'Best by September 22,' Samsung Milk Music finally expires

The fateful day hath come: Samsung’s music streaming app Milk Music has finally expired as of September 22^nd. At least in the US.

Samsung launched its own music streaming service way back when, and it’s been aggressively pushed on to all the Galaxy devices across the world. Powered by Slacker Radio, Samsung Milk Music was more akin to Pandora. But with the emergence of Spotify and then Apple Music, Milk Music simply had no place in the market.

So after months of people speculating that the demise of Samsung Milk Music was imminent, the South Korean company finally announced in August that the service would indeed be shutting down on September 22^nd. Well, today is the day, folks. If you were a big fan, you’ve had a month to make appropriate adjustments. If you haven’t done so, you’ll be happy to know that Milk Music users get a free 14-day trial for Slacker Plus. After that, however, the Plus version will cost $3.99 a month.

In an official statement, Duncan Orrell-Jones, CEO of Slacker Radio, has expressed his hope for a smooth transition for all former Milk Music users:

While we’re not commenting on Samsung’s decision to no longer support Milk Music, our hope is that the impact on users will be minimal. Milk Music has always been powered by Slacker Radio, and by switching over to Slacker, music fans can continue to enjoy the same personalized listening experience they’ve come to love through our unique programming, storytelling and curated stations.

Although Samsung has said that it would not be abandoning the service completely, citing that Milk Music still operates in countries like China and its home turf, South Korea, I think it’s only a matter of time before the company unplugs the service in those countries as well.

Were you an active Milk Music user? If so, will you be using Slacker Radio or transitioning into services like Spotify or Apple Music? Let us know by commenting below!

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Samsung Milk Music

Samsung is sun setting its Samsung Milk Music service in the United States on September 22, 2016.

We have made the strategic decision to invest in a partner model focused on seamlessly integrating the best music services available today into our family of Galaxy devices. We believe that working with partners will accelerate innovation, enhance device sales and provide amazing new experiences for our customers.

We have no additional details to share at this time.

For any related media inquiries, please contact: Danielle Meister Cohen- d2.cohen@sea.samsung.com or Robin Schultz-r.schultz1@samsung.com.

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