Google Play Music

Google's underrated streaming service that let you upload 50,000 of your own songs to the cloud for free — killed so Google could consolidate behind YouTube Music.

† 2011 – 2020Killed by parent Died in 2020

Born

2011

Died

2020

Lifespan

9 years

Cause of Death

Killed by parent

What Happened

Google Play Music launched in May 2011 as Google Music Beta and officially rebranded to Google Play Music in November that year. It offered something no competitor did at scale: a free cloud locker for up to 50,000 of your own songs, streamable from anywhere, sitting side by side with a full subscription catalog.

For audiophiles and anyone with a large personal MP3 collection — ripped from CDs, bought on iTunes, or collected over years — this was genuinely unique. You could mix your own library with on-demand streaming, get personalized radio, and later bundle it with YouTube Red (then Premium) for ad-free video. It was quietly one of the best music products Google ever shipped.

In 2018, Google launched YouTube Music as the next-gen streaming service, and Play Music's death became inevitable. The two products coexisted awkwardly for two years while features slowly migrated over. YouTube Music launched without podcasts, without the personal library locker, and without much of what made Play Music beloved by its users.

In August 2020, Google began phasing out Play Music region by region. By December 2020, the service was dead globally. A migration tool moved playlists and uploaded tracks to YouTube Music, but the seamless personal + streaming library experience took years to be even partially replicated. Play Music joined the long list of great Google products that were killed not for failing — but for being inconvenient.

“YouTube Music and Google Play Music have been around for a long time. To bring our users the best possible experience, we've been working to bring the best of Google Play Music to YouTube Music.”

— Elias Roman, Product Manager, YouTube Music, August 2020

Last Words — Official Shutdown Notice

“In December, we'll say goodbye to Google Play Music, and we're excited to welcome you over to YouTube Music, the next generation of music streaming from Google. Starting in late October, you'll no longer be able to stream from or use the Google Play Music app.”