I’m cleaning out my gmail folders this weekend, and went deep into the archive to 2011, when I got my invite to Google Music.
It’s funny, because I just (November) moved all of my music out of cloud and back to local-only. Amazon was the last straw, when I tried to play purchased music, and was forced to listen to it on shuffle with other songs not of my choosing.
Anyway… there was a time when Google (ahem, Youtube) Music was set to be a game-changer. Imagine if enshittification wasn’t a thing.
I’ll die on the hill that GPM was and still is the best music service I ever used. I don’t think I ever had a single recommendation that wasn’t on point for me. The service worked flawless and the app was easy to use. When we got the notice our hearts sank. Spotify doesn’t even compare .
Good call, recommendations have only gotten worse with subsequent iterations. I am glad they added gapless playback though, the first few versions had a tiny pause between songs which was hella obvious on stuff like Pink Floyd.
Plex Amp?
Same! I still keep the icon on my phone to remind me of what we lost.
terrible. I thought I would never need a copy of my music files again - They’re uploaded to Google so it’s all good.
When it crashed, it was an extreme hassle to download the several gigs, I ended up storing them on a phone temporarily, which then died and is likely not recoverable. I lost some rare and unique recordings like the music from my old band that I recorded.
Maintaining this would have been a pittance for Google.
I thought all Google Music was transferred to YouTube Music. You might still have those files in your library.
Thanks! it turns out that it is all there!
I never bothered to setup a YT Music account, so I never realized that the uploaded music was still available. I know this is a very niche problem, but just in case anyone is searching and comes across this:
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Yes, Google Music uploads are saved in your YouTube Music files. You already have a Google account, so you can set it up with the same login to gain access to the files.
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On desktop, open “Library” on the left -> select “Uploads” tab at the top.
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Sort by “Album,” “Artist,” or “Song” to see the entire library.
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When searching, etc., it will default back to the YT Music streaming service. Manually select the “Uploads” tab after each operation.
It is also possible to download your music library (although not individual songs, etc.) from YT Music, although is is not obvious.
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Navigate to https://takeout.google.com/ while logged into the same Google account.
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Click on “Deselect all” (unless you wish to download ALL of your google related data.
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Select “YouTube and YouTube Music” at the bottom of the list
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Click “All YouTube data included,” then select “music-uploads” as well as “music-library-songs” (if you have any music acquired through Google)
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Follow the prompts to receive your files. You can choose to repeat this process as a periodic backup, or a one time download as a .zip (or set of .zip files). You can download them to your PC via email link, or you can have them directly transferred to another cloud service (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive as of now)
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This process can take a while.
Good luck, and enjoy!
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And now almost all of Google’s “offerings” are enshittified to no end.
Been rocking a real mp3 player with a metal shell for years now. Nothing quite like having a dedicated device you curate yourself. The last time I used spotify was 2016
If youtube-dl/yt-dlp ever stops working im in trouble
When google music was consolidated into YouTube music it was a slightly worse experience, but mostly it somehow just ruined all of my playlists and made them unusable both on music and YouTube.
Slightly? I hated it and switched to Spotify
Me too. I would’ve probably used Google Play Music to the end of my days but the transition to Youtube Music was so good awful I cancelled and switched to Spotify within a couple of days.
From what I can tell, the core issue with YouTube music is that it is restricted to the same API end points as default YouTube. Their api for playlist management just sucks and a lot of client side caching and workarounds are required to make it at all feel okay to use.
True random is hidden. They auto play videos and/or rape my data with downloads when I specifically tell it not to.
A good alternative for people who still like streaming music. I highly recommend the testimonials section https://nuclear.js.org/
I like the testimonials
I especially like the last one.
This and Zune were peak music.
I argue plexamp is getting close to this as well. Although I use Synfonium with Plex which is also a very smooth experience.
GPM is still untouched though. Even if was a rollercoaster waiting for a new client just to have YTM end everything we liked about it.
Where do you find the music to add to it? YouTube rips?
I was a big fan of GrooveShark. I thought they could have transitioned to the paid system, but weren’t able to.
Best music platform ever, and probably forever with the way things are going.
Google music killed songza, I’ll never forgive them.
Yeah, tragic. The queuing behavior was so perfect
It’s right choice from google to discontinued google music because they already have YouTube, so…in the end it kinda redundant to have separate platform IMO
Google Music let you buy and download non DRMd albums, which ladt I checked isn’t a thing on YT music.
But unlike YouTube Music, Google Play Music for mostly for buying the music. Very different service.
Nowadays i just use seal + YouTube for music, because some music that i saved from YouTube Music can’t be played unless i used YouTube
My account migrated seamlessly, had no problems at all. I like it still.
Yup, it was one of the worst “someone’s getting promo and the users are getting screwed” Google decisions.
Anyone remember this list?
https://www.reddit.com/r/googleplaymusic/comments/icmwdf/one_comprehensive_list_of_youtube_music/
It was the best! GPM’s demise was an abomination.
