Google Play Music drops curtain, as YouTube Music rolls out new features

Tech giant Google has announced that the Google Play Music app will stop functioning completely by the end of this year. Meanwhile, YouTube Music is rolling out new features to enhance the app's experience on TVs, including Chrome cast with Google TV and Android TV OS. Google is encouraging users to transfer their Play Music library and data to YouTube Music, or download songs through other ways.

A message announcing that the service is no longer available is being displayed on Google Play Music store's webpage. Also, it further says that users should transfer their library to YouTube Music in order to continue listening to their Play Music library. On the mobile version, there is no longer an option to ‘Browse Music.'

YouTube Music users will now be able to easily access their saved playlists and liked songs in the library section on the YouTube Music tab from within the YouTube app on a smart TV. YouTube has also updated visuals in order to showcase album and playlist artwork in their best form.

New features have also been introduced for TVs running the Android TV. Users can upload songs to their YouTube Music library from a computer and access them on TV. There is also a new playback interface that includes information like the song and artist name and a progress bar. Devices with Android TV home screen feature will get to see a new YouTube Music row to help users find the next song to play.

In the coming months, YouTube Music Premium users will be able to continue playing music in the background after exiting the app, much like YouTube Music on mobile.

YouTube Music will automatically be available for devices running Android TV once Google Play Music stops running. By the end of the year, users will lose access to the Google Play Music app completely. Google is focusing on having one music streaming app and has been rolling out features and improvements to YouTube Music to make it as user-friendly as possible.

If users do not want to transfer to YouTube Music, they can download their data via Google Takeout, or delete it through Play Music's account settings. Play Music data that is not transferred or downloaded will eventually be deleted, as per Google.