Ahead of Play Music shutting down later this year, Google last week started letting users transition their libraries to YouTube Music. The full rollout of the YouTube Music transfer tool will take several weeks, but you can now sign-up for early access.
Play Music has been in limbo since YouTube Music relaunched two years ago. As the latter streaming service gains new features — like last week’s Now Playing redesign and discovery revamp, the Play-branded app has been functionally and visually frozen. Users have had no choice but to keep using it as switching would require starting their audio experience from scratch. That’s changing today as Google starts letting you transition Play Music libraries to YouTube Music.
YouTube Music has seen a number of changes in recent weeks ahead of Play Music’s eventual deprecation. The latest tweaks how the YouTube Music Library is organized by separating “Subscriptions.”
After first A/B testing in February and announcing last month, YouTube Music’s new player UI is seeing a wider rollout around the world over the past 24 hours.
In addition to rolling out a newly-organized Library that takes inspiration from Google’s previous streaming service, YouTube Music is adopting a search feature from Play Music.
Compared to the main site, YouTube Music lacks social features like comments and offers more of an individual experience. That said, it still has public, shareable playlists and Google looks to be ramping up that capability with user channel pages in YouTube Music.
Earlier this week, Google during its quarterly earnings call revealed that YouTube Premium and Music has 20 million paying subscribers. YouTube Music is now beginning to roll out built-in lyrics on Android.
Google’s streaming service in recent weeks has seen big additions from the long-awaited cloud library to a redesigned Now Playing screen. YouTube Music 3.57 today reveals work on collaborative playlists, as well as “Tap to play.”
YouTube Music is very much still in the process of maturing and, as such, the app’s design often changes. Today, YouTube Music is officially rolling out a revamped design for the “Now Playing” screen that includes lyrics and more.
As Play Music nears the end of its life, Google has been amping up development on YouTube Music to prepare for the influx of new users. In recent weeks, we’ve seen music uploads roll out on the web, as well as lyric support landing on Android. This week, Google has quietly rolled out a new set of backdrops for YouTube Music’s web app that accompany the homescreen carousels.
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Like on the full video service, recommendations are at the heart of YouTube Music and its Home feed. The YouTube Music mobile apps now look to actually be sending out “New release for you” notifications.
Google last week very quietly detailed and began rolling out the ability to upload songs to its Play Music successor. This afternoon, YouTube Music’s cloud library looks to be more widely available.
Hot off the news that user uploads to a cloud library are rolling out, YouTube Music is testing a redesigned Now Playing screen. Compared to the current version, it’s cleaner and has easier to reach key controls.
Earlier this month, we reported how Google is already testing YouTube Music’s cloud library internally with employees. An official support document today details how the functionality will work, suggesting that a launch is coming soon.
This week has seen a flurry of YouTube Music developments, including our report today that the promised cloud locker is en route. The Android app is now prompting listeners about being able to like songs with Google Assistant.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, Google has internally rolled out a beta version of YouTube Music that adds support for the music library/cloud locker functionality you might be familiar with from Google Play Music. One source suggested that efforts to transition Google Play Music users to YouTube Music are right around the corner…
During the Alphabet 2019 Q4 earnings call, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai provided an update on how many paid YouTube Music and Premium subscribers there are. There were also official figures for cord-cutting service YouTube TV.
YouTube Music is evolving into a pretty good music streaming platform with some features and perks that others can’t quite match. However, a wider issue going on with YouTube is causing Music to restrict some Disney songs and others that are “Made for Kids.”
YouTube Music has slowly and incrementally added more features over time. The latest change for Android and iOS allows you to see all new album and single releases.
Google’s primary streaming service in 2019 introduced personalized mixes, smart downloads, and other tweaks. The cloud locker that everyone is waiting for did not arrive, but YouTube Music 3.47 today suggests that the interface is being readied on Android.
Since launch, one focus of YouTube Music has been playlists — both editorial and algorithmic. Google’s primary streaming service today is now releasing three new personalized mixes.
Over the past 18 months, YouTube Premium and Music Premium has expanded around the world. Rolled out to India in March, the Google video site is particularly popular and competitive.
Recent weeks have seen a trickle of small features for Google’s primary streaming service. The latest minor usability improvement for YouTube Music is the ability to share artist profiles on Android and iOS.
Over the past several weeks, gapless playback rolled out to some YouTube Music subscribers. The capability is now officially available for all Premium users on the Android app and web client.
