Google Play Music will officially die off in October.
“Starting in September 2020 in New Zealand and South Africa—and in October for all other global markets—users will no longer be able to stream from or use the Google Play Music app,” the company announced today.
The Google Play Music wind-down, however, begins later this month, when “the Google Play Store will be removing the ability to purchase and pre-order music. Additionally, we will be shutting down Music Manager, which includes the option to upload and download music from Google Play Music,” the company said.
Google warned users about the app’s impending demise in May, and urged people to switch to YouTube Music, but offered a more specific timeline today. And while Google Play Music will no longer work after October, Google will preserve user data until December so you can transfer music libraries to YouTube Music. Otherwise, say goodbye to any account data.
(Credit: Google)
To transfer your files, the company has created a dedicated website, which will repackage and ferry your Google Play Music account data to YouTube Music. You can also download the YouTube Music app, and initiate the transfer from there.
For podcast transfers, the company has created a separate website, which will move the data over to the official Google Podcasts app.
To take your Google Play Music data and export it elsewhere, you can use the Google Takeout tool to get an archive of your playlists and MP3 files purchased over the service.
“For Google Play listeners that have not yet started the transfer process over to YouTube Music, now’s the time, and we’ve made it seamless to do so,” the company added. “Listeners can also choose to delete their Google Play Music data, and we will clearly notify all users before they lose access to their Google Play Music library and data.”
