This is an explanation for anyone who missed all the warning notifications and woke up this morning to find that all their data in Google Play Music was gone. Yesterday, Google deleted all Play Music users’ data, marking the true end to the platform.

Google Play Music’s done for good

Google Play Music, originally release in 2011 as Google Music, and launched in SA in 2015. Ten years is a decent lifetime for a digital service, and is significantly longer than Google’s game studio’s was. One of the big draws to the platform, what kept it unique compared to its competitors, was that it gave users’ the ability to upload their own music. Aside from the standard music and podcast streaming offered by most music platforms these days, Google Play Music also offered a sort of online music locker.

Subscribers with a standard account could upload and store up to 50,000 songs on Google Play Music. Which was awesome if you had files or physical copies of songs and albums you couldn’t find online but wanted to listen to through the cloud. That obscure ‘Stones b-side CD you bought at a festival years ago? Put it up there. Your cousin’s demo for his all flute alt-punk-pop-core band? Go ahead. It was a cool feature that set Google Play Music apart.

However, the service was announced as destined for the axe in August 2020. Google Play Music was shut down as a service in September, to make way for Google’s new music service, YouTube Music. To sway users over to the alternative service, Google let them transfer their data (playlists, uploaded and purchased music, etc.) from Play Music to YouTube Music.

Alas, the final nail is in the coffin, and as of yesterday you can no longer transfer your data because it’s gone. Poof. If you didn’t transfer all of it to YouTube Music before the deadline, or if you just don’t want to use YouTube Music, hard luck mate. Time to start over somewhere else.

So that’s all she wrote. Rest in piece, Google Play Music. You’ll be remembered.

Source: My Broadband