened when Google stopped offering updates for the GPM app and started taking away features. I made the switch this year and haven’t looked back.” This is exactly my situation, too. I really liked GPM for years and had no intention of switching until they announced the launch of YouTube Music and, with it, the impending death of GPM. I gave it a year to see if YTM would get up to speed and be a viable alternative. But after a year, YTM was still mostly the same half-finished product it was when it launched, so I ran out of patience and switched our family plan to Spotify Premium. I get why they wanted to use the ubiquitous YouTube brand for their music service, but why not simply rebrand GPM and build on it rather than start from scratch?
Everybody knows that Google services, other than Gmail, have a limited lifespan. The list of shuttered Google apps is vast. I stopped relying on Google for anything after Google Reader was shut down.
Google Play Music has a single useful feature: you can upload your own ripped collection to it and play it via Google Home, ad-free and without any subscriptions. YouTube music doesn’t seem to allow this, nor do the competition. Pulling the product is pretty frustrating as for people using that feature extensively it effectively bricks their physical speaker.
I too have been a fan of GPM since day one. The app has only been updated once four months ago in the last year in a half for iOS users. There is no report that google is shutting the app down (to my knowledge), but with such lack of support you know the end is near.
What will happen to those of us who uploaded music to Google Play Music and use those files regularly? Will they at some point disappear?
:popcorn:
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