Over the past few years, YouTube has enhanced YouTube Music to deliver a comprehensive listening experience and has also added features to make Google Play Music users feel right at home. This week, the company officially began inviting Google Play Music listeners to effortlessly transfer their song libraries, personal taste preferences and playlists to YouTube Music, their new home for song listening and discovery.
For now, users will continue to have access to both services. YouTube wants to ensure everyone has time to transfer their content and get used to YouTube Music, so they’ll provide plenty of notice ahead of users no longer having access to Google Play Music later this year.
Making the transfer and transition
Many listeners have spent a lot of time creating their perfect song and podcast libraries in Google Play Music, so YouTube has made it simple to move both to their new homes. 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. You will be able to start the transfer process of their music library to YouTube Music by following 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 songs is in the “Library” tab.
ALSO READ: Getting started with YouTube Music and YouTube Premium for Uganda, Nigeria, and Kenyan users
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 our dedicated podcast player available for free on Android and iOS, and accessible from Google Assistant, Google Search, Google Home and more.
What YouTube Music has to offer
For listeners new to YouTube Music, the streaming service is your personal guide to the world of songs, simply organized in an app and web player. A bit more on what YouTube Music 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.
- Playlist Creation: We’ve increased playlist length from 1,000 to 5,000 songs to make room for even more of your favorites 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 don’t have service.
- 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 Songs and YouTube Music’s vast catalog of playlists through New Releases and Moods & Genres sections.
