Photo: Google
We’ve known for a while that Google was planning to kill off Google Play Music, and the search giant keeps insisting on everybody to make the switch to YouTube Music.
But it’s no secret that the subscription-based service comes with a major feature gap versus Google Play Music, and Android Auto users discovered the whole thing on their own.
And one of the biggest problems with YouTube Music was that it required a subscription even for playing the music that users already owned. In other words, those making the switch to YouTube Music had to pay to listen to the songs they previously purchased from Google Play Music.
This means customers technically had to pay twice to play the same music, and needless to say, this has caused quite a lot of criticism against Google and the YouTube Music experience on Android Auto.
But as it turns out, Google has silently resolved the whole thing, and YouTube Music users can now listen to the music they own without the need for a subscription. The change has been enabled over the weekend, with Google adding a free tier that makes it possible to play a local library with touch input or using a voice command via Google Assistant.
Without a doubt, this is great news for YouTube Music on Android Auto, especially as the days of Google Play Music are numbered now. Google is projected to retire this service in the coming weeks, so everybody still using it should start considering the switch to an alternative product, be it YouTube Music or another media app for Android Auto.
Spotify is one of the services that many users frustrated with YouTube Music eventually picked, but of course, there are plenty of other similar products out there that do pretty much the same thing. For now, however, Google keeps hoping that most users would just stick with the company and make the migration to YouTube Music, both on the phone and in the car.
And one of the biggest problems with YouTube Music was that it required a subscription even for playing the music that users already owned. In other words, those making the switch to YouTube Music had to pay to listen to the songs they previously purchased from Google Play Music.
This means customers technically had to pay twice to play the same music, and needless to say, this has caused quite a lot of criticism against Google and the YouTube Music experience on Android Auto.
But as it turns out, Google has silently resolved the whole thing, and YouTube Music users can now listen to the music they own without the need for a subscription. The change has been enabled over the weekend, with Google adding a free tier that makes it possible to play a local library with touch input or using a voice command via Google Assistant.
Without a doubt, this is great news for YouTube Music on Android Auto, especially as the days of Google Play Music are numbered now. Google is projected to retire this service in the coming weeks, so everybody still using it should start considering the switch to an alternative product, be it YouTube Music or another media app for Android Auto.
Spotify is one of the services that many users frustrated with YouTube Music eventually picked, but of course, there are plenty of other similar products out there that do pretty much the same thing. For now, however, Google keeps hoping that most users would just stick with the company and make the migration to YouTube Music, both on the phone and in the car.
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