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Google Play Music to close … soon. Google attempts to funnel users into YouTube Music.

The warning is clear, though without a timeline: “You will soon lose access to Google Play Music.” That’s what Android users see when they open the Google Play Music app — Google’s would-be direct competitor to Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. Users are advised to transfer their accounts to YouTube Music, where the subscriptions will continue. YouTube Music is a starkly different UEX environment and library proposition. Continue Reading

YouTube Red and Google Play Music to combine, but details are scarce

YouTube Head of Music Lyor Cohen said that Google Music Play and YouTube Red will be combined into a single property. Cohen confirmed the eventual merger during a session at the New Music Seminar event in New York. He said the move would help educate consumers and increase the company’s subscriber numbers. Continue Reading

Google makes New Release Radio available to all

Google Play Music has rolled out its New Release Radio personalized playlist to all listeners across its free and subscription tiers. The curated playlists contain newly released music that Google’s machine learning platform determines each user would like. The feature debuted in June as an exclusive for the owners of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus smartphones. Continue Reading

MusicWatch time spent listening data sees Pandora in the lead for 2016

MusicWatch sent RAIN News a pre-release note with results of its 2016 ‘Music Streaming Wars’ study, and found that Pandora was had the largest share of weekly music listening at 28%. YouTube took second place with a 27% share. Both of those figures include the audio companies’ free and paid tiers. Continue Reading

Google Play Music relaunches, smarter about you and your soundtrack

Google Play Music relaunched today, announcing an update that makes machine learning a bigger part of its listening experience. That means the platform will combine listeners’ individual music tastes with contextual information such as time of day and location to offer improved song recommendations. It all happens behind the scenes, based on Google’s understanding of the user. Another step closer to the “Me Button.” Continue Reading