Google Play Music is gone - HELP!

[Android Central Question]

For some reason Google decided to axe their Play Music app, assuring us that we can find "all the features we love" in the YouTube Music app. There's just one problem with that - YouTube Music lacks almost every single feature that Google Play Music had!

There is no way to search your own library, there is no way to view songs you have downloaded on the app alongside songs you stream. Navigating it and using it is completely unworkable and not a replacement for Google Play Music whatsoever.

Can anyone show me a way to still get Google Play Music or recommend me an app in which you can view songs added to your library from streaming alongside mp3's native to your phone?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! It's been pretty well-documented for a while that GPM was going away. Unfortunately, if you want to stay with a Google-associated music streaming service, you'll just have to deal with YouTube Music and hope they continue to improve it (which they have been doing little by little, adding features as the months go by).

Please register on this forum, which will allow you to engage in discussion more easily, as well as post images. https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/409154-join-android-central-community.html

 

[Dylan Volk]

YouTube music lacks all of the functionality that GPM had, it doesn't even let you view your mp3 files alongside streamed songs. I don't have to stay with a Google streaming service, I'd be happy to pay for another. Can you recommend me one where I can at least view my native mp3's alongside my streaming library?

 

[B. Diddy]

The problem is that I don't think there are any major services that have a music locker any more. Amazon Music used to have a very minimal locker (up to 250 songs), but they phased that out a couple of years ago.

You could consider saving your mp3 files to your Google Drive and use an app like CloudPlayer. Of course, if you have a ton of music, that would mean having to pay for increased Drive storage. CloudPlayer does support other cloud services, like Dropbox and OneDrive, so you could spread things out, I suppose.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

Google axed my Play Music subscription eliminating YouTube Red, YouTube Music is trash, just another reason to hate Google.

I went back to Pandora after 5 years of Google Play because I refuse to pay for the trash that is YouTube Music.

Wish I could help you.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'd say that the YT Music streaming service is equivalent to Spotify, so it's not all bad. It's unfortunate that the music locker feature has been hobbled, but at least it's still there. And although the UI isn't great for YT Music, neither is Spotify's.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'll also mention that JR Raphael, the Android tech writer I trust the most, recommends CloudBeats for media playback from cloud storage.