Google has a confusingly long list of music streaming services, but fortunately, that list is going to be decreased by one starting on January 31, 2016. That’s when the company will be shutting down Songza’s mobile apps and website, which it acquired last year for an undisclosed amount. The company has been integrating bits and pieces of Songza into its own music streaming services for months, as evidenced by the fact that Google Play Music and Songza are practically the same thing, but now that the integration has finished, Songza has become redundant, and therefore is being shut down.
The music wars are afoot, Google is consolidating its weaponry. Beginning today, Songza users will be notified that the Songza website and mobile apps are being fully folded into Google Play Music as of January 31, 2016. Google bought Songza back in July of 2014 for an undisclosed sum and has continued to integrate pieces of the technology into Google Play. With so many Songza features already integrated into Google Play Music, offering two incredibly similar products in different places doesn’t make much sense. That said, Songza users will be given the chance to migrate their accounts to Google Play Music, which will keep track of their favorited songs and playlists. For reference, Songza is a music platform that launched back in 2007 that brought the music to the user, and not the other way around. Using information like date, time, and past listening history, Songza offered up expertly curated playlists based on predictions about the user’s mood and/or activity at the time. Beyond Songza Concierge (described above), users could also hunt for playlists by genre, mood, or artists. Google has been building Songza into Google Play Music for a while now. Most notably, Google introduced free Radio on Google Play in the U.S., entirely ad-free. Alongside the announcement of Songza’s sunsetting future, Google is also announcing free Google Play Music Radio in Canada.
