YouTube Music will swallow Google Play Music by the end of 2020

“Starting in September 2020 in New Zealand and South Africa — and in October for all other global markets — users will no longer be able to stream from or use the Google Play Music app.” This is a bit unfortunate but Google will keep playlists, uploads, purchases, likes and more until December 2020 to make the transfer to YouTube Music easier.

Changes are coming to YouTube music as well. In order to make the service more attractive, Google will add a whole slew of enhancements:

• Playlists: We’re continuously evolving the way listeners can create and enjoy playlists, including:

• Assistive Playlist Creation – Quickly and easily create playlists by adding recommended songs based on existing songs in the playlist, as well as personalized signals, such as watch history and likes.

• Collaborative Playlists – Collaborate with other music fans to create shared playlists for any occasion.

• New Programmed Playlists – Explore newly launched programmed playlists like Highline, Caribbean Pulse, Conditions Underground, and more.

New Features and Improvements:

• Player Page Redesign – Updates to the player page, available for Android mobile users, provides a more modern design that allows better playback controls and easier access to related music and other features like song lyrics.

• Explore Tab – The new Explore tab, available on both mobile and the web is the consistent destination to find new releases including albums, singles, and music videos, as well as browse our vast catalog of diverse playlists through the Moods & Genre section

More Ways to Enjoy YouTube Music:

• Android TV – An update for Android TV brings YouTube Music to the big screen, letting listeners enjoy videos and live performances from their favorite artists, along with all their favorite music.

• Google Maps – The Android integration lets listeners seamlessly listen to music and get personalized music recommendations within the Google Maps interface.

• Discover music with Google Assistant – You can now ask your Google Home and Nest smart speakers, “Hey Google, play recommended music from YouTube Music.” Then, Google Assistant will share personalized recommendations based on your favorite artists and genres.

There’s no timeline for these changes, though. Nevertheless, if you use Google Play Music, maybe it’s time to backup your data and start tuning in YouTube Music.