Why will Google assistant not play any music on android auto when I don't have a GPM subscription?

[Android Central Question]

I have a Kenwood DDX917WS headunit that I use with my LG G6 phone for android auto. I primarily use Google play music (I do NOT have a subscription) as my music player, and just add music I already have through an SD card on my phone. It worked flawlessly for about 8 months where I could use voice commands for "OK google, play XXXXX by XXXXX" and it would play any song or album that I had loaded on my phone. Since the latest google assistant updates in the past couple of months, it will now always say something like "That album/song is only available to GPM subscribers. Try this radio station instead".

Is there a fix to this? I have tried reinstalling android auto, reinstalling google play music, clearing all caches, resetting all permissions etc... just about anything I can think of. No matter what, it always tells me that it is only available to play if I have a subscription. I can manually select albums to play just fine (only recent albums, browsing library is locked), but I cannot use voice commands.

For now I have resorted to using double twist music player, but I find it to be laggy and I always have to add "on double twist" at the end of a voice command otherwise it defaults to using GPM. There doesn't appear to be a way to set a default music player other than GPM in google assistant settings.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! What if you say "Ok Google, play XXXXX by XXXXX in my Google Play Music library"?

I have seen other complaints about this in the Google support forums, so it might be a relatively recent limitation for Assistant. Not sure if it was intentional or not.

 

[Bart Hammer]

Welcome to Android Central! What if you say "Ok Google, play XXXXX by XXXXX in my Google Play Music library"?

I have seen other complaints about this in the Google support forums, so it might be a relatively recent limitation for Assistant. Not sure if it was intentional or not.

Oops, I wasn't logged in when I posted this question.. I am the OP.

Thanks for the reply. I tried that, and I get the same result where it says its only available to subscribers. I have tried it with different albums, specific songs and always get the same response from GA.

My workaround with doubletwist player or rocket player seems to be my only option right now. Those also have the added benefit of letting me browse my whole library while parked (e-brake applied) whereas GPM had no option to browse at all on my head unit screen. However, these 3rd party apps cause a 5-10second delay before they will start to play any music through voice commands...

 

[hallux]

I have this same issue with my Google Home Mini, turns out that in my case it won't work unless I have a subscription. I believe that's going to be the case here as well.