Category: Technology News

Though popular, this free service will stop being available after January 31, 2016 as Google takes it down.

Songza has now become the latest in a trend of streaming music services that have been shut down over the last few years, as this free site and app will stop being effective starting on January 31, 2016.

The service had been acquired by Google last summer and it is now blending it into Google Play Music.

Ever since the acquisition of Songza, most people have been waiting for the announcement that Google would eventually be shutting it down. Therefore, for most users, the closure of this free music streaming service may not be welcome but it is at least not coming as a surprise. The tech giant has been working the proprietary technology of the service and the technique of its use into the properties of Google Play Music over the last while.

Google bought Songza knowing that the service had a functionality that the tech giant was going to need.

If Google was going to be able to compete within the streaming music industry, it was going to need to have some of the techniques and functionalities of this popular free service available. Clearly, it was willing to pay the price to purchase what it needed, as it is estimated that the company paid around $30 million in order to obtain it.

The service originally launched back in 2007 and instantly defined itself from among the many online radio stations that had been taking off at the time. The service involved the employ of staff experts that would curate playlists. From there, users could give a thumbs up, thumbs down, share playlists and skip songs they didn’t want to hear.

The service also allowed users to choose their playlist based on their mood or their current activity, so they would be able to listen to tunes that were appropriate for what they were feeling and doing. The platform influenced a number of the leading music streaming platforms that have become a tremendous success.

Now, Songza will simply be incorporated into Google Play Music and will cease to be known under its current name.

For the first time in 6 years, the consumer electronics giant has made a change in this critical position.

While Samsung has not at all seen a stoppage in its mobile tech sales, and while it continues to be one of the top smartphone manufacturers worldwide, the company has been facing some sizeable pressures on its business, particularly from competition such as Huawei and Xiaomi.

As a result, the company has changed its mobile communications president as it develops a new strategy.

This is the first time in six years that the company has changed the head of its mobile tech. This means that JK Shin, a 59 year old who has been holding that position for over half a decade, will be on his way out. He is being replaced by Dongjin Koh, who is 54 and was previously the head of mobile Research and Development for the company. He was the one at the wheel when Samsung developed Tizen, its own mobile operating system. He was also leading the way with the Samsung Pay mobile payments platform for which the company has high hopes.

This change in mobile tech leadership doesn’t mean that Shin will be stepping completely out of the company.

Instead, this is being considered as a shuffle within the company instead of one leader stepping up while another leaves altogether. Shin is exceptionally experienced as an executive within this market. He is behind the rise of Samsung’s smartphone business and at the same time, he is also the one who was in command as the more recent challenges fell into place.

For Shin, this will mean that he will be stepping out of the day-to-day mobile technology operations of the company. He will be focusing his attention on tasks of a more long-term planning nature. His goal will be to come up with a strategy that will allow the company to rebuild and rejuvenate its mobile business, which has been struggling to see the type of growth that it has experienced in the past.

It is also important to point out that mobile tech leadership wasn’t Shin’s only role in the company. He was, and remains, the co-CEO of Samsung Electronics. Clearly, this move is not being made to remove him from the company, but rather to freshen its perspective.