Google Play Music is a music streaming service that integrates with alternative Google services like Youtube and Youtube Red. It is a full-featured music locker on the market for anyone with a Google account. The service is cheap and has several options that are not found in other streaming services.
Having the Google Play Music around was fun and it was great while it lasted, but if you have been up to date with tech news, you might know that Google Play Music has been shut down by Google with Youtube Music as its successor. However, this did not come as a shock to most people because it is the most popular video-on-demand music website globally.
The good news is that you have a lot of options to choose from, but the thing is Youtube is the world’s most popular music streaming platform and it has everything, including some of the music you can’t find on other local music streaming platforms.
If you are not satisfied with the latest update from Google, you still have a lot of options to choose from. There are many Google Play Music alternatives out there that can fulfill your needs.
This article will show some of the best Google Play Music alternatives and would satisfy all your music-related needs. You can use these apps to play local music or you can choose to stream music online.
List of 5 Best Alternatives to Google Play Music
Here are some alternatives that you might consider now that Google Play Music has been replaced by Youtube Music.
1. YouTube Music
This was officially introduced as a Google Play Music Alternative as the service superseded Google Play Music on December 1, 2020, as Google’s main brand for music streaming.
Youtube Music lets you find the songs and videos you are searching for in simple ways, and it provides a modified interface for the service-oriented towards music streaming. It also allows users to browse through music videos and songs on Youtube based on the genres, recommendations based on context, playlists, taste, and what’s trending in your region, and also allows you to listen to the latest hits, stay connected to your favorite artist and discover new music.
Youtube Music has two versions:
● Free tier; ads-supported Youtube Music
● Premium tier; which includes benefits like Background Play, Ads-free play, and Audio-only mode. The youtube premium is available in many countries/regions.
With Youtube Premium, you can:
● Stream millions of videos on Youtube without ads.
● Download videos on your device to watch offline.
● Keep your music playing in the background, when the screen is off, or while using other apps.
● Gain access to all original movies and series on Youtube.
● Listen to music on your Chromecast audio.
These benefits will also apply across Youtube, Youtube Music, and Youtube Kids.
Youtube Music is available for iOS, Android, and Browser users.
2. Spotify
Spotify is another great Google Play Music alternative as it is now the largest music streaming app out there, having the biggest libraries with millions of songs and podcasts, and the most active communities, and having neat playlist features that makes it so popular with millions across the globe.
It provides perhaps the best outright app experience across all of your devices with its added controls that allows you to pause and play music from multiple devices.
It has a premium version where you can download music for offline playback, with its pricing at $9.99/month. There is also a free tier that lets you play playlists and albums with short and regular ads. However, it lacks Youtube’s large collection of underground and independent artists.
Spotify is available for iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, and Web Browser users.
3. SoundCloud
Before Spotify, this used to be the best music streaming app, however, it lost its charm amid competition. When it comes to music content, SoundCloud has a huge collection to offer with both international and regional content. You can also find music from independent, small, and underground artists.
It has a premium plan which is $9.99 per month, while the free plan comes with some restrictions, but it would still satisfy your daily music needs.
The app works fine and has all kinds of stuff there, including podcasts and royalty-free music. You can listen to the majority of the content with the free version, but if you want the trending or popular stuff, you have to pay for it.
Soundcloud is available on iOS, Android, Web browser, Sonos, Chromecast, and Xbox One.
4. TIDAL
This is one of the largest music streaming categories available for Android. The Tidal app is free to use and it is entirely free from any type of ads.
One of the advantages of uploading your own music in Google Play Music was controlling the quality. Google Play Music allows you to upload top-quality music and then convert it to 320kbps MP3. It is not HiFi, however, it is higher than tons of streaming services, but it’s not better than Tidal, though, as Tidal permits true HiFi listening.
Tidal allows you to download music for offline listening, produce playlists, stream and listen to existing playlists at 16-bit, 44.1kHz FLAC, or 24-bit, 96kHz MQA. It doesn’t get any higher than that, though Deezer’s hi-fi’s choice is a bit close.
You can’t upload your own music in Tidal, but it does everything else right.
Tidal is available on iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, and Web browser users.
5. Deezer
Deezer is one of the most popular music streaming platforms globally and has the largest library of music which currently available with 70 million tracks and counting.
Deezer gives you access to millions of tracks on your computer, tablet, or mobile phone, and lets you keep all your music in one place, and takes your entire library with you everywhere.
Deezer’s features include limitless tracks available for you to search so you can rediscover your favorite high school classics, and its genius flow functions that suggest music for you tailored specially to your music taste!
Deezer is one of the online streaming apps that values sound quality with Tidal. Another killer feature of Deezer is the ability to stream 16-bit FLAC music quality for $19.99 per month.
Whereas the high-quality audio is great, it’s still a bit expensive, which makes it harder to fully suggest Deezer to the casual listener. With over 35 million tracks to pay attention to, it does have a reasonably massive, high-quality audio library to sift through if you consider yourself an audiophile.
Deezer has a super cool interface and is really cool to use! Synchronize your playlists and albums to listen anywhere, even offline, without incurring data costs.
Deezer is available on iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, and Web browser users.