The service was announced on May 10, 2011; after a six-month, invitation-only beta period, it was publicly launched on November 16, 2011, and shut down in December 2020.

Google Play Music mobile apps also supported offline playback of tracks stored on the device.

[3] The service scanned the user's collection and matched the files to tracks in Google's catalog, which could then be streamed or downloaded in up to 320 kbit/s quality.

[6] Supported file formats for upload included: MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, Ogg, or ALAC.

[8] Standard users located in the United States, Canada, and India could also listen to curated radio stations, supported by video and banner advertisements.

[10] With a paid subscription to Google Play Music,[11] users received access to on-demand streaming of 40 million songs[12] and offline music playback on the mobile apps, with no advertisements during listening and no limit on the number of track skips.

[21][22] In July, the playlist was made available to all users,[23][24] with Google noting in a press release that the exclusivity on Samsung devices was part of an "early access program" for testing and feedback purposes.

Initially, it was only available by invitation to residents of the United States, and had limited functionality; the service featured a no-cost "music locker" for storage of up to 20,000 songs, but no music store was present during the beta period, as Google was not yet able to reach licensing deals with major record labels.

[46][47][48] The family plan is currently only available in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

[50][51][52] Its first original podcast series, "City Soundtracks", was announced in March 2017, and would "feature interviews with various musicians about how their hometowns influenced their work, including the people and the moments that had an impact".

[56] In May 2018, YouTube announced a new version of the YouTube Music service, including a web-based desktop player and redesigned mobile app, more dynamic recommendations based on various factors, and use of Google artificial intelligence technology to search songs based on lyrics and descriptions.

The full list included: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

[67] Availability of music was introduced in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain in October 2012,[68] Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Russia, and Switzerland in September 2013,[69] Mexico in October 2013,[70] Germany in December 2013,[71] Greece, Norway, Sweden, and Slovakia in March 2014,[72] Canada,[73] Poland and Denmark in May 2014,[74] Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and Ukraine in July 2014,[75] Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador, and Venezuela in August 2014,[76] Brazil and Uruguay in September 2014,[77] 13 new countries in November 2014,[78] Brazil in November 2014,[79] Argentina in June 2015,[80] Japan in September 2015,[81] South Africa and Serbia in December 2015,[82] and India in September 2016, where only purchasing of music was offered.

[84][85] In 2013, Entertainment Weekly compared a number of music services and gave Google Play Music All Access a "B+" score, writing, "The addition of uploading to augment the huge streaming archive fills in some huge gaps.