Songza was a music platform founded in 2007. It had the usual option of searching for music by artist, genre, or mood. Additionally, it had playlists curated by human experts – Rolling Stone writers, various DJs, etc.
It also had the Songza Concierge feature, which suggested music based on listening history, date, and time.
Google purchased the service in July 2014. They promptly started integrating the technology in Google Play Music.
The Concierge was turned into contextual playlists and added in October of the same year. Songza’s curated playlists morphed into a free ad-supported radio which aired in the USA in June 2015 and Canada in December 2015.
Google announced they were discontinuing Songza on January 31, 2016. With platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, and Pandora to compete with on the music-streaming stage, it was no surprise that Google decided to combine their music services into one. Once Google Play Music had all Songza’s features, the latter’s fate was clear.
Google, of course, provided listeners with the option to save their music. Here’s part of the email users received:
“Users can migrate their accounts to Google Play Music, including all their favorite songs and playlists. That means favorited stations, recent stations, and even thumbs-upped songs get moved from Songza to Google Play Music.”
The sync was done entirely in the cloud, so even if users didn’t have the Play Music app, they could download it later and access their playlists and stations.
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