Whether you’re a music lover or just an occasional listener, Google’s free music service can make for a wonderful, relaxing addition to your entertainment routine. Whether you use it to play your own files or to find songs that play in certain areas of your house, there are many ways to enjoy the service.
Location-based music suggestions
If you’ve been a fan of the YouTube Music app, you may have noticed its location-based features. For example, if you’ve been going to the gym, you’ll get music that’s upbeat and motivating. Or if you’re at home, you can enjoy a playlist that’s a mix of songs from your country of residence. And even when you’re out of town, you can have music tailored to your mood and local weather.
In case you’re wondering how the feature works, here’s a quick guide. You can access the YouTube Music app through the apps menu on your phone. There, you’ll find an icon that looks like a red circle with a white triangle inside it.
When you click the icon, you’ll see a series of pill-shaped buttons displaying recommendations. These recommendations are powered by several factors. They include the user’s location, his/her activity, and more.
According to the YouTube website, you can expect the precise location feature to be discontinued on September 26. However, the app will still use approximate location to suggest music.
On-demand streaming
For most of us, YouTube is the first place we turn to when we want to listen to our favorite music. However, for many in the music industry, it’s becoming controversial. Whether or not it’s fair for YouTube to generate a significant amount of revenue for artists and songwriters.
The Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 opened up a world of royalty revenue for musicians and songwriters. However, to be successful, streaming services need to work in harmony with the copyright holders of their content.
This means that streaming services must strike licensing agreements with various organizations. In return, the organizations pay the record labels and other songwriters royalties.
Today, there are a number of streaming services available. Some offer free service, while others charge a monthly fee. These services provide users with a variety of features, including music recommendations, interactive streams, and playlist creation.
The most popular on-demand streaming channels are Apple Music, Tidal, and Spotify. Other on-demand audio streaming services include Google Play Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Sound Cloud.
Uploading your own files
Uploading your own music to Google Drive is pretty easy. The company provides several methods for doing so.
You can use the app’s website, the Chrome app, and the Music Manager software. In the former, you simply click “upload your music” and your song will automatically be uploaded to your Google account. Likewise, the Music Manager will allow you to control and monitor the upload process.
There are many different ways to do it, but the simplest is to drag and drop the file onto the web page. Once it has been uploaded, you can select a target Google Drive from the pop-up box. Alternatively, you can create a folder and then drag and drop the files into it.
Another nifty way to do it is to use a file manager app on your phone. This way, you can download and save the music to your device.
If you have a music-centric site, you may want to consider uploading MP3 songs to a generic cloud service. However, you could get sued if you do it wrong.
Shuffle mode
If you’re a fan of Google Play Music or YouTube Music, you may be wondering why the company stopped providing the service. Well, after a decade of providing music to the world, Google decided to close down their service in 2020. While this doesn’t mean all of your songs are gone, it does change the way you listen to music.
Before the Google Play Music update, users had access to a “Shuffle” option in the Google Music app. This is a feature that lets users change the order of songs in their playlist. However, many users complained that the new interface was confusing.
In addition, some customers also complained that their playlists would switch to similar tracks. The company said that the problem was due to a programming error.
Spotify responded to the problem by introducing an algorithm that spreads out the same artist songs evenly. For this to work, you have to subscribe to their premium plan. But, if you don’t want to pay for that, you can turn off the shuffle feature.