The same platform competition between two different companies is reasonable. Google has the best search engine in the world. But still, some companies have their search engine. Competition between different companies is healthy. But when you compete between or have a different solution for your platform is not great. It is the situation now in Google. They have Google Play Music and YouTube Red; both are the same audio playback platforms. It is making confusion among users. YouTube Red is not available in some countries. In those countries, Play Music act as a Google Music Player. But In some states, both platforms are available, and it is not suitable for Google. They may lose both users if they can’t concentrate on one platform. They know the issues. So, Google Google is shutting down Play Music in September 2020.
Google officially announced to shut down Google Play Music. The company has been intimating about the removal of Play Music since this May. The launch of the transfer tool in May numbered the days of Play Music, and now it is in black and white.
Google Play Music
Google launched its music app on November 16, 2011, with the name Google Play Music. Play Music is a music streaming app with could storage to upload your favorites playlist. You can listen to the streaming music on Play Music for free, but it is limited to the radio station only. Radio station streaming is mix with ads. You can also listen to the music that you have uploaded in the cloud. This personal playlist playing is free from ads, and you can upload up to 50,000 songs. For on-demand music, a single account costs $9.99, and a family account of up to six members costs $14.99. It is the same cost as Spotify, and they always pout new plans based on country. Spotify India offers better programs compare with other stream providers.
Reasons for Google shutting down Play Music
Play Music never stood closer to the top three streaming music services available on the internet. There are many reasons, some of those includes:
Music quality
Comparing the music quality, Play Music lacking behind many other streaming services. Like, Apple iTunes is offering 256 kbps AAC music while Google Play Music is offering only 128 kbps standard mp3 music. On the other hand, Tidal is offering FLAC/ lossless music in 1,411 kbps, which is far better than iTune’s quality. At the same time, Spotify provides a stream of 320kbps, which is almost CD quality. Above all is Amazon Music HD, offering 850 kbps, which is double the quality of all others. So, for quality-conscious users, Google Play Music was never an option from its beginning. You need a better internet data connection to get high-quality audios on any platform.
Quantity of streaming tracks
Google Play Music got only 40 million soundtracks, although you can upload up to 50,000 personal songs on cloud storage. On the other hand, Spotify and Amazon Music HD currently have 50 million songs. Alongside this, iTunes and Tidal claim to have 60 million soundtracks available. So, users always had plenty of collections to listen to than Google Play Music.
Payment per stream
Cause of low payment rate to music creators, Play Music, couldn’t be the hub of original music producers to attract users. The highest payment rate is $0.019 per stream from Napster. Next is Tidal, with $ 0.0125 followed by iTunes with a $0.00735 per-stream rate. Google Play Music has a $ 0.00069 per-stream rate that is slightly higher than Spotify’s $1.00437 per-stream rate.
YouTube music- The main reason
YouTube Music was launched on November 12, 2015, in the name of YouTube Red, for YouTube users to get the music that they like on YouTube. In 2018, with a web-based desktop player and Google artificial intelligence searching facility, has become a premium subscription service. In 2020, Google Play Music has become a redundant app in the presence of YouTube music. At this stage, Google has to decide one from these, and they selected YouTube music as an alternative to Play Music. In the beginning, Google Play Music and YouTube Music(Red) have their differences. But now both working in the cloud and offline also. YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium is entirely different.
Shutdown schedule
In late August, Google will stop the purchase option for Play Music. New Zealand and South Africa will be the first to lose Play Music in September. The UK and the rest of the world will follow this shutdown in October. During this shutdown period, you can extract your playlists from Play Music using Google Takeout or dedicated migration too. Either you can shift to YouTube Music, or you can download these on your pc.
Alternatives to Google Play Music
After the Play Music shutdown, there are many options for music lovers. For best sound quality, they can go to Amazon Music HD, Apple iTunes, Spotify, or Tidal. YouTube Music is a good alternative. It launched with 128 kbps but now upgraded to bit-rate 256 kbps with AAC format. Again, shifting from Play Music to YouTube Music is very easy and hassle-free. Spotify has full devices support, including Fitbit.
Wrap up
As people get Play Music as a pre-installed app in their newly purchased phone, so it was not the first choice ever. Shutting down Play Music will not affect the music lovers as they already have better options available. Both YouTube Music and Spotify can stream using Chromecast to other devices. Since YouTube Music has most of the YouTube Video songs that are not available in Spotify, Google has some chances to get unique users. But they have to do a lot of things to grab the big market. They should stay with a single platform. Making new platforms and migrations will confuse users. I Hope YouTube Music can become a good alternative where Spotify is missing some features. What do you think about shut down of Play Music and Alternative YouTube Music? Do tell us in the comments below.
Selva Ganesh is the Chief Editor of this Blog. He is a Computer Science Engineer, An experienced Android Developer, Professional Blogger with 8+ years in the field. He completed courses about Google News Initiative. He runs Android Infotech which offers Problem Solving Articles around the globe.
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