Google debuted YouTube Music back in 2018 and planned to migrate all Google Play Music subscribers to YouTube Music by the end of 2019. That date has come and gone for the YouTube Music team but it has been reported that YouTube Music will not be taking over for Google Play Music until one of Google Music’s key features is migrated over to YouTube Music.
This feature is the ability to upload your own music library to the service which was one of the initial features that brought users to Google Play Music. Many services that offer this service have stopped offering it like Microsoft Groove and Amazon. Apple still overs iTunes Match for $24.99 a year which is a similar feature and Spotify allows you to match your music, but you have to sync with your local device it’s not in the cloud.
When reaching out to Google Play Music to ask when the migration to YouTube Music we got the following response
Thanks for reaching out – we don’t have an exact timeline to share yet. We’re still working on ways to migrate your library, playlists, music collection, etc. to YouTube Music. We’ll provide plenty of notice before anything changes, so stay tuned for updates.
— Google Play Music (@GooglePlayMusic) February 8, 2020
Many Reddit users are reporting issues with Google Play Music support like certain apps not working and speaks not working with the service. We know Google Play Music is not getting updated with new features, but Google should support the service until the transition unless this is a way for forcing users to YouTube Music which to this point has not really taken off at all despite the forced adoption and the strong YouTube brand name.