X
Tech

Samsung continues shutting down redundant content service hubs

Samsung overwhelmed Galaxy smartphone owners with multiple content sources and now users won't be able to get to purchased content the same way.
Written by Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer
Samsung continues shutting down redundant content services
Image: Samsung

One of my frustrations with Samsung Galaxy devices was seeing redundant music, video, and ebook services preloaded by Samsung. Google already offers these services in Android and then there are even more services you can install yourself, such as Amazon. It turns out that no else must have been using these services either as Samsung continues to shut them down.

While I didn't see much of a point in having these services on Android devices, Samsung may have been using them to test out the ability to provide media services for their Tizen line of products. Samsung significantly lightened up on TouchWiz in the Galaxy S5 as well and appears to be working better with Google on their Android phones. If you asked me last year then I would have predicted that Samsung was planning to drop Android and go all in with Tizen, but now I am not so sure.

HTC has also killed off their HTC Watch movie service, but I do see that Sony still has their redundant media service options. I am personally going to stick with making media purchases directly from Apple, Google, and Microsoft moving forward and hope that at least these core operating system companies continue to support their content providers.

I see there are still games and application hubs on new Samsung devices, but you might want to consider sticking to Google or Amazon for apps and games given the failure of these various content hubs.

Samsung Music Hub

I received an email at the beginning of June stating that Samsung Music Hub will no longer be available as of 1 July (yesterday). I actually wrote about their music hub on the Galaxy SIII and considered moving to it exclusively because it offered a streaming subscription component as well as a way to upload, store, and enjoy all of my own music. Thankfully, I realized I wouldn't be a Samsung-only user and didn't spend time or money making that move.

Music purchased from the Samsung music hub is DRM-free so consumers had about a month to download any content and save it to enjoy elsewhere. As of today, there is no way to download that music again.

Samsung now offers Milk Music, powered by Slacker. My Samsung Music icon changed to Milk Music with an update on my S5. They also promoted Google Music and offered three months for free to Samsung Music users.

Samsung Video Hub

Today, I received an email informing me that Samsung Video and Media Hub will no longer be available as of 1 August 2014. The ability to purchase or rent video content was disabled yesterday, 1 July. I didn't even know that, which tells you how much I used it.

You can transfer your purchased video content to their M-Go partner and if you are a Samsung Video customer you can get a $5 promotional credit and a discount on a couple of rentals. I am going to go login since I am not sure I purchased movies when I was using Samsung devices over the last couple of years.

Samsung Readers Hub

The Readers Hub was never fully supported and promoted in the US and I only saw it on a few Samsung Android tablets and imported devices. Like the Music Hub, the Readers Hub closed down yesterday, 1 July, with no migration plan if you happened to have purchased books from them. New devices are bundled with the Kindle app and that is the only source I now purchase my ebooks from since I can count on them being around for years, right?

Editorial standards