Tech
YouTube Music adds direct uploads and file management as Google Play Music winds down
A migration from Google Play Music to YouTube Music was bound to happen. Maybe it's for the best.
On Wednesday, Google published a support page for users explaining how they can upload their own music files to YouTube Music (first spotted by Android Police). It's a pretty basic document detailing functionality, file support, and search options.
Most interestingly, though, it gives us a hint about the future of Google's larger streaming music plans: the introduction of a new cloud-based YouTube Music library, and confirmation that the beginning of the end of Google Play Music is here.
How it works — According to Google's support page, "Add your personal music collection to your YouTube Music library by uploading your songs and albums. Once your music is uploaded, you can use YouTube Music to play your uploaded music as part of your listening experience."
Users can upload their own music through two routes. They can drag their files to music.youtube.com or they can visit music.youtube.com, click their account, and Upload. The website supports FLAC, M4A, MP3, OGG, and WMA. In efforts to make the library option more accessible, Google will let everyone — not just YouTube Music Premium subscribers — take advantage of this long-overdue launch which runs without ads and can be accessed offline.
Reddit user Rocketfin2 shared some screenshots of the service in action.
Fare thee well, Google Play Music — The most noticeable takeaway from the company's announcement is that Google Play Music is finally winding down. This becomes obvious in the nugget below:
If you are looking to transfer your entire Google Play Music library, stay tuned – we will be providing a way to seamlessly transfer your music. Nothing is changing with Google Play Music right now. When we do replace Google Play Music with YouTube Music [emphasis ours], we’ll be sure to give you plenty of advance notice.
A migration from Google Play Music to YouTube Music was inevitable. For some time now, Google has been trying to compete with Spotify and Apple Music, and while it hasn't seen any groundbreaking success yet, the company's decision to give YouTube Music the best features of Google Play Music, including user uploads — while leaning hard into the well-known brand — might just do the trick.