Google completes worldwide shutdown of Play Music store

Abner Li | Oct 12 2020 - 2:14 pm PT

At the start of August, Google provided an official deprecation timeline for Play Music. The incremental shutdown continues today with Google getting rid of the ability to buy music from the Play Store worldwide.

Google getting rid of the ability to buy and download songs enshrines streaming as the dominant model and reflects the long journey from physical media to digital stores and now today’s norm. Those that still want to own audio files can use iTunes and Amazon, while YouTube Music’s cloud locker launched in February and supports user uploads on the web.

The service let you buy songs and listen to them in GPM, with users also having the option to download the MP3 files.

With the last big Play Store for Android revamp, Google de-emphasized buying music. The section was not featured in the bottom bar, and hidden toward the bottom of the navigation drawer.

“Browse music” no longer appears this afternoon, while the web displays a “Music store on Google Play is no longer available” shutdown message. This deprecation started in late August, and some users lost access over the course of September. It follows the Music Manager desktop app also shutting down.

Looking ahead, Play Music will lose the ability to stream content around the world later this month. Google will keep Play Music playlists, uploads, purchases, likes, and other data until December to give users a chance to migrate to YouTube Music using the transfer tool. All data will be removed after that.