As the Play Music library migration tool rolls out more widely in the past week, more and more people are discovering the limitations and pitfalls of uploaded songs on YouTube Music. While some are obvious—similar YouTube Music sequestering away uploaded songs in an entirely divide area—there are others you may only encounter with time. While the feature has been live for months now, many people are only encountering YouTube Music's uploaded library feature in the by few days, and what y'all discover may not exactly thrill yous. Here's everything y'all need to know almost the drawbacks (and, occasionally, benefits) of YouTube Music's cloud music storage feature.

Library management

Uploading

Google Play Music and YouTube Music both permit you upload music by dragging and dropping files and folders onto their web interfaces. Play Music used to have a desktop helper and a Chrome app that looked for new audio files in a specified folder and uploaded these automatically, but the service has been feeling rather broken over the last few years for many people. We asked Google whether it would come for YouTube Music and were told that the developers "currently don't have whatever plans" to support it — don't concur your breath.

It's likely that neither the Chrome app nor the desktop upload helper will come to YouTube Music.

Before yous upload your files, you should besides brand certain they're in a supported format: FLAC, M4A, MP3, OGG, or WMA. Google Play Music, in contrast, additionally supports M4Ps — DRM-protected AAC files. If YouTube Music runs into any issues during the upload procedure, it will send you lot an email stating as much, which I've never seen GPM do. It includes a list of all files that haven't been added to information technology, so you lot can try uploading those once more.

In dissimilarity to Google Play Music, YouTube Music uploads are a 1-mode street. Once yous've imported files, there's no mode to download them through the website or the app. You'll have to use Google Takeout to do that. Google Play Music lets you lot download your files right through its website, though there's a limit of two downloads per title when you don't employ the Play Music web app (which seems rather broken/deprecated).

Google Play Music has a pesky limit of x active devices that doesn't just include your mobile devices but also any desktop figurer you've ever used for uploads and unlimited downloads of music. The corresponding settings page says, "Uploading or downloading music using Music Manager or Google Play Music for Chrome counts towards your device limit." While the aforementioned limit applies to YouTube Music, information technology's not clear if instances similar third party desktop players count against your total number of devices.

On Play Music, you lot tin can upload a maximum of fifty,000 songs, though this has been raised to 100,000 for some people. YT Music ups this limit to 100,000 for everyone.

Access

If you're a premium subscriber, titles uploaded to Google Play Music behave just similar those available for streaming — when you search for an creative person or an anthology, your own files will pop up right betwixt results from Google's library. If you lot upload music already bachelor on the platform, Google will try its best to match them to avoid showing duplicates (which information technology's arguably not as well expert at).

Left: Search. Eye & Correct: Library.

With YouTube Music, the situation is dissimilar. Uploaded music gets its own section in the app that's sealed off from audio available through the streaming service. When you search for music, you lot'll see 2 tabs: YT Music and Uploads. If you lot have a huge library of titles not bachelor on the streaming service, you might observe yourself swiping between these tabs constantly to find the music you're searching for.

This theme of separation continues in theLibrarysection. Whether you head to Songs, albums, or artists,you'll see the tabbed interface that segregates your uploads from the streaming service'southward titles y'all've added to your library. The just places where your files can live alongside YT Music's are the queue and playlists, including the automatic Liked songs collection.

Ultimately, this access comparison comes downward to preference: Once yous're enlightened of the differences, you could even end up liking the new system more than Google Play Music's.

Free plan

You tin still add your own files to both services even if you're not subscribed to Google'south music streaming plan. On Play Music, you lot only have access to uploads. You lot tin also play music from Google's library, simply you're limited to starting mixes — you can't choose specific songs. YouTube Music, on the other manus, lets yous choose which songs to play as long every bit the app is active and your display turned on. You'll also see ads when you mind to music other than your own.

Metadata

Google Play Music lets you edit your files' metadata after uploading, assuasive you to correct a misspelled title or translate. The feature is not supported past YouTube Music, and we don't know if it's planned at all. It would be a overnice addition, but don't hold your breath.

Tertiary-party admission

Google Home

Play Music lets you play your uploaded files on Google Home only like any other song, past saying "Hey Google, play [desired title]." In contrast to music available via the streaming service, uploaded songs won't be followed by an automatic mix of similar titles, only those are about all the disadvantages there are.

YouTube Music, on the other manus, doesn't let yous access your uploaded files via a Google Home vocalization command at all. Instead, information technology will play the video version if bachelor. The aforementioned happens when you lot try to play music through the Assistant on your phone. You lot might not notice that most of the time, but some music videos include longer not-music sound snippets, similar Michael Jackson's Thriller. You'll demand to employ the YouTube Music app's casting capabilities to play your own songs.

Android Machine

Left & Eye: YouTube Music on Android Auto. Right: Google Play Music.

On Android Motorcar, you can admission your uploads just like you would in the app or on the website: Choose a category like Albums and then head to Uploads.There, you'll meet everything you lot've added to YT Music. That'due south still better than Google Play Music — its Android Auto interface only gives you access toMusic for Drivingplaylists,Recent activity,andplaylists.Y'all tin can play other songs by asking the Banana for the title, but there's no visual style around your library.

Alarms

Left: Subscription necessary for alarms. Correct: No results for my uploaded Rammstein album.

To apply YouTube Music content for your alarms, you lot need to subscribe to the service'due south premium program. Even when you practice that, you can't apply your own files for alarms at the moment — searching for my uploaded Rammstein album didn't return whatsoever results. We don't know if this feature volition come later. Meanwhile, Play Music doesn't back up Android's alarm app at all, so it'southward something.

With most people using streaming services over edifice their own collection these days, information technology's non surprising that YouTube Music doesn't feature full-fledged uploading support. It would take been prissy to see it, simply the number of people using them probably doesn't justify the development work that would demand to be put behind it. After all, Spotify has never supported it and is nonetheless widely successful. If you want a more Play Music-like experience, you could bank check out Apple Music or Deezer, though the latter only lets you lot upload 2,000 songs. Apple tree Music is on-par with YouTube and allows you to shop 100,000 files of your ain. If you lot only demand access to music you own, Plex could besides be another interesting solution.

Thanks: Jes, Webber, Eduardo, Karl Horky

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Manuel Vonau (1637 Articles Published)

Manuel is a tech enthusiast and Android fan based in Berlin. When he's not writing articles for Android Police, he's probably out and about as a videographer.

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