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Google Play Artist Hub Shutting Down April 30 With Google No Longer Offering Direct Portal For Smaller Musicians (9to5google.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the another-service-bites-the-dust dept.

Last year, Google announced that YouTube Music would be the company's primary streaming service that would eventually replace Play Music. We have now learned that in anticipation of this change, Google will close the Google Play Artist Hub that musicians use to directly interact with the Play Store. 9to5Google reports: Smaller, indie artists that were not signed by labels could use the Google Play Artist Hub to manage their presence on the Play Store and upload/sell songs. In an email today, Google told these musicians that the Artist Hub is shutting down on April 30th. YouTube Music is cited as the reason by Google: "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."

This portal allowed smaller artists to directly interact with Google to see statistics, and get paid for streams/purchases. Musicians can still sell their content in the Play Store and have content available for streaming in Play Music, but must now sign-up with a third-party distributor to handle that entire process. 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)." Artists that would still like to "make [their] music available for purchase/download" have to republish, with Google providing a list of "YouTube partners," including AWAL, Believe, CD Baby, DistroKid, Stem, and TuneCore.

36 comments

  1. Another one bites the dust by Matt_H · · Score: 1

    Google seems all about shutting down services these days... with an exception for Stadia though.

    1. Re:Another one bites the dust by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 2

      They will close that down once it burns.

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      http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
    2. Re:Another one bites the dust by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      I wonder if they hired a new hatchet-wo/man who's doing this to make their mark. Or maybe just cleaning stuff up.

    3. Re:Another one bites the dust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      These days? They've always been like this. Google starts up multiple projects/services, some of which overlap others and then kill them off in short order. The only Google services that have been around for a long time are search, Gmail and YouTube (which Google bought out back in 2006).

      It looks like the MAFIAA paid them off this time. Can't have independent musicians running around or they don't get the cut that they are entitled to.

    4. Re:Another one bites the dust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If only they would now allow uninstalling the related crapware from Android devices. These G+, Play and others were force pushed to devices which even did not receive security updates. And of course all these were "essential system components" which can not be uninstalled by user.

      Next time Google wants to market some crap, they might re-consider, if force-pushing something to existing Android users really gets the best reaction. Of course the installation numbers shown in MBA-meetings are in billions, but number of disgruntled users may be also.

    5. Re:Another one bites the dust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use Titanium Backup to uninstall them. Or better yet, flash a custom ROM and skip Gapps.

    6. Re: Another one bites the dust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's always been like that, with the exception of its search engine and gmail. Docs might make it to the list, but wouldn't be too reliant of google products.

    7. Re:Another one bites the dust by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      YouTube is hardly unfriendly to independent musicians.

      My guess is that this is all because YouTube is more popular as a music listening system. Why? Well, because Play Music is generally about music you've bought. A minority subscribe to the unlimited service (which competes with a million other unlimited services, including Prime Music), and, I guess, there's the "radio stations" that are free but aren't playing what you're asking for.

      As if to add insult to injury, the UI isn't even good at doing what it's supposed to be best at. Want to search your music library for a particular song? There's a good chance it'll never find it, or point you at a paid for version that it won't even let you buy despite it being in your library. Play Music is one of the worst apps I've ever come across, and every reason why it's awful is something that they'd never retreat from because they put too much pride in inserting that crap into the app to begin with.

      YouTube, by comparison, is "search for 'safety dance'", bam, it's there, you might have to watch an ad, but otherwise it doesn't matter if you've bought it or not. YouTube is the unlimited streaming music service that is available to everyone. And everyone's going for it.

      So... Play Music is dying almost certainly because Play Music is shit, not because of any conspiracy. Any garage band can upload their music to YouTube, hell, anyone can upload anything to YouTube, with monetization as soon as your channel sees serious traffic, so arguing this is about the MAFIAA is ludicrous.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  2. Fucking the artist over by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 1

    That sucks for the artist. Now they must pay more for this and go on a shittier platform.

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    http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
    1. Re: Fucking the artist over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      shittier than forcibly terminating service with no warning?

    2. Re:Fucking the artist over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I don't understand what the deal is here. Who ever looked at the music industry, and thought it needed more middlemen?

    3. Re:Fucking the artist over by PPH · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Who ever looked at the music industry, and thought it needed more middlemen?

      The middlemen.

      Lots of innovators with alternative platforms have probably been waking up with horses heads in their bed.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    4. Re: Fucking the artist over by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      They just gave a warning.

    5. Re: Fucking the artist over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe nobody wants to listen to terrible music produced by amateurs with computers.

    6. Re: Fucking the artist over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very likely

    7. Re: Fucking the artist over by Calydor · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "Your entire livelihood ends in less than a month unless you agree to an effective pay cut by letting a middleman take a percentage of all revenue."

      Some warning. It's right up there with, "What a nice shop you have here. Would be a shame if something happened to it."

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    8. Re: Fucking the artist over by Calydor · · Score: 1

      This isn't about One Direction and Justin Bieber, though.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    9. Re: Fucking the artist over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who cares...
      Play stupid Google games,
      Win stupid Google prizes.
      If for some reason you " think" this
      Platform will give you your" big break"
      You are clueless beyond all help.

    10. Re:Fucking the artist over by sg_oneill · · Score: 1

      Ehh.... its not the end of the world. Most of the other platforms work this way, so Artists generally sign up with a service like CD Baby which handles all that for a one off fee of , like $50 or whatever for all platforms. So most independent artists would already have an account with a third party provider to get their stuff on iTunes, amazon, etc. For most indy musicians they won't even notice this one.

      And that minoritywho are affected , probably didn't actually realise there was services that could get them on iTunes, amazon, etc.

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    11. Re: Fucking the artist over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ðY£

  3. Can a startup take its place? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm looking for a new thing to build.

  4. big business wins again by renegade600 · · Score: 0

    sounds more like the real reason for the closing is the big players were not getting a cut. wonder if they offered a better deal on licensing if google got rid of the portal.

    1. Re:big business wins again by DigitalSorceress · · Score: 1

      I think you're likely right.

      That's a nice music sales system you have there.. it'd be a real shame if someone were to deny you rights to sell all A-List artists.... you know, unless you just kind of drop this whole artist portal....

      --

      The Digital Sorceress
    2. Re: big business wins again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Makes you wonder about the ad-pocalypse on YT, were companies really complaining or is vevo just taking a monster cut from everyone else.

  5. Smaller musicians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You must be at least 5 feet tall to ride this Google service.

  6. I miss mp3.com by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    as it was right after it stopped hosting what was basically pirated content and was a place bands put their stuff to get noticed. I think the real reason the RIAA shut it down so hard is that a bunch of bands were making a good living off it. Can't have bands being independent of labels, now can we?

    --
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  7. The big plattforms are killing the Internet by quax · · Score: 1

    Time to break them up.

    1. Re:The big plattforms are killing the Internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Place an $X billion dollar cap on all companies including holding companies. This will help not only the tech sector. They stifle innovation and competition and unduly influence politics.

    2. Re:The big plattforms are killing the Internet by quax · · Score: 1

      It would need to be inflation adjusted, but I think the principle is sound.

    3. Re:The big plattforms are killing the Internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The principle is only sound if you get the big money guys behind it so it has a chance of actually making it into law. Essentially, you're asking massive companies to commit to suicide. Because, whether we want to admit it or not, they are the ones making the real decisions that the squabbling children that pretend to be our government(s) officials slap each other around with. There's absolutely no chance in hell we'll see something like that make its way into any real political discussion. Zero chance.

    4. Re:The big plattforms are killing the Internet by quax · · Score: 1

      The EU has never been shy of taking on monopolies.

  8. Why Even Bother with New Services from Google? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're just going to shut them down in less than two years anyway so why even get started at all? Google and their service-of-the-month model is a complete waste of your time. Stop giving away your attention to Google and Facebook while paying them for the privilege with your precious and limited time.

  9. Consistency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One thing about Google you can always rely on, is that you can never rely on any of Google's products and services to stick around.

  10. i only want music by sad_ · · Score: 1

    so is youtube-music only going to be video? will i be able to turn off video? i want to LISTEN to music, not watch it.
    google music had the option to use your own music library, i guess that option is also not available anymore with youtube-music?

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  11. Phew by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    I‘m glad that I am 6 foot 2 then and not a small artist.

  12. They want to wholesale not retail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They don't want to buy their supply "retail", they want to buy it "wholesale".

    It lowers the cost (to google) of getting songs to sell if you don't have to support a portal that "almost anyone" can sign up for. In addition, it gives google recourse if someone goes off and tries to sell pirated content through them; each of those distributors has enough capital to be punished by google for exposing google to copyright infringement risk.

    Jo Artist has to accept that Jo Scammer looks just like them to google.