Reports that Google Play Music is set to be replaced by a music subscription service called YouTube Remix have been circling for a while now. According to a new article from Droidlife, it will happen before the end of this year, with current Play Music users being forced onto the new streaming platform.

Google combined its YouTube Music and Google Play teams in February 2017 to "deliver the best possible product," and later talked about merging YouTube Red and Google Play Music into one product.

"We've previously announced the combination of the YouTube Music and Google Play product teams --- music is very important to Google so it's critical we have one offering that meets the needs of consumers and artists. Nothing will change for users today and we'll provide plenty of notice before any changes are made," YouTube said, in a statement.

While Remix will mostly be an on-demand music streaming service, it's also said to contain elements from YouTube such as video clips. The platform was expected to launch at the SXSW music festival back in March, though YouTube said this was never its plan.

Remix will be Google's third attempt at cracking the multi-billion dollar music streaming business; an industry dominated by Spotify and Apple Music. Google Play launched back in 2011 but is nowhere near as popular as its rivals. The company tried again with the $10 per month Music Key in 2014, which became YouTube Red in 2015 and expanded to include YouTube videos.

It will be interesting to see how Remix fares against its competitors and exactly how it will affect Google's other music and video services. We could find out more at Google I/O on Tuesday, May 8.