Google play music migration to youtube music is a fiasco

[Phuqr]

 

----------------------------------------------

Summary

recently I received an email prompting me to transfer from google play music to youtube music. Apparently they are finally planning on ending GPM this year. However the transfer process is not as streamlined as they wish you to believe and leaves out an extremely important detail I had to learn on my own as a first adopter of google play music. Every song in your thumbs up playlist will be irreversibly merged into your liked video playlist. Personally this caused my youtube liked videos playlist to jump from around 300 videos to over 1200.

 

Quotes

Quote

Hi ,

This is with the YouTube and Google Play music support team.

I received an update from our specialists regarding your concern about your liked songs in Google Play music that upon migrating you can also see those songs in your liked videos in the YouTube main app and can confirm that it is working as intended.

All of your YouTube music playlists can also be seen in YouTube main app as they are cross-platform with YouTube music. 

I apologize for the troubles and it seems like the best thing that we can do right now is to identify those videos in your liked videos in the main app and transfer it in a specific playlist.

I hope this answers your question.

 

All the best,

.
The YouTube Music and Play Music Team 

 

My thoughts

  Looking at the reviews there have been a multitude of issues all around as well. However this specific thing is absolutely dismal. I definitely believe this news is helpful to many people to know so they won't have to spend many hours removing songs from their playlists. I've seen reviews listing it doesn't allow transfering to a different account, so if your youtube account is used for media production you're out of luck and more. the features have been gutted as well from no background play to clunky new ui.

In the screenshot only 3 of the 9 videos shown should be in that playlist.

 

Sources

https://music.youtube.com/transfer

[aisle9]

This shit right here is why I've been using iTunes and nothing but iTunes since 2004.

[Trik'Stari]

Shit like this is why I just pirate music.

 

Or just search for it on Youtube to begin with. I've got adblock installed on my phone so I don't have to deal with Googles ridiculous demands for money for basic functionality like being able to play a "video" with my phone locked.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Oh crap I forgot I had Google Play credits from doing their surveys stuff. Rip my 5 bucks worth of credits. haha

[ouroesa]

Yeah, this really annoyed me as well. The need to kind of seperate liked videos between youtube music and normal youtube. Mucked up my whole youtube channel.

[AldiPrayogi]

I use Youtube Music and yeah it's kinda annoying to see my liked meme videos on Youtube got into my liked music on Youtube Music.

[spartaman64]

yeah i had to unlike a bunch of videos

[captain_to_fire]

I don’t know about you but I think Spotify still has the better UI for both android and iOS compared to YT Music. The only reason I have YT Music is because of YT Premium which is discounted for students. 

[Doobeedoo]

Bah I don't even use streaming services. So crap. 

[Phuqr]

wanted to post an update. Another reason I hope this will make it on techlinked is it might actually put some pressure on them to not screw over everyone

[Maticks]

I love Google Music, Youtube music UI is horrid.

I guess when the year is up and they turn off Google Music, goodbye Youtube Premium for me.

[yolosnail]

This is why I just use Amazon Music, pretty much everything I would want to listen to is included with Prime!

[SubTract]

YouTube Music is a Mess.

 

It's really sad, The home page should be the explore page. The current explore page needs to just Die. The library being mixed with your YouTube stuff.

 

They've removed the mood and genre lists from GPM already. 

 

Not to mention that email about a 1 click Transfer. Not even being close to 1 click.

 

They really just need to kill YouTube music and go back to GPM. If you're going to have a "YouTube Music" App, you need to build it from scratch, and this time - remember that it's an app for listening to music first.

[Perrytheplatypus43]

Id rather they migrate youtube music to google play music.

[Andy Auditore]

Everything's turning into streaming with subscription for mobile. You won't be able to buy songs anymore and support your favorite artists directly on YT Music. I prefer buying their albums individually. Plus the fact that you can download mp3 320kbps with Google Play Music and store them on your PC. 

 

With YT Music, you can listen to anything for free, sure. But even if you get Premium, all you get in return are no ads and being able to turn off your screen on mobile. How much money do you think goes to X artist that you listen to compared to if you buy their album? I know this is the same story as Spotify, but Spotify started like this, as a streaming service.

 

Google retiring Play Music is a bad move. As I said, I personally prefer buying songs/albums instead of paying for subscription. Same goes for iTunes/Apple Music. But I had issues with that too. I purchased 2 songs from iTunes but they don't show up on my account anywhere. Not on iPhone, not on Windows iTunes. If you switch iPhones or reset them, they're gone. If you bought from Windows iTunes and you uninstall it or format C to reinstall Windows, they're gone. So no thanks iTunes, not an option. More details here: iTunes Purchased music empty (Windows + iPhone). 

 

So since Google Play Music will be gone, iTunes not working properly and eventually going away too in the near future in favor of Apple Music, I guess I'll have to find a website where I can buy the MP3s or FLACs, then import them into YT Music or iTunes. 

 

[Senzelian]

I used Google Play Music, which I only used to host the music I bought on CD.

 

I don't subscribe to music services and so the transfer worked fine, but the YouTube Music interface is nowhere near as easy to use as the Google Play Music interface. 

 

So instead I said; "F*ck this sh*t" and installed Plex on my Synology NAS. Problem solved.

 

Btw.: BUY MORE CDs and listen to the good music you own more often instead of listening to new sh*t everyday.

[j.son19]

18 hours ago, Andy Auditore said:

How much money do you think goes to X artist that you listen to compared to if you buy their album?

Yep that is what I don't like either as Artists have not liked streaming. In the past when Taylor Swift Released her album "1989" in 2014 . Within the 1st week of that album going out she removed all of her music from spotify.  

[Maticks]

Looks like Australia is going to be cleansed first of Google Music next month in the world.

So followed through.. i can't believe this been a Youtube Red member since 2015...

 

[mopman94]

Honestly I am getting so fed up with Google half arseing everything, they launch something great then get bored and bin it, I just cannot get onboard with any google products anymore.

 

They are binning Google Music, they said they aren't going to keep pushing Android Auto forward, they take ages to release new hardware now and it's outdated or just not that interesting when it does come out. I'm now in a position where I will probably switch to Apple with my next phone purchase. "Oh you get stuck in their eco system" fucking fantastic! They actually support their ecosystem and don't drop successful products constantly because they're bored. Flagship androids are no longer the cheaper option so I may as well move to something with proper support and a proper 1:1 software to hardware relationship.