Google Play closing Artist Hub as Play Music merges with YouTube Music
Google Play Music is fading out.
Google Play's Artist Hub is no longer accepting new sign-ups and will shut down April 30, Google confirmed Thursday.
The service, which lets smaller indie artists post and sell their music on the Google Play store and Google Play Music, is redirecting new users to YouTube for Artists.
Google said the closure of Artist Hub won't impact Google Play Music users. The company also confirmed the move is part of its plan to replace Google Play Music with Google-owned YouTube Music .
According to its support page, YouTube Music lets artists take advantage of YouTube analytics, connect with fans, promote tours and sell tickets, among other things.
YouTube Music relaunched last May as a $10-a-month music streaming service. As part of the change, Google Play Music will eventually shut down. Google said it plans to make the transition to YouTube Music as smooth as possible. For example, users won't lose their music when they upload their files to a cloud-based MP3 storage locker.
Originally published April 4.
Update, April 5: Added background from Google.