It looks like Android users will have to say goodbye to Google Play Music very soon as it has recently been announced that YouTube Music will be taking its place as the default player for Android 9 and 10.
The formal announcement was made by Google last September 27, stating that YouTube Music will be the latest Google app that will come bundled with Android. The app will be preinstalled on all devices running on Android 10. That being said, this change will take effect on the same day Android 10 will be launched.
Android 9 will also be adopting this change; however, only the new devices of this version will have the app preinstalled automatically. Older devices that run Android 9 may not be affected, but this is yet to be confirmed.
Nevertheless, the announcement about the changeover didn't come as a surprise for many. Since its launch back in 2015, YouTube Music has always been expected to directly replace Google Play Music one day. Truth be told, Google itself has been hinting on it ever since the app was introduced.
As a matter of fact, Google talked about the transition last April while explaining the reason behind the closure of Google Play Music's Artist Hub. The company claimed that the move was a part of a broad strategy to merge the two music services, which they have been operating separately for many years now.
The company then has been slowly migrating features from Google Play Music to YouTube Music; however, progress is taking a long time since both music services differ in a lot of ways. This is proving to be a challenge for the company as the timeline and the possibility of how the data and the features of each app will be transferred and synced is still a giant blur.
Unfortunately, this still means that the days everyone can get to enjoy Google Play Music are already numbered. The good news, though, is that Google Play Music continues to be available for download. So, if you're a Google Play Music lover, there's no need to worry because you can still freely use the app on your device, especially since Google hasn't made any announcement on whether or not they'll shut the music service down anytime soon.
YouTube Music, on the other hand, is now ready for the collaboration with Android and is just counting the days before the actual launch. The music player is said to be free; however, there is an option to avail of a premium subscription. The premium service will set you back $10 a month while bundling it with a YouTube Premium subscription will cost you $12 per month.
The premium membership subscription of the app doesn't actually offer anything new for now. Just like current music streaming platforms, YouTube Music's premium subscription offers perks such as downloadable playlists, offline music streaming, ad removal, etc.
Changes in the music streaming app are to be expected though as the transition is still ongoing. With this, announcements involving the changeover are anticipated in the next few months.
Related Article : Google Merges YouTube Music And Google Play Music
