Google Play Music is closing. Act now to download any past purchases

We knew it was coming, but now it's confirmed: Google will commence shutting down Google Play Music from September 2020.

The app will cease to offer streaming functionality from October 2020, so if you have purchased any albums or singles using that service in the past then you need to act now.

Ensure that you download everything and back it up yourself - manual downloads work in Play Music, or you can use Google Takeout for a .zip file - as Google will cease to host such data by the end of 2020. 

An alternative, but of course, is that you port everything to YouTube Music - which, ultimately, is the reason this shut-down is happening in the first place. Google is keen to push all its streaming to premium subscription services.

This is a huge shift for Google, because come September it will cease to offer an avenue to outright purchase music using Play Store. Even Apple continues to offer purchases using the iTunes Store despite its Apple Music streaming service; and Amazon despite Amazon Music.

Rather than pay labels and artists sums based on direct purchases, it appears Google is keen to push its streaming model instead - which we don't think is a positive for artists or listeners - which lacks any unique selling point given the volume of already successful premium streaming services out there.

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