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Samsung has shut down Milk Music

Samsung has shut down Milk Music

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Samsung users are going to have to find a new way to listen to music: the company announced that it would be shuttering its streaming radio service Milk Music.

According to Variety, Samsung will be shutting down Milk Music on September 22nd, urging its Galaxy and Note smartphone users to switch over to Slacker Radio, which powered the system. The elimination of the service has been rumored for several months, with reports that the company was going to shutter the service because it had failed to gain traction with users.

Samsung said in a statement that Milk is being closed down to "invest in a partner model focused on seamlessly integrating the best music services available today into our family of Galaxy devices."

Samsung launched the music streaming service to much fanfare in 2014 as an alternative to ad-supported services such as Spotify and Pandora. Later that year, it launched a video service called Milk Video. That system lasted only a year before it was closed. It’s not clear what Samsung’s plans are to replace the service, other than to direct users to Slacker, an ad-supported music streaming service.

Update: Milk Music has shut down. Slacker CEO Duncan Orrell-Jones didn't indicate exactly why Samsung was shutting the service down, but noted that because it was based on Slacker Radio, Milk users should be able to migrate with little difficulty:

"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. For users that want to check Slacker out, we’re giving them a free trial of Slacker Radio Plus." -Duncan Orrell-Jones, CEO of Slacker Radio

This article was originally published on August 30th, and was updated to reflect Milk Music's closure.