Rdio Died Last Night. Songza Is Next. Sort Of.
Rdio died last night, the victim of takeover by Pandora. If you were a user–I was–I hope you managed to rescue your playlists before the site went dark. Next up: the death of Songza. Sort of.
Back in July 2014, Songza was purchased by Google and continued to operate as a standalone. That will come to an end January 31 when Songza will go away with all its best parts absorbed into the latest iteration of Google Play Music. Canadian users–and there were millions of them–will recognize that the best of Songza’s features have been incorporated into Google Play Music. The trick for Google is to get as many Songza users onto the new platform. That will be tricky.
Meanwhile, this email from the Songza team showed up in my inbox last night.
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Dear alan.cross, In a nutshell, we built Songza to make life better by playing you music tailored to every moment of every day. In July 2014, Songza was acquired by Google (#ConsciousCoupling), and in them we found a company who shares our excitement for IRL soundtracking. Over the past year and a half, we’ve worked hard to bring all of the features that you love from Songza to Google Play Music, including the Concierge and our massive library of hand-curated playlists — from Walking On Sunshine to Hillbilly Bodybuilding, no moment shall go un-soundtracked. Thanks to Google Play Music (and our kick-ass team, which continues to grow faster than a Twista verse), we’ve been able to bring Songza’s Concierge experience to a new audience of music fans in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, Brazil, Japan, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Mexico, and Russia (*wipes brow*) — with even more countries coming soon. It’s now time for us to focus on building a single, cohesive product. So as of January 31, 2016, Songza will become Google Play Music, and you will no longer be able to access Songza.com or the Songza mobile apps. HEY! There’s no crying! Are you crying? There’s no crying in music streaming! Moving to Google Play Music is free, and your favorite playlists can come with you! Pinky swear. Soon, when you visit Songza, you’ll be greeted with a prompt that will let you bring all of your Songza listening history and favorite playlists over to Google Play Music — so please make sure to do that! Using all of Songza’s features in Google Play Music is 100% free and doesn’t require a credit card, you just need to accept our new Terms of Service and Google’s Privacy Policy (if you haven’t already). Thank you SO much for being a part of the Songza community over all of these years. We’re really proud of the work that we’ve done on Google Play Music and we truly hope you’ll join us there. Hugs and headphones, |
There was a P.S., too: An “awkward video.”
Songza was such a great escape from all the other platforms. Free from ads trying to suck you into their pay to play platform. Yes, I paid for Club Songza and I loved it, they decided to go away with Club Songza and made it free. I was so happy for many months even after they were bought by the Googs. Naive little boy I was. I should have seen it coming….The inevitable “Googlification” happened—–> Hey guys, come over to google play music and watch our 50 second ads and don’t forget to sign up for Unlimited.
R.I.P. Songza, you were a dear friend of mine.
I’ve used the google version of it. It’s just like the old Songza we know and love… now my only problem is no Sonos Integration for free. Now the debate is on between spotify and Google Play Music.
In the same boat with Sonos and Google Play Music. Really disappointed.
@michaelgrbe, I recently bought two chromecast audio devices for ~$50(usd) at Target and I have to say, they are fantastic. They work over wifi with a big list of apps, Songaz being one of them until Google erases them from history.
I got my devices to act as a group which allows for synced-up multi-room music.
It’s got guest mode for anyone within earshot to DJ. The chromecast’s emit an inaudible frequency which allows them to link their devices (computer, tablet, iPhones, androids, etc.)
The things are so good I bought my step-dad one for holidays.
TLDR;
Try the Chromecast Audio device for streaming.
https://store.google.com/product/chromecast_audio
Good luck,
-J