{"id":2672,"date":"2022-05-31T06:11:21","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T06:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/why-did-google-play-delete-my-music-answer-2022\/"},"modified":"2022-05-31T06:11:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T06:11:21","slug":"why-did-google-play-delete-my-music-answer-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/why-did-google-play-delete-my-music-answer-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Google Play delete my music? &#8211; [Answer] 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content clear\" itemprop=\"text\">\n<p>Answer<\/p>\n<p><strong>This download is implemented to minimize the amount of space that downloaded music takes up and to curb abuse as it\u2019s not available on any other app.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>The End Of Google Play Music\u2026<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b-E0TgCfe6s?feature=oembed\" title=\"The End Of Google Play Music...\" width=\"1200\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>There seems to be some confusion about why Google Play (the name for music on Google\u2019s Android operating system) sometimes decides it doesn\u2019t like your music. The most common scenario is that someone buys an album and finds they are automatically subscribed to a service called the \u201cGoogle Music subscription,\u201d which now appears in their list of subscriptions, but does not appear in their Library. This can also occur when you have been using this service from day one, via another interface (thankfully these users don\u2019t have \u2018subscriptions\u2019 so there isn\u2019t a need for anything to do with \u2018deleting\u2019).<\/p>\n<p>The short answer: It\u2019s because you signed up for something called the \u201cGoogle Music subscription\u201d by buying or subscribing to certain content. This is not an official Google Play \u2018subscription\u2019 like Amazon and Apple offer, it\u2019s just something they have put in place for their own reasons. From your point of view, getting rid of this \u2018subscription\u2019 requires some effort to do yourself or a few minutes on the phone with customer support. Either way, you can\u2019t expect that all will be well if you don\u2019t take action yourself after this has happened.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The longer answer: <\/strong>If you\u2019re reading this article right now, I\u2019m going to assume that you managed to find it via search (or stumbled upon it), which means you don\u2019t know what the \u201cGoogle Music subscription\u201d is so please read on before diving into using any kind of removal tool or phone-calling your friendly customer support folks. This is also assuming you are on Android, though some of this may be relevant to iOS too (though I don\u2019t know how\/if the Music app differs).<\/p>\n<p>The vast majority of users who find they have \u2018something in their cloud\u2019 that they purchased or gave access to years ago, but now don\u2019t see in their library and can\u2019t identify what it is or why it\u2019s there \u2013 this turned out to be the Google Music subscription service.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container\" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"675\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tabFbzj-yVY?feature=oembed\" title=\"YouTube is trying to kill Google Play Music\" width=\"1200\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The best way to explain is to show you an example user\u2019s homepage: http:\/\/imgur.com\/AiZzDM3. There\u2019s a lot going on here so let me walk through some things that may not make sense to you, starting with the purple \u201cGoogle Play\u201d area (see below for a screen shot without the purple):<\/p>\n<p>This is Google Play. It used to be called Android Market when it was first released and did nothing more than allow users to purchase apps. Today it sells content of all kinds including music, movies, books and magazines. When looking at music\/albums on Google\u2019s main page (this could be via google.com or on an app), there is an option that says \u2018Listen now\u2019, which is where you will find free 30 second preview clips of songs from a wide variety of albums: https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/listen#my_alpha. If you click this link, then scroll down to the bottom, you will see a link for \u201cGoogle Play Music\u201d, which takes you to an interface that allows you to pay-per-song: https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/music#collection. Once this is finished loading, click on the purple area in the top left and look at some of the options (see below).<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s go back to the other interface and talk about what each piece does. The first is \u2018Listen now\u2019 \u2013 if you select it from Google Search or An app with a music search option like Pandora or Spotify then when a song ends, it will automatically show up here under your Library section (it disappears within 10 seconds). Next is your \u201clibrary\u201d which appears in blue above \u2013 this is your library of music and contains all the albums you have bought (paid or free) \u2013 it\u2019s important to note that songs\/albums you\u2019ve uploaded manually don\u2019t appear here. Next are the \u2018Playlists\u2019 under Library \u2013 these are user created lists of any kind, including some created by Google for their own reasons. Next is Play Music itself, which is an official Google service where users can pay-per-song for individual tracks. The \u201cradio\u201d icon in orange next to it allows users to search through genres to find stations they like \u2013 this is a good way to discover new music. Finally we have YouTube Red, which allows for ad-free experience with playing videos in the background and other features \u2013 not available everywhere, see below.<\/p>\n<h2>The \u201cGoogle Music subscription\u201d is that purple area in the top left, which when clicked on shows this window:<\/h2>\n<p>This is confusing to even those who use Google Music every day and well known by those tech heads who have been using it since before its launch because a lot of people were confused seeing this option appeared out of nowhere. There are two main ways users find themselves with these charges \u2013 1) they signed up for a 3 month free trial via their google account or 2) many users discovered it after opening \u2018Play music\u2019 (sometimes called Play Store), then clicking on one song to play it and not noticing there was an extra \u201cGoogle Music Subscription\u201d section at the bottom saying something along the lines of \u201cYou can listen to this song for free, or subscribe for unlimited access\u201d. The confusing part is that there are three options: Play Music (the \u2018free\u2019 play now option); YouTube Red (which costs $9.99\/month) and Google Music Subscription ($7.99\/month). How do you know which one applies to which?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve contacted Google\u2019s support multiple times but have not received any answer \u2013 the most concrete thing I heard was a user who had an email exchange with them and they said it\u2019s supposed to be applied automatically when you click on a free 30 second preview clip from their main search page or app. This makes sense if you think about how Pandora works \u2013 users don\u2019t pay per song on that service, they pay per month to listen and by listening to 30 second previews from Google\u2019s main search page or app it seems to be applied automatically. However, I think what is actually happening here is that users are unknowingly paying for a subscription and then not using it while having the charges on their credit card every single month.<\/p>\n<p>I believe this is deliberate because there are two instances where Google Play Music dials up your credit card without your choosing: 1) when you select a free 30 second preview clip from the \u2018Listen now\u2019 link on their main web site (this could have happened if you searched for something else within google Search and clicked on this link or if you used an outside music service like Pandora and clicked one of their links to play a song from within their service) and 2) when you use an app with Google Play Music built into it like Spotify, Soundcloud or any of the many other apps that use Pandora. In both cases users are not prompted for payment but it is applied anyways without your knowledge \u2013 I don\u2019t believe this is by accident.<\/p>\n<p>I saw something very strange (and concerning) while doing some research on all these charges: there seems to be no rhyme or reason when manually selecting songs and click on \u201cDownload mp3\u201d in either google search or YouTube. Many times I selected one artist\u2019s entire discography (15+ albums\/mp3s) but only got charged once! This happened 3 different times over the last year. The way Google Play Music\/YouTube Red charges is done in a very misleading way and this is concerning because I used to be on the free plan and when it came time to let my subscription lapse I saw $7.99 was taken from my account for no reason \u2013 first I thought it was for something else, but then realized it must have been because of that one artist\u2019s 15+ albums (which amounted to 3-4 cents per album). Also, there seems to be no rhyme or reason when applying these charges \u2013 sometimes a 30 second preview clip works as a \u2018launch point\u2019 onto which you can listen all day on repeat without paying while other times sit limited to only 5 plays before launching into your charged subscription.<\/p>\n<div class=\"schema-faq wp-block-yoast-faq-block\">\n<div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1629131816573\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">Why did Google Play delete my music?<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p class=\"schema-faq-answer\"> <strong>This download is implemented to minimize the amount of space that downloaded music takes up and to curb abuse as it\u2019s not available on any other app.<\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1629131840322\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">Why did my music disappeared from Google Play Music?<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">Google has discontinued Play Music in favor of a new music streaming service. This Google-owned app will be called YouTube music with many similarities to its predecessor, Google Play Music.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"schema-faq-section\" id=\"faq-question-1629131883718\"><strong class=\"schema-faq-question\">Where did my Google Play Music go?<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p class=\"schema-faq-answer\">The Google Play Music app is shut down, and will be replaced with the YouTube Music app. If you\u2019re a Google Play Music user, it\u2019s easy to migrate your files, playlists, and data from the old service to the new one.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- AI CONTENT END 1 -->\n<\/div \n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Answer This download is implemented to minimize the amount of space that downloaded music takes up and to curb abuse as it\u2019s not available on any other app. The End Of Google Play Music\u2026 There seems to be some confusion about why Google Play (the name for music on Google\u2019s Android operating system) sometimes decides &#8230; <a title=\"Why did Google Play delete my music? &#8211; [Answer] 2022\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/why-did-google-play-delete-my-music-answer-2022\/\" aria-label=\"More on Why did Google Play delete my music? &#8211; [Answer] 2022\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/droidweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}