Google has confirmed it will shutter Google Play Music for Australians in October, as the software giant continues to ramp up YouTube Music in the fight against Spotify.
The app reel-back will commence with New Zealand and South Africa in September, before expanding to all other countries in October.
From October, Aussies will no longer be able to stream music via the Google Play Music app,
The news comes after Google rolled-out a ‘one-touch’ system for users to transfer their Google Play Music library to YouTube Music a few months ago (website here).
Google has now provided consumers the deadline of December to transfer their Google Play Music purchases, uploads, likes and more – the app will no longer be available after this, and subscriptions cancelled.
For consumers who do not wish to transition to YouTube Music, the option remains to extract material via Google Takeout, and transfer to a preferred alternative.
A deadline of August has also been announced for consumers to purchase, upload, download and pre-order music via the Google Play Music Music Manager.
The news comes as Google seeks to further streamline music streaming operations across its smart home hub, with YouTube Music consistently receiving new features in the fight against Spotify.
New features coming soon include and embedded button within Google Maps, to prevent leaving the navigational app to change music playback.
Spotify has also recently announced ‘video podcasts’ to selected creators, as it seeks to bolster its podcast and music streaming portal.
