It's official: Samsung will scrap the Music app, use Google Play Music as default

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Today is the day when the Galaxy S8 and S8+ become in major markets across the world and Samsung has taken the time to announce that it has entered a special partnership with Google. Sammy will no longer include its own Music app on phones and will instead use Google Play Music as a default player.

Google Play Music, as you probably know, is not just a music player, but a portal to the Play Music service, which is a mix between a Spotify-like Internet radio and a cloud where you can store up to 50,000 of your favorite songs. It's fighting a pretty tough battle in a market, cornered by the deeply-rooted Spotify and the aggressive Apple Music.

The announcement by Samsung is nothing new per se — the Galaxy S7 also came with the Play Music app as the default music player, with the Sammy stock Music app nowhere to be seen on the device. It was one of the steps taken in the whole "TouchWiz thinning" process, which has been going on for the past couple of years. But, now that it's official, we assume the Samsung app will be completely gone from lower-tier devices as well. We are unsure whether it will be deleted on older devices via an OTA update, but we assume it will not.


Never before has music been more ingrained in our lives than it is now, in the mobile era. To help consumers more easily discover, enjoy and share music on their favorite devices, Samsung has partnered with Google Play Music, a music and podcast streaming service and online music locker.

Starting April 21, with the launch of the Galaxy S8 and S8+, Google Play Music* will be the default music player and music service on Android-based Samsung phones and tablets launched in 2017.** With the service, users can enjoy free curated radio and smart music recommendations based on their preferences, and can discover and subscribe to podcasts.

In addition, Samsung has also collaborated with Google Play Music to create exclusive features for users of the aforementioned devices. For example, users can upload and stream up to 100,000 songs from their own music collection on Google Play Music – twice the number available for general service users.

With the purchase of a Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ or Galaxy Tab S3 device, users will also receive a free three-month subscription to Google Play Music, and thus ad-free, on-demand access to over 40 million songs, as well as tailored playlists that cater to any mood or occasion. In addition, with access to YouTube Red (where available), users can enjoy ad-free videos during the trial period.

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