Samsung retires Music Hub service in Australia
After closing down its Music Hub streaming service overseas, Samsung has announced that the Australian iteration of the service will close by the end of the year.
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The Australian digital music space is set to shrink further with the announcement that Samsung Music Hub will be closing in Australia at the end of this year. The announcement, made on the Music Hub website, follows similar news from Telstra confirming that it would be ""="" shortcode="link" asset-type="article" uuid="a7b14b15-c6bd-4fd6-a027-aa66ff2fd1e4" slug="bigpond-music-to-close-mog-to-remain-for-foreseeable-future" link-text="shutting down its BigPond Music download service" section="news" title="BigPond Music to close, MOG to remain for " edition="us" data-key="link_bulk_key" api="{"id":"a7b14b15-c6bd-4fd6-a027-aa66ff2fd1e4","slug":"bigpond-music-to-close-mog-to-remain-for-foreseeable-future","contentType":null,"edition":"us","topic":{"slug":"digital-media"},"metaData":{"typeTitle":null,"hubTopicPathString":"Digital Media","reviewType":null},"section":"news"}"> next month.
Samsung has advised that Music Hub will close in Australia on December 31, 2014, bringing its three-year history of local music streaming to an end.
"This means that as of 00:00 a.m. 31 December 2014, you will not have access to Samsung Music Hub or any playlists or music cached to your device via the Samsung Music Hub app," the company said on its Music Hub website.
However, the end of Music Hub does not necessarily mean a move out of the streaming space for Samsung, with the company hinting: "Stay tuned for an exciting new music experience from us soon!"
The Music Hub streaming service launched in Australia in October 2011 and was further strengthened off the back of Samsung's acquisition of cloud content service provider mSpot in 2012. Since then, after launching internationally, the service was pushed across Samsung's ecosystem of products with strong promotion around the launch of particular devices such as the Galaxy S5.
However, the service was cut back significantly earlier this year, with Samsung announcing in May that it would be discontinuing Music Hub in international markets by July 1, 2014. However, Samsung advised Australian customers that the local service was a "separate platform" to the one offered overseas, and that the company had "no plans to discontinue Samsung Music Hub in this country".
Samsung has given users the option of cancelling their subscription early, advising that it will not renew any subscriptions or conduct any transactions after November 30.