Why Does Youtube Red Tell Me It's Being Used at Another Location When I've Got the Family Plan

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We've substantially updated this article following the introduction of the Play Music migration tool and contempo changes to YouTube Music, like a new Now Playing experience and the introduction of the Explore tab, replacing the Hotlist of old. At that place's also a new section comparing the spider web app experience.

Google Play Music is on the fashion out and has already get inaccessible for many. A lot of people have probably long taken advantage of the migration tool and accept started using YouTube Music. But there are however some key differences betwixt the two services, and if you lot haven't made the switch, there are a few things to watch out for. In this article, nosotros're going to swoop into the key differences between the ii services, large and small, and why they thing.

Pricing

YouTube Music, Play Music, and YouTube take been intertwined for a long time. If you lot pay $12 for YouTube Premium, you used to get advertizement-costless admission to all three services, while you used to get both Play Music and YouTube Music for $ten a month. In the future, you'll only be able to access YouTube and YouTube Music for the same prices.

When you use Google's migration tool, your current plan volition exist moved over to the new platform and you'll cease upwardly paying only as much equally you had before. If you used to share your Google Play Music account with children under the age of xiii as part of a family unit plan, you might have to wait for another streaming service, though — the YouTube Music app is only available to children over thirteen.

YouTube Music manages to impress with its gratuitous tier. You can stream any song or video you like as long every bit you lot keep your display turned on and the app in the foreground. On a laptop or desktop, you can even enjoy songs with the Music website in the background. The costless tier is advertising-supported, so if you're dealing with YouTube, you lot know what's coming at you lot. Google Play Music'due south free version, on the other hand, only let you play mixes based on artists and songs on Google Home, limiting you to a random selection of songs.

Both platforms allow y'all to upload and listen to your own music without ads, in the background. YouTube Music recently likewise added casting support for these songs on the gratuitous tier, finally catching up with its predecessor.

Songs you've purchased on the Play Store will exist migrated to YouTube Music via the migration tool, simply yous can also download your complete library via Google Takeout if you don't want to use YouTube Music.

Library migration

Google'southward new migration tool should be bachelor to all Play Music/YouTube subscribers by at present. It lets you move your whole library — likes, recommendations, uploads, albums, and more — from Play Music to YouTube Music. In one case the feature is bachelor to y'all, y'all'll see a imprint in your Play Music and YouTube Music app telling yous as much. Your recommendations are imported instantaneously then yous can start listening to your music correct away. Your uploads and the residual of your library are moved in the background while y'all can already requite YTM a try. You'll get a notification and an email in one case the process is finished, which tin take up to a few days depending on the amount of files you've nerveless. Of course, you can besides cull to first over again if you've accumulated too much stuff you don't mind to anymore.

Left: Transfer prompt. Right: Lost artworks and indistinguishable albums mail-migration.

Unfortunately, I haven't quite noticed a difference in my YouTube Music recommendations and mixes post-obit the migration. That might exist because I've been using the new service for quite a while before boot off the library copy tool, but if you're in my state of affairs, that's something you should go on in mind. I've also lost a few album artworks in the process and institute some duplicate albums in my uploaded music, but the latter had been an issue long before the migration, so I don't call up the tool is the sole culprit here.

I've also noticed that a few albums aren't available for streaming on YouTube Music, like virtually of German language punk band Kraftklub'south library, which you could listen to on Google Play Music just fine. It's a weird situation, but since YouTube is technically a subsidiary, its licensing deals differ from its parent company. There is some random wrong information, too — for example, YouTube Music says Oomph'southward 1999 album Plastik was released last year for some reason. These cases are rare, though, and most of the transition was smooth for me.

I also haven't plant an selection to edit metadata in YouTube Music yet. If you've got a mistitled track, you'll probably have to re-upload information technology with the right metadata, which is less than convenient.

Check out our detailed guide on how to transfer your library.

User interface and feel

Play Music's library was meliorate organized and more responsive than YouTube Music.

I adopt YouTube Music's interface over Play Music's, but that might but exist because Play Music looks hopelessly outdated. YT Music's bottom navigation makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to jump to my library while I accept to open the hamburger menu to practise the same in GPM. Play Music also seems more than responsive when I move through my vast library — YouTube Music oft has to reload while I curlicue. I more often than not search or use recommendations anyway, so it doesn't bother me too much, but it could exist a trouble for you.

Other than that, you more often than not just have to suit to the navigation organisation — the two apps more often than not share the same ideas. Both requite yous a homescreen with recommendations, access to contempo activity, genres, and moods. YouTube Music also recently got a revamped charts interface featuring the most popular songs, albums, and artists on YouTube.

Now Playing. Some features are subconscious behind a tap on the album cover in YTM.

YouTube Music'due south Now Playing experience is much improved compared to its predecessor. On the aesthetic side, it lets you run into the full album cover, while Play Music cuts off the sides. YT Music's queue shows y'all fewer songs, but the listing is easier to access via a swipe-up. The service has besides finally added support for swiping on album covers to skip, and there's a toggle for switching to the music video of a song if it has i. Lyrics are available for many tracks, both in the app and on the web interface. The Related tab lets you explore similar songs, playlists, artists, and albums, which is a great discovery tool non available on Play Music.

Up next and the Related tab.

At that place are some quirks, though. Google Play Music has a scrollbar that you tin can drag then it doesn't accept ages to get through all of your songs, which isn't available on YouTube Music. Yous also tin can't like songs when you're offline in the YouTube Music app, which drives me crazy. Additionally, some features are subconscious behind long-press menus, which y'all demand to effigy out first. Try tapping the album cover or long-pressing a title anywhere in the app, for instance. Selecting multiple songs is another missing slice, both in the Android awarding and its web pendant.

Total vocal overview in both services. Note the scrollbar in Play Music.

Playlists, recommendations, and mixes

Recommendations and mixes are a pretty personal thing — some people prefer Spotify's Notice playlists that give you a playlist of songs yous might similar. YouTube Music is much more ambitious in narrowing your sense of taste downwardly to certain artists and genres once it notices you like them, evident from recurring recommendations you go on getting on the home page. Google Play Music is similar in this regard and keeps recommending the aforementioned music (except for the "recommended new releases" radio, but that even so consists of artists that I heed to anyhow).

Recommendations and mixes.

YouTube Music is improving, though. Google added automated playlists such as Discover and New Release Mix, which helped me detect great songs. At that place's besides a whole new selection of custom Spotify-like mixes tailored to your sense of taste, but they don't appear to be widely bachelor only yet. And if you want to know what your favorite artists are listening to, YouTube Music gives you admission to their playlists.

Artists' favorite playlists are available on their profiles.

Post-obit the introduction of the migration tool, Google shared that Play Music stations will be transformed into playlists when imported. That's because YouTube Music does abroad with the concept of stations altogether — it offers curated and machine-generated playlists instead. The content is the same across some Play Music stations and YouTube Music playlists, though the advantage with YTM's playlists is that you can always run into which songs exactly you'll notice in there. GPM stations are more than of a catch purse.

If you regularly tune into artist radios on Play Music, you might notice another departure: On YouTube Music, it's not possible to turn these mixes into playlists. In fact, you can't create a playlist from your queue at all, which is a bummer.

The Explore tab with many curated and automatic playlists.

YouTube Music allows you to collaborate on playlists with others. Create a playlist, tap the pencil push, and and so striking the interact button to add others to assist you populate it. It should exist possible to run across who added which vocal.

Search

Google Play Music's search function is yet superior to YouTube Music'southward approach. You tin start playing songs right from the search results, while you have to tap suggestions on YTM earlier to listen to them. I also experience like GPM'due south search is frequently more on point for me — YTM tends to recommend mixes and remixes over original songs. YouTube Music makes upward for that by allowing you lot to search for music via lyrics, though.

Google Play Music also has a handy function that identifies songs y'all listen to right from the search interface, making it easy to add songs you lot hear while y'all're out and about to your playlists. At least Google has integrated YouTube Music with Google search, then you lot tin can use Google's song recognition as a workaround.

Third-party integration

Shazam has added a YouTube Music integration despite existence acquired by Apple tree, offering a shortcut to YouTube Music through its interface. You lot can as well use YouTube Music in Google Maps, simply like you used to with Play Music.

A pendant to Play Music's Wear OS app with offline playback functionality is still missing from YouTube Music, and the Android TV app is even so cipher but a glorified shortcut to the regular YouTube app. Google needs to step up its game when information technology comes to these.

Uploads

Both services support uploading your ain music, merely it's incredible how differently they tackle the issue. We've explored the topic extensively in some other article, so I'll say this much hither: Play Music made your uploaded files virtually indistinguishable from content available on the platform while YouTube Music puts your uploads into their own sealed-off section. I prefer Google Play Music's arroyo — it made it much easier to find music without stopping and wondering if you've uploaded that vocal or if it'south bachelor for streaming.

Equally far as I tin tell from testing, uploaded music generally doesn't announced in any of my mixes or the offline mixtape, and I've listened to a lot of generated playlists. I don't think that was the instance for Play Music, either, so it'south non like you lose anything here.

Another library gripe concerning uploads has been pointed out by one of our commenters: When you lot search for an artist in your uploads and tap them, you'll be thrown into a list of all their songs yous've uploaded. There's no dedicated artist page with a simple overview of their albums.

YouTube Music also doesn't take a dedicated uploading tool on the desktop that monitors specific folders for new files, and the Google Play Music Manager for Windows has been dead for a while. There's a third-party upload tool for YouTube Music that replicates most of the capabilities, simply since it relies on undocumented, unofficial APIs, it could be shut down any moment.

Downloads

YouTube Music nails downloads, in my stance. While y'all have to actively choose what yous want to download on Google Play Music (such as your liked songs or some albums), YouTube Music can take that burden off your shoulders. Yous can activate smart downloads, specify how many tracks you automatically want to find on your phone, and YouTube Music will give yous a selection. Your downloads are updated every night, so y'all can listen to something new every once in a while. Yous can as well manually select what you desire to have on your phone if y'all prefer that.

Of course, Google giveth and Google taketh. Google Play Music automatically buried songs you played when you're online, which too gave you a multifariousness of music to listen to. That doesn't seem to exist the case for YouTube Music, or if it does, cached songs simply don't appear in my downloads. Play Music was also more forgiving with spotty connections, as it buffered a few upcoming songs in your queue. YouTube Music will just straight upward stop playing music every bit before long every bit yous lose connection.

YouTube Music as well retains Play Music's pesky ten-device limit that just allows for four deactivations each twelvemonth, though it'southward a little less draconian than Play Music: You simply lose downloads on non-activated devices. That's notwithstanding abrasive enough, and we've got a whole editorial on that result.

Smart speaker integration, casting, and Android Auto

Both Play Music and YouTube Music permit for casting to Chromecast-supported targets. That's too an selection for uploaded music, even if you don't subscribe to YouTube Music. Unfortunately, casting still isn't available on the YTM web app, and there's some weird behavior on Android: When you cast, you lot lose shuffle and repeat. At least the service recently made queue management much better while casting. You can add songs to your queue via the Assistant, and you can tap into a queue started by voice by hitting the cast push button in the app.

Recently, the Google Assistant finally gained support for starting personal YouTube Music playlists. In the by, yous could only play your custom playlists via the app.

Where'd shuffle and repeat go after I started casting?

I don't own a Sonos speaker, just I've heard that other people complain that there'due south no proper integration with YouTube Music. You need to use the Sonos app to cast content from the streaming service. Google Play Music natively integrated with the tertiary-party system and let yous bandage to the speakers correct from the app.

Similarly, the Android Motorcar experience isn't on par — YouTube Music doesn't have a "recent" section that would assistance you discover recently played or uploaded albums, so you either accept to try and use Google Assistant to play what you want to heed to, or you might accept to pull over and search for what you desire.

There's also a long-standing bug affecting a few people, hindering them from seeing song data in their cars' dashboards when they listen to YouTube Music via Bluetooth.

Web app

I used a third-political party wrapper awarding to brand Play Music feel as native as possible on my Mac, and while that app supports YouTube Music, I made the switch to YouTube Music Desktop. It has an annoying JavaScript error message it throws up when you start it, but in dissimilarity to my previous solution, it's nether active development and supports custom organization-wide keyboard shortcuts. There are likewise some bang-up interface tweaks. Information technology's available on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

You can alternatively but use the web app in your browser or create a defended windowed experience past clicking Chrome'due south three-dot card, More tools, and Create shortcut (tick open in new window). You might not get total media button and notification support that way, though.

Left: Play Music. Correct: YouTube Music.

That said, YouTube Music's web app isn't on par with the service's mobile app, let alone with Play Music's website. It can't cast music to your speakers, artists aren't displayed adjacent to songs in compilations, and there'south no play count to be seen anywhere.

YouTube integration

While you tin access some music videos via Google Play Music, YouTube and YouTube Music are style too intertwined for my taste. Your YouTube Music likes show upward among YouTube video likes, your playlists are shared between the two platforms, and, most annoyingly, when you subscribe to artists on YouTube Music, you also subscribe to their YouTube channels. These things go even messier when you subscribe to channels focused on music: I don't desire OK Become to evidence up in my music streaming service, only I savour watching the group's videos on YouTube.

At to the lowest degree it looks like the YouTube and YouTube Music history has been fully separated recently, as I don't run into recently played songs in my YouTube history anymore. Some people say they've never seen this integration, only others have complained about it for a long fourth dimension, so information technology's not 100% clear what's going on here.

YouTube playlists that include music videos will also populate your YouTube Music library. A test list I've created on YouTube consisting of one music video and an Android Police video shows upwardly in YT Music, as well. When you endeavor to play the latter through the music service, an unhelpful toast appears: "Vocal is unavailable."

Left: YouTube Music playlist in YouTube. Middle: Liked songs and videos in one listing. Correct: YouTube Aqueduct I subscribe to shown in YouTube Music.

YouTube Music also introduces ane of the more abrasive YouTube features to music streaming: You're limited to a maximum of 5,000 titles per playlist. Liked songs are organized within a playlist, then you lot might not exist able to see the earliest songs in it since they might be pushed off the end of the list. YouTube video likes also count against that limit, so you might achieve it even faster than you'd think.

Google Play Music's library management isn't necessarily perfect, just at least it's not integrated with a video streaming service.

While I was busy exploring YouTube Music from my perspective equally a Play Music subscriber, my colleague Hagop Kavafian switched from Spotify to YouTube Music. He went for YouTube Premium and writes that while he has some gripes with the streaming service, it probably still suits many people'southward needs, and that yous tin relieve quite some coin and fourth dimension spent on YouTube ads. In the end, it comes down to a question of personal preference for him.

Unfortunately, the equation isn't equally simple here because YouTube Music is fully replacing Play Music for everyone. You have to take the new service'south quirks if y'all currently use and love Play Music, or you have to switch to another platform altogether. I personally still can't stand up the shared playlists and likes across YouTube and YouTube Music, simply that's something nosotros have to live with going forward.

Since everyone values unlike strengths and weaknesses, I may be missing some other dealbreakers. Feel gratis to share how you feel about the YouTube Music/Play Music state of affairs in the comments if you lot're caught between these two worlds, also.

UPDATE: 2020/05/fourteen four:12am PDT BY MANUEL VONAU

We've essentially updated this article following the introduction of the Play Music migration tool and recent changes to YouTube Music, like a new At present Playing experience and the introduction of the Explore tab, replacing the Hotlist of old. There's likewise a new department comparison the web app experience.

UPDATE: 2020/ten/24 half-dozen:56am PDT BY MANUEL VONAU

With Play Music gradually shutting down, nosotros've updated the article with the most recent changes to YouTube Music.

Thanks: @jordanlong20, Joe, Owen Finn, vyktorjonas, Eduardo, Moshe

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