Google Play Music to YouTube Music

Users discuss Google's replacement of Play Music with YouTube Music, sharing migration experiences, feature comparisons (e.g., uploads, recommendations, offline play), and opinions versus alternatives like Spotify.

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#1332
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Keywords

US YTM OK youtube.com CD HATE UI UX GPM MTV music youtube play music google play spotify google play yt songs ad free

Sample Comments

The_Latecomer Feb 18, 2020 View on HN

Google stopped supporting Play Music a while back to be fair. Have you tried using YouTube music? Would you say you find this same issue there?

ValentineC Jan 23, 2023 View on HN

Google Play Music didn't commingle your uploaded music with YouTube, and their discovery algorithm was much better.

olmideso Jun 27, 2020 View on HN

I've switched to YouTube Music recently and it was pretty good for me. For me it's mostly on par with Google Play Music and on top of that it has a deep integration with Youtube. It allows you to play songs which are uploaded as videos on YouTube which is quite useful if some song/album is missed in the library. The only noticeable downside for me is that your YouTube Music subscriptions appear in YouTube subscriptions list which makes it harder to look for non-music stuff.

Thaxll Jul 21, 2020 View on HN

The music service is different from ad-free youtube. As for YT music it's the same as all the other music service, they all have the same catalog.

hatsunearu Oct 24, 2020 View on HN

Youtube music is absolute garbage. I can't use my youtube account, and I have to use my google account to access my tranferred music. And if I switch to my google account, I am logged out of youtube, and all my subscriptions are gone.I listen to very uncommon music that's not available anywhere to be streamed. Google Play Music was the only solution for streaming all my collection. I am looking for replacements... please let me know if you have any. My current bet is something like

tyrust Feb 16, 2025 View on HN

Is there a reason that you don't use YouTube Music for this?

macd Feb 8, 2019 View on HN

A happy medium for me is google play music. Basically the same song selection and features as spotify, plus the ability to upload your own mp3s that aren't available on the platform (I actually haven't used this feature in a while, but it seems like it still works). And you get ad-free youtube as well.

albybisy Apr 17, 2025 View on HN

i use Google/Youtube Music to store all my mp3 library.... until Google change idea..

owlninja Jun 20, 2018 View on HN

So now I need to use this instead of google play music?

xiphias2 Oct 23, 2020 View on HN

I'm a Google Play subscriber, and I'm pissed, because YouTube Music was always forcing videos on me, and was harder to use for offline listening (stopping music when I locked the screen, like other people).What is better to switch to right now, YouTube Music, or Spotify?