Google to wind down its Play Music service by December

Google will start shutting down its Play Music service in September, with the service terminating completely in December. The company plans to focus on its YouTube Music streaming service, which now houses more than 60 million songs.

Subscribers can transfer their library to YouTube Music until December, after which they will lose their content.

Google Play Music failed to spark with the public despite being the default music app on Android phones. And despite having the Google muscle behind it, the service lagged well behind the likes of Spotify and Apple Music.

Google Music was launched in 2011. Users could store their existing music collection in the cloud, and buy more songs to download. It was later rebranded as Google Play Music and added music streaming in 2013.

Google launched YouTube Music in 2015. The streaming service offers a Basic and Premium service, with the latter offering background play, downloads and ad-free listening. At Dhs27.99 per month, YouTube Music is more expensive than Spotify and Apple Music, both at Dhs19.99.

According to research by Statista, revenue in the music streaming segment is projected to reach $16.4bn in 2020. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2025) of 5.4 per cent, resulting in a projected market volume of $21.3bn by 2025.

At the end of 2019, Spotify had a commanding lead in the streaming services market, with 35 per cent of all global paid subscriptions, according to Counterpoint Research. That was almost double the number of subscribers for Apple Music in second place at 19 per cent. YouTube Music was a distant third at 6 per cent.

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