Back in March, we spotted Google working on collaborative playlists for its primary streaming service. YouTube Music now has a “Collaborate” button, though the functionality is not yet active.
One month ago today, Google announced that it would start transitioning Play Music users to YouTube Music. The company explicitly said that the migration tool would become available “over the next couple of weeks.” A warning in YouTube Music today notes that “transfers are delayed” due to “high demand.”
Back in 2018, Google Maps added built-in media playback controls when navigating on iOS and Android. An update this week sees Google Maps finally support YouTube Music on the latter platform.
Playlists are at the heart of YouTube Music’s approach to discovery with several personalized for you in addition to a torrent of general ones. YouTube Music for Android and iOS have quietly gained “Playlist update notifications.”
YouTube Music has picked up a number of new features in recent weeks to attract Play Music users. A small tweak to the Android app updates the status bar icon to match the app’s logo.
More than other services, Google’s latest streaming service heavily leverages A/B tests when introducing new features. YouTube Music today is widely rolling out the revamped Now Playing UI and Explore tab to Android.
From user channels to a reorganized Library, Google’s primary music service in recent weeks has been slowly rolling out a slew of new features. YouTube Music will soon replace the “Hotlist” with a new “Explore” tab.
Google Play Music is being put out to pasture later this year, which means that you might want to transfer your library over to YouTube Music to keep all of your audio content.
The Play Music library transition began last month as Google’s latest streaming service picked up a number of player updates. YouTube Music is now readying an external Bluetooth device setting and a label for audiobooks and shows.
YouTube Music has been quickly evolving into a pretty decent place to stream your music ahead of the death of Google Play Music. Now, YouTube Music has added support for saving albums to your library before they’ve been fully released.
YouTube Music has seen a flurry of new features in recent weeks from Play Music migration to a new “Related” tab. The latest is a new “Play My Station” homescreen shortcut for YouTube Music on Android.
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.
