At the start of December, the Google Play Music website and mobile apps officially stopped working for all users worldwide. It marked the biggest milestone in the transition to YouTube Music, but there is one last step. Before February 24th, transfer your Play Music library to the replacement YouTube service, or download using Google Takeout.
Update 3/17: While the official last day to download your Play Music library was three weeks ago, Google quietly kept the export option available. The company did take play.google.com/music/listen offline and redirect to YouTube Music, but users could visit takeout.google.com/settings/takeout/custom/play_music directly to start the process.
However, as of this morning, you can no longer use Google Takeout to download uploaded songs in Play Music or access any other historical data. Visiting the URL above just takes users to the main list of available services, with Google’s previous streaming app no longer offered.
Transfer or download your Play Music library
Visiting music.google.com or the Android and iOS apps today provides a “Transfer to YouTube Music” prompt. This is the easiest way to switch away from Play Music, and includes: uploads purchases, playlists, stations, albums/songs saved to your library, likes/dislikes, and billing information.
Alternately, there’s the option to “Manage your music” by deleting your music library and/or recommendation history. The third option is to download your Play Music library using Google Takeout:
A list of the tracks, playlists, radio stations, uploads, and purchases in your Google Play Music library, as well as your playback and search history.
Playlists, radio stations, and track information will be provided in CSV format, while your previous uploads and Google Play purchases will be available as MP3 files. You can choose to receive the download link via email for local storage, or have it saved to Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or Box. This will allow you to store audio locally or switch to another music app.
Play Music transfer deadline
Back in August, Google said that the ability to download or transfer your Play Music library would be available for a short while after the app shuts down. It follows other parts of Play Music — desktop Music Manager app, Play Music store, and Assistant speaker integration — gradually being deprecated
On February 24, 2021, we will delete all of your Google Play Music data. This includes your music library with any uploads, purchases and anything you’ve added from Google Play Music. After this date, there will be no way to recover it.
Per Google’s original timeline, the deadline looked to be December 31, 2020, but several additional weeks were provided. At the start of February, Google gave three weeks’ notice (via email) that it plans to automatically remove all Play Music user data on Wednesday, February 24th.
In the message, Google identifies users that already transferred to YouTube Music to give them “the option to transfer again so [their] music library is up to date” if they made any changes in GPM.
If you would like to download your Google Play Music library and data, you can do so with Google Takeout before February 24, 2021.
Updated with final deadline
Author: Abner Li
Source: 9TO5Google
