Amid the huge growth of the music streaming industry, Google is reportedly shutting down Play Music in favor of the rumored YouTube Remix streaming service.
A report from Bloomberg back in 2017 first revealed YouTube's plans to launch a music service in March. While March has already come and gone, new information has surfaced indicating that the service, internally called Remix, might be coming soon and it might be replacing Play Music.
Play Music And YouTube Red Merge
Spotify remains as the leader in the industry and now, Google is looking to challenge it again by streamlining its music offerings. This move has been hinted as early as July 2017 when YouTube global head of music Lyor Cohen had revealed that one of YouTube Red and Google Play Music will be shut down.
"The important thing is combining YouTube Red and Google Play Music, and having one offering," Cohen said at a panel in the new Music Seminar.
The December 2017 confirmed that it will be Play Music, and fast forward to March, Cohen confirmed that the new service will have YouTube's recommendation feature.
What Will YouTube Remix Offer?
A subscription to Red or Play Music comes with a free subscription to the other. YouTube itself is a free service with a great recommendation system. With that in mind, many are curious how Remix will be different than Google's current offerings.
Some speculations suggested that YouTube Remix might also offer clips in addition to a huge library of songs. The new app might offer music videos in addition to other music-related content.
A tip to 9to5Google stated that Google is building upon YouTube Music to bring in Play Music features, though what that means is unclear.
Cohen also previously described how the new service will combine Play Music's "context server" with YouTube's "breadth and depth of catalogue." The statement sure hints of the addition of videos, but nothing has been officially announced yet.
YouTube Remix Release Date Coming Soon
The release date has yet to be announced, but Play Music users will all be forced to migrate to Remix by the end of 2018.
"Nothing will change for users today and we'll provide plenty of notice before any changes are made," a YouTube spokesperson said.
Google might offer an option to sync or transfer the user's Play Music library over to the new service when YouTube Remix goes live. More details will be announced soon.
