Google Play Music will be shutting down later this year as the company transitions over to YouTube Music. For now, you’ll continue to have access to both services, however, Google has pro-actively put out information as to how you can move all of your music from Play Music to YouTube Music as simply as possible.
Easy transfer and transition
According to the company, “All Google Play Music users will soon receive an email with detailed instructions on how to begin transferring your full Google Play Music history and content, as well as podcasts, to their new homes.”
To start the transfer process of your music library to YouTube Music, you need to follow these simple steps:
- Download the YouTube Music app (iOS/Android).
- Click on the transfer button in YouTube Music, and your uploads, purchases, added songs and albums, personal and subscribed playlists, likes and dislikes, curated stations and personal taste preferences will move right over.
- Your updated recommendations will appear immediately on the YouTube Music home screen, and we’ll notify you via email and notifications when your music library transfer is complete and your music is in the “Library” tab.
You can also check out a video with more transfer information here.
And if you’re a podcast listener, you can visit this web page and transfer your subscriptions and episode progress to Google Podcasts with a single click. Google Podcasts is the company’s dedicated podcast player available for free on Android and iOS, and accessible from Google Assistant, Google Search, Google Home and more.
Your New Home For Music: YouTube Music
For listeners new to YouTube Music, here’s what the service has to offer:
- Catalog: YouTube Music offers over 50 million official tracks, albums and high quality audio, as well as deep cuts, B-sides, live performances, and remixes you can’t find anywhere else.
- Listen everywhere: Explore YouTube Music’s audio-first music app, desktop and smart speaker experience. Recommendations: Discover new music through YouTube Music’s home screen recommendations and personalized mixes – My Mix, Discovery Mix, and New Release Mix – based on taste, location, time of day and Play Music preferences after transferring.
- Official Playlists: Listen to thousands of official playlists from both YouTube Music and Google Play Music.
Google says that they’ve listened to Play Music user feedback and have recently introduced additional new features to YouTube Music. Some of these include the following (with more updates on the way!):
- Playlist Creation: playlist length has increased from 1,000 to 5,000 songs.
- Uploads: You can listen to your uploaded and purchased music from Google Play Music after your transfer, or add up to 100,000 personal tracks to your library in YouTube Music (an increase of more than 50,000 compared to Google Play Music).
- Offline listening: Paying members can download any song, playlist, music video or let smart downloads (Android only for now) do it for you so you always have something to listen to, even when you’re offline.
- Lyrics: Lyrics offer highly visible access to follow along to tracks.
- Explore Tab: An all-new Explore tab offering one go-to place to discover new music and YouTube Music’s vast catalog of playlists through New Releases and Moods & Genres sections.
Pricing
Existing pricing is the same between Google Play Music and YouTube Music. Fans can enjoy the ad-supported version of YouTube Music for free, or enjoy YouTube Music Premium, a paid membership that gives you background listening, downloads and an ad-free experience for R59.99. Or you can try YouTube Premium to extend ad-free, background listening and offline playback across all of YouTube for R71.99 per month.
Google Play Music Unlimited members will be automatically granted the equivalent tier of YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium based on the level of benefits with their current subscription, at the same price*.
Have more questions or need help? Check out all of Google’s support resources here.
*Some users may see a price difference upon transfer. Learn more here.
