Ahead of the Play Music shutdown, Google has been working to add key functionality to the YouTube-based alternative, especially for free users. The YouTube Music app for Android Auto now works to play uploaded tracks.
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With streaming music being the norm now, just about every major service offers a family plan so everyone can enjoy it at a discounted rate. With YouTube Music, though, family plans get complicated for younger kids, and there’s no fix in sight either.
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The drawn-out death of Google Play Music and janky transition to YouTube Music is set to get a little easier as it appears that free users are now able to download playlists containing previously migrated or uploaded music.
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Google Play Music will soon be shut down, pushing its users to either YouTube Music or to switch to another provider entirely. Parts of Play Music have been closing for a few weeks, and now, Google Assistant speakers are losing support.
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To follow a big Android TV update yesterday, Google has just released an Apple Watch app for YouTube Music. It provides basic playback controls and browsing of what’s on your phone.
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Back in July, YouTube Music came to Android TV via the main YouTube app and a homescreen shortcut. The YouTube Music experience on big screen platforms, including Google TV, is getting an upgrade today that makes it more on par with the web and mobile clients.
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Like it or not, Google Play Music is on the way out, with YouTube Music becoming Google’s only music streaming service. To help match Google Play Music’s capabilities, YouTube Music’s free tier can now cast uploaded music to smart speakers.
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YouTube Music continues its flurry of new features by adding global top charts to the Explore tab. That second section in the bottom bar launched earlier this year to replace the video-focused Hotlist.
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Google Play Music is set to stop working for users around the world starting this month. YouTube Music continues to add legacy features to ease the transition, with Google Assistant now working to play personal playlists.
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Besides introducing an “Explore” tab earlier this year, Google’s primary — and soon only — streaming service has remained visually unchanged since the 2018 revamp. YouTube Music is now testing high-level filters for the Home feed of recommendations.
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The constant evolution of YouTube Music continues with new features being added and tested at a quick pace. One of the latest new YouTube Music features looks to be a very Spotify-inspired daily “My Mix” selection of daily playlists that will segment into sub-genres and sections.
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Song identification stalwart Shazam has long been an essential for music discovery and sometimes just remembering that annoying earworm that you can’t quite pinpoint. For Shazam users though, it’s probably great to hear that you can now listen to identified tracks in YouTube Music.
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As the death of Play Music quickly approaches, Google has been moving customers over to YouTube Music. Of course, the company also wants new subscribers for the service, so you’ll find ads for YouTube Music throughout YouTube and other Google products. One of those ads, though, has a hilarious gaffe — it links to a random YouTuber’s channel.
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Compared to the mobile clients, YouTube Music on the web is slow to get new features. The most notable exception, of course, is the unique ability to upload songs. After first debuting on Android and iOS in February, the YouTube Music web app is picking up lyrics.
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It would be an understatement to say that some dislike the upcoming gradual shutdown of Google Play Music in favor of YouTube Music. Ahead of that shutdown, Google appears to be addressing one of the many complaints with YouTube Music by preparing to let you cast uploaded music to smart speakers for free.
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YouTube Music has seen a flurry of changes in recent weeks ahead of Play Music shutting down by year’s end. A smaller change sees YouTube Music for Android and iOS revamp its branding.
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The flurry of new features for YouTube Music continues with a possible change to “Your Mix.” Long a live mix, Google is thinking of turning it into a regular playlist that only updates daily.
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At the start of this month, Google laid out how Play Music will stop working starting in October. The move is controversial to some, and the company today sent out a survey to YouTube Music users that have transitioned their library.
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Google Play Music is on its deathbed which means a whole lot of people are about to be forced onto YouTube Music despite issues and complaints that are still irritating early users. Google has said it will fix problems, but what are your biggest gripes?
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YouTube Music in recent weeks has seen a spurt of new features from a revamped Now Playing screen to cloud library uploads. A related change now sees Google link to YouTube Music when you’re searching for albums.
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Google this week laid out how Play Music will stop working in the coming months. With that on the horizon, YouTube Music is striving for feature parity, and the service is finally gaining the ability to have personal playlists be played from Google Assistant. However, this is still in testing with limited reach.
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Back in April, Google revamped YouTube Music’s Library to work more like Play Music, and now the Artists view is getting another upgrade to just show saved songs. It comes as the company this week detailed the shutdown timeline for Google Play Music.
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Google is preparing to shift all Google Play Music users over to YouTube Music in just a matter of weeks, but there are still a lot of loose ends to tie up to get to feature parity. Today, Google has confirmed that the Play Music app for Wear OS will die in just a couple of weeks, but YouTube Music isn’t coming any time soon.
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In May, the push to get Play Music users to switch to YouTube Music started in earnest with the launch of a long-awaited transfer tool. Google today explained the shutdown timeline for Play Music and fully detailed what’s going away.
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