Rather than introducing another redundant service that overlaps with an existing service, Google might finally sunset a service that doesn’t need to exist as it debuts a new one. A source tells Droid Life this week that when the rumored YouTube Remix platform launches later this year, Google Play Music will be shut down and its users will be moved to the new platform. By the end of 2018, Google Play Music might not even exist.
Last December, Bloomberg claimed that Google was prepping a new paid music subscription service called YouTube Remix. It wanted to compete with Spotify by developing a more robust service, one which would include on-demand streaming of millions of songs and incorporate video clips from YouTube.
YouTube’s global head of music, Lyor Cohen, would later confirm the existence of the new service, saying that it would combine Google Play Music’s “context server” with YouTube’s “breadth and depth of catalogue.” Droid Life’s source says that Google will force Google Play Music users to adopt YouTube Remix by the end of the year, but it’s still unclear when the new service will launch and how Google will shut down the old service.
YouTube reached out and provided Droid Life with the following statement after the report was published:
We’ve previously announced the combination of the YouTube Music and Google Play product teams — music is very important to Google so it’s critical we have one offering that meets the needs of consumers and artists. Nothing will change for users today and we’ll provide plenty of notice before any changes are made.
Google was never going to just confirm a report like this, but the statement doesn’t read like a denial either. Google has stated in the past that it will combine the two teams, so it sounds like Droid Life’s source is spot on.
