YouTube stops playing Discord's music bot Rythm

YouTube

Just weeks after the Groovy Discord music bot was forced offline, Google-owned YouTube is now turning its attention to Rythm, the most famous music bot on Discord, with the search giant sending a cease and desist order to the owners of Rythm, a bot that allows users of Discord plays music from YouTube videos and is used by more than 560 million people.

Google wants to shut down the Rythm bot within seven days, and the service is committed to shutting down its bot on September 15.

Rythm is currently installed on more than 20 million Discord servers and Rythm alone has more than 560 million Discord users, making this shut down a major blow to a core feature of Discord.

Although music bots may seem like an essential part of Discord, they've been enabled by third parties for years, allowing Discord to avoid scrutiny or legal action from companies like YouTube. The closure of Groovy and Rythm will force many Discord users to Search for alternatives, but smaller bot developers may soon end up in a similar situation if they try to bridge the giant gap.

YouTube and Discord seem to be working on some form of alternative. Discord has been testing the social party feature on its service for the past 10 months, and it allows Discord users to create a YouTube watch party. It's not a direct replacement for Discord's music bots, but if the feature is officially launched, It will be an official way to watch YouTube content within Discord.