As per Google Graveyard, a website dedicated to tracking everything discontinued by Google, the mountain view giant has so far killed more than 100 apps, services, and hardware lineups. The next in line is Google Play Music.
This is how Google justifies the action: “With the launch of YouTube Music last year, we eventually plan to replace Google Play Music with YouTube Music. In anticipation of this change, we are shutting down the Artist Hub.”
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Now, if you’re wondering what is Artist Hub, then its where low-rung indie musicians did manage their presence on the Play Store and upload/sell songs. Artists Hub was their direct link with Google to monitor statistics and get paid for playback/purchases.
Worry not as if you belong to the indie circle, you could still sell your content on Play Store and have the content available for streaming on Play Music. All that’s changed for the time being is that starting now, you must sign-up with a third-party distributor to handle that entire process.
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Going forward, at the end of this month, all existing songs and albums uploaded through the Google Play Artist Hub will “no longer appear in the Google Play Store or Google Play Music service (including the paid streaming and free radio service).”
You could still “make [your] music available for purchase/download” by republishing, with Google providing a list of “YouTube partners,” including AWAL, Believe, CD Baby, DistroKid, Stem, and TuneCore.
