Samsung smartphones have become quite popular over the past few years and are some of the best devices available on the market. Samsung’s flagship devices typically come packed with top-of-the-line hardware and many useful features. One common point of frustration and confusion, however, is their set of built-in apps. While some of the apps that come preloaded on their devices offer useful features, they often duplicate the functionality of Google’s preloaded apps, taking up unnecessary space and providing users with more options than they may want. Samsung seems to realize this, at least when it comes to their music service, Milk Music, and will be retiring it in the U.S. on September 22 of this year.
The service, which has been around for a couple of years now, offers some of the same features as other popular music options, such as personalized stations and access from many different types of devices, as well as offline playback for premium users. However, with so many great options available for streaming music, competition is high and the service has struggled to gain the level of popularity of alternatives such as Pandora and Spotify. The decision to shut the service down may not come as much of a surprise, as earlier this year Milk Music was discontinued in Australia, and there were rumors that they planned to do the same in the U.S. According to an official statement from Samsung, they have decided to work with partners to provide the best music experience for their customers, though they did not specify which company or companies they plan to partner with going forward.
Those who have grown fond of Milk Music may be disappointed by this decision. Fortunately, they will be able to find many similar services that offer a lot of the same features. One of the most practical options is Google Play Music. Like Milk Music, it offers automatically generated radio stations, offline playback and music recommendations. The premium service can also be purchased on either an individual basis or as part of a family plan, and a web-based music player is available to listen to music on the PC. And one of the most convenient aspects of Google Play Music is that it comes preinstalled on current Android devices, so your music collection will be there from the first time you sign in without the need to download and set up an additional app. Although those who use Milk music may be sorry to see it shut down, it is nice to know that Samsung is focused on providing the best experience possible, even if that means using another service in favor of their own.