Google Play Music shutting down later this year, transfer tool to Youtube Music now online

[Unknownlight]

I started to suspect recently that my artist radio stations on YTM were so crappy because I was essentially starting over. It'd play the same 15-20 songs for a particular artist I like, some from artists that were new to me, and it'd just keep playing those songs. I figured that because some of these songs were the only songs similar to the artist that I'd listened to (and, at this point, listened to quite a lot), YTM kept feeding them back to me.

So I did a little experiment. I took my favorite albums from a bunch of similar artists I like (and artists that would usually be played on the Google Play Music version of the same radio station), queued them up, shuffled them, and set the queue to repeat, then played this for a couple of nights in a row on my PC with the volume muted.

I tried the same radio station again today, and suddenly it was SO MUCH BETTER, and much more comparable to my GPM radio station.

Given that I've already transferred all my GPM data to YTM, this means that 7 years of GPM learning from what I listened to has disappeared down a drain.



I will say this, when I go to regular YouTube, my recommendations are all related to stuff like politics and games, despite me rarely using regular YouTube and using YouTube Music pretty much all day every day. I think the two are more separated than one would assume.

Which makes me all the more mad at YTM abandoning my GPM history.

Edit:

I just checked my history on YouTube, and it no longer shows my YTM plays. Maybe they'll stop calling my listens on YTM views at some point lol.

Edit 2:

At this point YTM seems like GPM 2.0, between its features and how it relates to regular YouTube, with the one huge caveat that it doesn't remember 7 years of my listening history. =/

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This is super interesting, and also super irritating.

Is there some way to export to an Excel sheet all the music I have or something? I'm switching to Spotify and I'm not sure how to do this just by looking at my Play music library. I don't have time to manually add everything to Spotify before they shut this down.

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Transferring to YouTube Music doesn't remove the songs from Play Music, so you should do that anyway. Click the button and you're done.

There may-or-may-not be a way to get a list of every song from Google Takeout. You can definitely download all your purchased and uploaded music from there, but I'm not sure how the rest of it works.

 

[Possum Armada]

Any idea how I can shuffle or repeat and album when casting? Once I start casting both buttons seem to vanish. :(

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

I will use GPM until the last day and change for another service

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I'll just have to suck up paying for it since I'm grandfathered for ad-free YT at $7.99/mo.

 

[ruggiex]

Is there a trick or different command to properly shuffle playlists in YTM? I have used routines on my Google Home as my alarm clock for a while now, the custom command "shuffle playlist PLAYLISTNAME" and it works perfectly with GPM, but it switched my default to YTM this week and it has 2 issues: it plays one song and then stops, and it's only starting from one of the first few songs in the playlist each time (very much not random or shuffled).

I wouldn't overly mind on the second point but is using the shuffling in a routine just not working with YTM?

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assistant commands are still mostly missing, but at least it's on their to-do list

 

[ruggiex]

looks like they might be addressing this

YouTube Music will soon let you cast uploaded music to smart speakers for free

YouTube Music is preparing to let you cast your uploaded songs to smart speakers without a Premium subscription, ahead of Google Play Music's demise.

9to5google.com

 

[Rodney McKay]

So I think I did the transfer (just did it again even), but the album I own isn't coming over.

I only have the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 soundtrack, but it doesn't show up in my library, and when I search for the album 2 songs are "unavailable" (Come and get your love, and O-O-H Child), and I get ads when I try playing the songs.

 

[Parham]

Trying out YTM, Apple Music, and Spotify has shown me just how good Google Play Music is/was, despite the service and app having effectively gone into maintanence mode a few years ago. I ultimately settled on Apple Music, but I wouldn't even hesitate to go back to GPM if I had the chance.

 

[Rodney McKay]

I have a weird issue with the transfer.

I only own one album from Play Music (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 soundtrack), but after doing the transfer (several times) it doesn't show up in my library in "Albums".

I Google the issue and someone said the songs are there, I just have to go to Library>Songs>Uploads and the songs ARE listed there.

But if I try to download them, I get a pop-up saying "Download this video with Music Premium", but I want to download the song, not the video, and I don't want to subscribe.

Do I really need a subscription to download music I own?

 

[ruggiex]

Do I really need a subscription to download music I own?

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That's merely for offline playback and it's a subscription feature. If you want to download it to keep, download it from GPM before it's gone at end of the year.

 

[Cipherr]

looks like they might be addressing this

YouTube Music will soon let you cast uploaded music to smart speakers for free

YouTube Music is preparing to let you cast your uploaded songs to smart speakers without a Premium subscription, ahead of Google Play Music's demise.

9to5google.com

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I mean, Im sure all of this stuff is coming eventually, its missing a staggeringly huge amount of basic common sense features.

Staggeringly huge. Its just bizarre to me that they launched it before addressing this stuff..... There had to be a deadline due to contracts or something because this makes very little sense. Otherwise it would have been much better to attain feature parity before the transition.

 

[doof_warrior]

god, youtube music fucking sucks so much
even the most BASIC shit is broken

why is it that when i open the app and play an album, it plays the first song on the album and then immediately goes back to the last thing i listened to, which could have been days ago

 

[Rodney McKay]

That's merely for offline playback and it's a subscription feature. If you want to download it to keep, download it from GPM before it's gone at end of the year.

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That's ridiculous. It's a basic feature of GPM and I've never used a digital service that doesn't let you download a product you own.

And apparently GPM doesn't let you access downloads outside of the app, unless I download them with a different program on my computer and then transfer them to my phone.

Glad I only ever bought the one album or this process would have been way worse.
I'm uninstalling YouTube Music an I doubt I'll ever use it again.

 

[ruggiex]

I mean, Im sure all of this stuff is coming eventually, its missing a staggeringly huge amount of basic common sense features.

Staggeringly huge. Its just bizarre to me that they launched it before addressing this stuff..... There had to be a deadline due to contracts or something because this makes very little sense. Otherwise it would have been much better to attain feature parity before the transition.

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YTM seems to have pretty different goal initially trying to be more Spotify like as oppose to Apple Music. I don't think all GPM features will come to YTM. I think you can only play your own music on Homepod if it's bought from iTune if you don't subscription?

That's ridiculous. It's a basic feature of GPM and I've never used a digital service that doesn't let you download a product you own.

And apparently GPM doesn't let you access downloads outside of the app, unless I download them with a different program on my computer and then transfer them to my phone.

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You can download it from Google take out or through GPM web browser. YTM technically is a different service and is likely under different license agreements with studios.

 

[Boogiepop]

So, what's the consensus looking like for the best alternative to GPM? With the note that honestly all I care about is playing the mass of songs in my own collection on my Android phone. Don't care about streaming services and all that stuff, just want a place to keep and play my music in a nice, organized manner.

 

[Zoe]

I finally made the transfer...

Is there really no way to see the shuffle queue? I'm used to firing up a queue and then clearing out the songs I really don't want to hear.

 

[ruggiex]

I finally made the transfer...

Is there really no way to see the shuffle queue? I'm used to firing up a queue and then clearing out the songs I really don't want to hear.

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After you start the shuffled queue, on mobile app "Up Next" at bottom left should show you the queue. Webapp is just uparrorw towards bottom right iirc.

 

[Clown_im_OP]

I've been trying the transfer since it (supposedly) was possible in my region, but it just won't work. I can't even create a channel, I always get the little "oops, something went wrong" in the bottom left corner. Anyone know what to do?

 

[fenners]

I'm trying to give Youtube Music a chance, but it's just so not made for people with large existing collections. When I'm listening at work, I tend to browse my albums + pick something psuedo-randomly - on Play using Chrome, it's really responsive to scroll up + down all my albums. On Youtube Music? It's pulling down four lines of albums at a time, as I scroll down. And it's not cached. If I go to another page + come back to my library view, it's four lines updating at a time as I scroll down back from 1/A.

Play gets the metadata in one dump and then requests album cover images as it needs them. Youtube Music does the opposite - "Give me the next screen's worth of data". Ugh.

All the usability of Play, gone. :(

 

[CursedOctopus]

So Youtube Music doesn't have the "identify what's playing" feature from Play? I used this a lot.

 

[alr1ght]

RIP

I'm assuming we'll get something similar for YTM in 3 years.

I'm just playing my local files via YTM and it's so bad compared to GPM. :(

 

[Transistor]

So Youtube Music doesn't have the "identify what's playing" feature from Play? I used this a lot.

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It doesn't? Jesus Christ, Google, what the fuck.

 

[hachikoma]

i finally tried it and holy cow ytm sucks so bad

 

[Lukar]

To YTM's credit, I've had a much easier time uploading music than I ever did with GPM.

Everything else about it is a total downgrade though.

 

[StarStorm]

Yep, I tried uploading my music to GPM and the app will no longer upload. Its a sad day. I tried to upload to YTM and omg, it won't lol. I can't even upload a folder like how I do with GPM. Talk about a downgrade. YTM just sucks. I tried to upload one song and it failed even at that. Some of these features don't even work.

 

[reKon]

I'm still upset about essentially being charged to cast music to my speakers that have connected to chromecast audio.

I'm not fucking buying youtube premium to do that. Give me back the feature that you took from me.

 

[just_myles]

I guess i'll begrudingly move over, quite liked Google Play music...

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Me too. I don't like YouTube music at all. I am transferring right now. Hopefully this won't impact my google home use since that is tied to google play.

 

[WascallyWabbit]

Me too. I don't like YouTube music at all. I am transferring right now. Hopefully this won't impact my google home use since that is tied to google play.

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I actually gave up and went to plexamp cuz i couldn't figure out how to download just playlists

 

[Zoe]

RIP

I'm assuming we'll get something similar for YTM in 3 years.

I'm just playing my local files via YTM and it's so bad compared to GPM. :(

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Shit! I've been on a tagging blitz since the weekend. Was hoping to have until the end of the month :(

 

[alr1ght]

lol, I transferred a secondary account to YTM and you can't even edit any of the tags/cover art after it's on YTM. I'm left with placeholder art for tons of stuff.

 

[H.Cornerstone]

It doesn't? Jesus Christ, Google, what the fuck.

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I use a google speaker and I ask it "what song is playing" So not sure if there's another feature?

 

[Rats]

I got a notification about this a few days ago when I opened Play Music and I'm really not happy about in. There's a reason I'm still using the app in 2020. The interface and feature set suit my needs perfectly.

 

[Zoe]

lol, I transferred a secondary account to YTM and you can't even edit any of the tags/cover art after it's on YTM. I'm left with placeholder art for tons of stuff.

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What? That's so stupid.

I just tried manually uploading an album too, and there's no folder upload. You have to select each file.

Are they even going to have a check if the files are already in your library? This is going to be so tedious.

 

[ruggiex]

Are they even going to have a check if the files are already in your library? This is going to be so tedious.

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It will remove duplicates

 

[samred]

amazing how many of my CDs and purchases I uploaded to GPM over the years. grabbing them all now so I can get a Plex instance running.

 

[Hexa]

If I understand this correctly, you can't edit the metadata on the music you've uploaded and to download music, including music you yourself have uploaded, you need premium?
If so, this is completely useless. I suppose I'll have to find some sort of alternative.

What would be the best alternative that lets you:

1. Upload your own music efficiently.
2. Lets you edit the metadata on your music once it's uploaded.
3. Lets you download playlists on your phone.

 

[Yunyo]

Man, the layout of YT music isn't nearly as good as GPM's. Both on my phone and in a web browser.

 

[porcupixel]

Seems like everyday when I start YouTube Music it tells me I'm playing on another device and I need to switch the active device -- even if I haven't used it on any other device for several hours. Anyone else seeing this?

 

[lamaroo]

So it seems like casting is working without a subscription now at least.

 

[NSA]

another month, I still hate YTM. Google Play Music just worked.. what the fuck

 

[Harmony Friends]

i need to back up my google play music library but their goddamn piece of shit tool doesn't work right please advise!!!!

EDIT: ok i finally found the right instructions. posting link for anyone else who needs em. see section "Export your Google Play Music library to your device"

Save Your Google Play Music Library Before It Disappears

By the end of 2020, Google Play Music will join the ever-growing list of dead Google products . If you’ve ever used the service to store music—one o

lifehacker.com

 

[SasaBassa]

Going Spotify as soon as gpm konks out, I gave youtube a shot but it's just not good. Godspeed chums.

 

[alr1ght]

<tries to upload 11 FLAC files>

"Invalid file format - upload MP3, M4A, OGG, FLAC, or WMA files only"

okay then.

 

[SwampBastard]

I used YTM for a few weeks to give it the old college try, but it's an across-the-board downgrade. I signed up for Spotify trial a couple days ago and I really like it so far. I don't know how Google has fucked this up so much. The final straw was using YTM on Android Auto and not having the ability to view a list of a tracks on an album I was listening to. Super basic stuff, the omission of which is inexcusable.

 

[dantevsninjas]

I had a feeling the transition to YTM was going to be bad, and it is. Just a downgrade in every way. Wound up switching to Spotify, which is alright so far. I'm hoping there will be a cheaper option at some point to just get ad-free YouTube, but I'm not holding my breath. Having GPM since the beginning so I'm only now finding out how much ads ruin the YT experience.

 

[Kozmo]

Still can't repeat a single track when casting. Really blowing my mind why this can't be done.

Other than that I'm fine with YTM as a replacement for GPM.

Fake edit: Oh, it needs to have an off timer like GPM's too. Perfect for casting 20 min of music before bed.

 

[Shoes]

So I put off transferring for forever because I didn't want to update my music tags. I can just re-upload directly to YTM at this point, right?

 

[Bunty Hoven]

Have just twigged that if I want to shuffle songs in my library I can choose from uploaded songs or non-uploaded to shuffle, but not both. Library > Songs > Shuffle All was 99% of my GPM use.

I was braced for 'you now have to pay more for the same' but it doesn't look like there's going to be an app out there that can do it.

 

[alr1ght]

So I put off transferring for forever because I didn't want to update my music tags. I can just re-upload directly to YTM at this point, right?

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Drag and drop yes, but you can't edit metadata (album art, any tags) after you upload. FLAC upload doesn't seem to work with Firefox (has to be a chromium browser).

Put it off as long as possible, because YTM is clunky and missing so many basic features it's not worth using.

 

[iWannaHat]

So Youtube Music doesn't have the "identify what's playing" feature from Play? I used this a lot.

Click to shrink...

It doesn't? Jesus Christ, Google, what the fuck.

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I ran into this the other night. Heard a song I liked on a show, and was then EXTREMELY disappointed that youtube music didn't have the feature. I honestly can't find anything about this app that works better than google music did, and it's straight up missing features.

 

[krae_man]

I put off switching and they just forced it the other day. You can't even open the Google Play Music app anymore.

I hate youtube music. You have to refresh device files every time to see the music downloaded on the phone(The stuff that came from me ripping CD's myself). The stuff I bought from google play music is in the uploads tab separate. I also don't like that if I search by Artist and select one, it doesn't show the the albums. I can only select from individual songs.

Accessing my music library downloaded on my phone is also buried in menus behind ad filled streaming of music. The first time I opened it up after transferring I saw a favorites list and picked an album and it played an ad, then started streaming a music video from that album instead of playing the files already downloaded on my phone.

I need to look up what else there is to use.