I got an email a while ago letting me know that Google Play Music will be discontinued by the end of this year, suggesting that I transfer my library over to YouTube Music. So I decided to go ahead and do that to avoid losing four years' worth of downloads that I purchased with the help of the Google Rewards app.
Well... once I completed that task, I noticed that signing up for YouTube Music translates to a paid monthly subscription, even for their most basic offering. While I am still on their "free trial" period, I'm hoping to find a way to transfer my mp3 files to something other than my laptop so that I can still listen to my library on my Android phones. (Neither phone has enough storage space to accomodate the amount of memory my music would take up.)
Does anyone know of any other Android app that would:
--Work in lieu of Google Play Music, and
--Be safe to use on my phones?
I have a few days left before I have to cancel my YouTube Music subscription or start paying for it, and I would be beyond grateful for any alternatives you might be able to recommend. Thanks a million in advance!
One alternative might be to transfer all your music to your Google Drive —Cloud Storage—(15 GB space free) and use it as your music player. The Google Drive app could be used on all your Android phones, and if you are running out of space on Google Drive, additional space can be purchased inexpensively, or you could just get another google account with another 15 GB of space for free. There seems to be ways to set up a better than native music player on Google Drive will little effort. Also, you can Google the best ways to transfer and set up your music on Google Drive.
Most articles I've seen appear to be written from the premise that people no longer own their music and have been using Play Music on their phones to listen to music they don't own in the background.
But for someone wanting to listen to their own music, the experience doesn't look like it will be substantially different on YouTube Music.
I have read that there are more ads on YouTube Music (when listening to music you don't own). On my laptop, I never heard ads on Play Music, maybe because of ad blocking. I am getting them on YouTube Music. I did get infrequent longer ads on my phone when playing stations but I don't think I got them on my Google Home devices.
Thanks for the info and this link! Looks like I might have overreacted, since I should be able to access everything I transferred over after all. I guess the real "test" will be when the free trial ends in a week or so. After that, assuming everything still works, it will be interesting to see if YT Music streams OK via Bluetooth in the car, like GP Music always did.
Will update this thread once the free trial is over -- till then, thanks again to everyone for all of your kind and helpful replies!
I've never used Google Play Music or YouTube music, so I don't know much about them. But as far as@D_D is concerned, it's sounds like it would be not much of a hassle to transfer his music to the free YouTube Music and give a go, or just try one piece of music there to see how it works. And, yes if you own the music, why pay to hear it? Seems that Google didn't inform of other options beyond YouTube paid one.
Actually, google did inform everyone how this would work. This is from the email they sent. I didn't read all the way down until now, so I can see how someone might have missed it. But I have also done the transfer and signing up for the premium trial is only possible after you perform the transfer, is optional, and it came up while I was listening to non purchased music after an ad played.
[i]Starting today, you can finally enjoy your music on YouTube Music. You can now transfer your Google Play Music library, including playlists, uploads, recommendations, and more, to experience YouTube Music with your music library. Once you transfer, you can continue to use Google Play Music, and your music library will still be there. YouTube Music will eventually replace Google Play Music later this year, but don’t worry – we’ll give you plenty of notice before that happens.
....
Here’s how we’re making this change as smooth as possible for you:
• One-click transfer: You can now transfer your music library to YouTube Music, including your playlists and recommendations, as well as uploaded and purchased music.
• Ease in: You can transfer your music and start exploring YouTube Music without losing access to your Google Play Music library. For now, you’ll continue to have access to both services.
.....
With all that said, here are a few more things you should know:
Radio and background play
Background play is only available to paid users of YouTube Music. However, the free version of the music app allows background play for your uploaded songs and streaming on smart devices with Google Assistant. Don't forget that you can still enjoy background play and radio in the Google Play Music app until later this year.[/i]
Google Play Music completely stopped working recently.
I do miss it on my portable devices since it played music I didn't own and streamed my own music without downloading. The Youtube Music app requires the screen to be on to play anything not downloaded.
But on desktop, I can select any song or any album and play it in the background regardless of ownership. Of course, this is what some people were using Youtube for, but this is more organized and designed with music in mind.
Just discovered that I can actually stream my own music that I haven't downloaded.
I think what happened before when I thought I couldn't was that I was trying to play a google / youtube version of my uploaded album rather than my actual album from my library.
Prior to that, I was playing a youtube playlist which would stop playing if the screen display went off.
I've fixed that by installing an app called Caffeine which is actually standard on the Lineage OS.
While I am still on their "free trial" period, I'm hoping to find a way to transfer my mp3 files to something other than my laptop so that I can still listen to my library on my Android phones. (Neither phone has enough storage space to accomodate the amount of memory my music would take up.)