YouTube Music: Music Locker, the best function of Play Music, has finally arrived

As leaked in February, Play Music’s best feature, Music Locker, is indeed coming to YouTube Music, confirming that the latter will indeed replace the former. And the deadline before the closing of Play Music has already been announced by. missing the latter in the pre-installed Google apps bundle On the Android system, it’s definitely only a matter of months now. Play Music hasn’t been able to compete with Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer or Tidal for several years. Then it’s time to give YouTube Music a shot.

That’s why Music Locker comes to YouTube Music. The functionality, which relies on a virtual personal space to place music tracks there, has been tested by our colleagues at Android Police, who explain how it works and the differences between the Play Music version and the YouTube Music version. But in general, the purpose of the service doesn’t seem to be changed : the user can still post songs to their personal space. These songs are then added to the user’s private library. It then accesses it via the stream. Too much for general use.

Up to 100,000 songs stored in the cloud

But there are some subtle differences noted by our colleagues. First, on the level of getting the pieces online. Each user has100,000 songs space for everyone. Play Music has locked the counter to 50,000 songs for free users and double that for Music Unlimited subscribers. YouTube Music won’t make a difference. Later, Play Music had a Windows app that automates the transfer (like Google Drive). This is not the case here: everything is manual. Finally, five file formats are supported: MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, M4A. YouTube does not support DRM protected files.

Another negative point for YouTube is that the streaming service doesn’t (yet?) accept metadata correction. Metadata cannot be reviewed to facilitate classification. After the files are transmitted, they are integrated into a special library. They are separate from regular content but appear in searches. YouTube’s free users also access the services, and it’s a minor miracle, ad-free between personal songs (However, always keep the app open and in the foreground). Uploaded songs can be used with Android Auto, but not with Google Home and Google Assistant. Finally, YouTube Music does not limit the number of devices (computers, tablets or smartphones) authorized to access your music library to ten.

Source : Android Police