[Updated] Should YouTube make a music bot for Discord users after shutting down Rythm & Groovy?

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…

Original story (published on September 23, 2021) follows:

The Discord community is feeling attacked. Over the past few weeks, we have seen some of the biggest music bots on Discord going offline, all courtesy of YouTube.

Rythm and Groovy are some of the most popular music bots that let Discord users play music from YouTube videos and have more than 560 million users.

Google wanted the Rythm bot closed down within seven days, and the service has since complied with this cease and desist order by shutting down its bot on September 15th.

With these two massive bots taken offline, YouTube has triumphed! These bots that used YouTube’s API to deliver music to millions of users of Discord are no more and the users are livid!

Heard Rythm bot died. This discord music bots getting shut down thingy is getting too much right now. It’s kinda sad cuz one of the most favorable features of Discord is that we can listen to music freely. Makes me think one day all music bots die, and for me it really sucks…
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While this can be seen as big data stamping its authority and squashing development and innovation, these services operated in a grey area, and even the founders of these platforms knew their days were numbered.

Speaking to The Verge, Yoav, the creator of Rythm bot said;

“One way or another we knew this was due to happen eventually, Which is why we started working on something new a year ago. Groovy receiving one just meant it would happen sooner rather than later.”
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See, these bots enabled users to get music from YouTube videos directly, allowing users to bypass YouTube’s ads and seeing just how many Discord servers have these bots installed, it is impressive just how long they have lasted.

With both Rythm and Groovy officially offline, users are on the offense and their anger is directed at YouTube. Many of these users now want the Google-owned video streaming platform to step up and fill the gap it has created.

waiting patiently for the day YouTube is succeeded by a better platform that treats its creators & audience better. from copyright strikes to influencing other social media like discord – it’s sad seeing it become more and more anti-consumer.
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Even then, some tend to feel otherwise. A section of netizens feels like this is a proper move as the discord bots were siphoning YouTube’s bread.

Be that as it may, the Discord community is down by two awesome music bots and we would like to hear from you. What are your thoughts on this shutdown?

Should YouTube make a music bot for Discord after they’re done cracking down on Ryth and Groovy and the likes? Cast your vote below and we shall update this post with the results in a week’s time.

11:25 am (IST): New reports now indicate that Discord has started testing YouTube integration with a new ‘Watch Together’ feature, presumably following the recent crackdown on third-party bots. More on that here.

09:37 am (IST): The poll has ended and the final results are here. Around 76% of voters want YouTube to make a music bot for Discord. Roughly 17% think that it’s not really YouTube’s responsibility to do that.

The remaining votes are from those who aren’t familiar with Discord bots.

05:52 pm (IST): The popular music bot, Rythm is reportedly coming back as the first third party VC activity. You can check more about it in the video linked below.

NOTE: We have these and many more YouTube stories in our dedicated YouTube section.

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