Samsung admits defeat on music streaming, reveals plans to close Milk Music in Australia

THE fat lady has sung for Samsung, with the tech giant admitting defeat and revealing the closure of its online song-streaming service in Australia.

12/02/16: Charlotte Swinburn is a 24-year-old music fan from Sydney who like many of her generation prefers to listen to and stream random tracks rather than albums, signalling the end of the album as a cultural phenomenon. John Feder/TheAustralian

SAMSUNG might be winning the smartphone race against Apple but it has admitted defeat in streaming music, revealing it will close its Australian online music service next month.

Samsung Australia warned Milk Music subscribers of its imminent closure late yesterday, announcing it would shut down the streaming service “with a heavy heart” on April 28.

“After this date, you will no longer be able to stream music or access your cached music from Samsung Milk Music on your Samsung devices,” the statement read.

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The company quietly stopped charging users to renew their subscriptions last week.

The closure will follow rumours of Milk Music’s demise locally and overseas, with Variety reporting the service failed to generate the “expected revenue” for the company and staff had “left the organisation or are shifting positions” earlier this month.

Samsung beat rival Apple to market with streaming music, launching its service in Australia on February 12 last year, five months before its major rival.

Samsung will close its Milk Music streaming service in Australia on April 28.

A premium version of Milk Music, which removed ads and allowed offline caching for $3.99 per month, followed in October.

The service, which was touted as “the next big thing in music,” offers more than 150 streaming radio stations curated by song genres and subgenres, and is navigated by a large virtual dial.

But it is only available on Samsung devices from the Galaxy S3 smartphone onwards rather than the entire phone market.

Samsung’s music store shutdown comes just days after market leader Spotify revealed it had more than 30 million paying subscribers, adding 10 million new paid users in less than a year.

By comparison, Apple Music boasts 11 million subscribers and Tidal, which is celebrating its first year in the market, reported it had “amassed three million members” after a series of exclusive releases from artists including Kanye West, Prince, and Beyonce.

As a parting gift to its subscribers, Samsung will offer Milk Music users a free three-month subscription to Google Play Music.