Songs on Google Play Music won't show up on other music apps

[Android Central Question]

I've had quite a bit of trouble with my music since getting my Google Pixel 3a (after always having used Apple products). I was previously able to use other music playing apps like Phonograph, Musicolet, etc., but after deleting and redownloading all of the songs on my Google Play Music (there was an issue where a majority of the songs had the first few seconds chopped off), now those apps are behaving as if I have no music on my system at all.
I also went through and manually downloaded each album so that I'd be able to listen to them if I'm without internet, so could that have had any effect?

 

[hallux]

Usually music downloaded through the Google Play Music app will only be available to that app as they are encrypted or secured, to prevent copying to other devices. That means other apps won't "see" the files to play.

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[David Midnight]

Hi All.

I have struggled with Google Music when trying to use music as ringtones. Imagine my surprise when I found that I couldn't find the files. I was soooo happy (not). After much research and app downloading I realised Google had put some impressive barriers in my way (not legal btw).

Instead of banging my head against a wall I came up with a solution to my problem that also f***ed Google financially.

Google Music will scan the phone for music stored on the internal drive and populate it in the app. I bought a track in the Amazon Music app (no subscription needed if you buy the MP3 albums from their store). I downloaded it and I could access that file on the drive.

I now have the best of both worlds. I gain access to my legally purchased files and can still use the Google Music app to play them if I want to. Google lose out financially which is probably the only thing that will make them take notice.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! You've always been able to download your purchased music via your Google Play Music library website on your computer. You can then transfer that downloaded mp3 file to your phone via USB, or via upload to Google Drive, or whatever. Not sure what's illegal about not giving the user immediate access to downloaded music files when downloaded via the app itself -- I always viewed this as a mild deterrent against music pirates (because remember, since GPM is also a music subscription, then unscrupulous users might think about downloading a ton of music files after subscribing for a month, then cancel their subscription and hope to keep all of that music).