Songza Died Sunday Night. It Was a Slice.
For a couple of years, Songza was the most popular of all the streaming music services available in Canada. Some 3 million Canadians turned to the service each month. In a country late to the streaming game, these were amazing numbers. In fact, the Canadian user base was about the same size as the American one–and there are ten times fewer people here.
Back in 2014, I was their Chief Curator for Canada, managing a staff of people obsessed with creating just the right music mixes for just the right moments. We had a blast.
But then in July 2014, we were sold that Songza had been purchased by Google. Eventually, everyone in the Canadian office was thanked for their service and shown the door. Hey, such is the nature of business. Stuff happens.
Google maintained Songza as a distinct and separate service on the public-facing side, although its best bits were being digested into a revamped Google Play Music. Late last year, the new GPM was unveiled. At the same time, we were told that Songza was going to be unplugged. That day has finally come. Songza died Sunday night. The website is dark and the app has stopped working.
This email arrived to users this past weekend:
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,
-Elias, Elliott, Eric, Peter and the whole Songza team
P.S. We made you a kinda awkward video.
I’ve been playing with Google Play Music and every day I notice a lot of the old Songza playlists being added back in. The familiar Concierge functionality is there, too. It’s very much like Songza except…Google-y. I wonder how many Songza users will make the transition? If they get close to 50%, Google would be thrilled.
Poory Sharky. I hope he goes to a good home.
