Google, in their infinite wisdom, killed their Play Music service and forced users to migrate to YouTube Music instead.
Well, I’ve used YTM for the last month or so, and frankly, it’s a pile of stinking shite.
Amongst other things, I accidentally listened to an Elvis Presley song and now my “Up Next” list is full of similar shite and there’s no way of clearing down a playlist, apart from manually left swiping on tracks (and as quickly as you do that, Google fills it up with even more crap).
Anyway, that’s the final straw as the UI is a complete mess as well and the rather good Radio Stations from Play Music are gone, as are podcasts.

So which of the following services is best?
Spotify
Deezer
iHeartRadio
Amazon Music
(Ideally, I want something which is compatible with Garmin watches, and Garmin supports those services)

My main concern about moving away from Google is that all my own music (i.e. CDs I ripped to MP3) was uploaded to Google and I’d like to move “my music” across to the new service without having to upload everything again (40+ GB). Do any of these services (or third parties) allow (seemless!) export from Google and import to new provider?

FWIW: I’ve been paying for premium music service for many years and will continue to do so to avoid ads

I use spotify and really like it. also you can clear Youtube lists – log out and never log back in and refuse cookies – which I also do.

TJ:Sorry, I should have mentioned I’m referring to the Android app!

I’ve just moved to Spotify from ytb it seems pretty good for suggestions so far , I dont like it as much as google play but that’s gone, I too need to transfer loads of my old music again, but for now I think (hope) i will just leave it in a free account as it took ages to put it on Google, I used to use deezer years back but it doesn’t work with my car stereo and as a bonus spotify works on my garmin watch. Amazon music seems gash tbh I have the basic one from prime and just deleted the app completely
I do like no ads on YouTube though and I do watch it a lot shame the music app is pants

I moved from Google Music to Ibroadcast; very similar to Google, particularly if you want to upload your own stuff.

Thank you op, a useful thread.

I too have given YT music a go and can’t stand it.

I transferred all my uploaded music over to YTM last year.

Positives – at least I can cast my own music to a Chromecast now.
It seems reasonably stable when playing/casting.
I can play my own songs on shuffle or full albums.

Tbh, all pretty basic stuff!

I’m ignoring the playlists and other side of it at the moment. Cos it’s shit!

I also have a couple of Google Home Hubs and so am pretty much stuck with YTM. Getting them to play my own music library seemed impossible but I’ve been experimenting with Playlists and it seems that if I create one for each Album, that’ll work. Bit of a drag, obviously!

same but the benefits of ad free youtube and the fact it just works with casting are keeping me with it.

you should have seen it a year ago. oh my word it was bad

I have used Spotify since day one and honestly, I can’t imagine using anything else. I listen to lots of weird and pretentious metal and I’ve yet to come across anything noteworthy that’s not there.

just posting to ask for a moment’s silence for my painstakingly compiled Sonos playlists, streamed from Play Music and now forever silent? Total ballache putting them together again from YTM.

I to paid for google play – which was pretty good i thought. I also have google home speakers around the house and the wife loves the simplicity of just asking for a song – casting is far to difficult for her! So I was forced on to YTM from GP, but I find the YTM app loathsome – but it does have a fantastic catalogue of music.
My top tip is to put all albums you download into play lists – and just use the play list functionality.

I’m a Spotifyer for my sins. It works, it suggests good music, works with my Garmin nicely and it’s easy to use.

It does nark me that they pay bugger all, my band have stuff on all of the platforms and we get multiple times more money from Apple or tidal, but Apple is more confusing and has more music missing, I’ve not tried tidal yet and I’ve got comfortable now so have the kids.

Neither would work with my Garmin either I’ve enjoyed running without a phone recently

Has anyone tried migrating their own music from YTM to Spotify?
Does Spotify or the other services even allow that?

I took up the offer from on here and moved from Spotify to tidal 99p/ month for 4 months, moved all my playlists over and it’s much the same as Spotify
Saving of £36 over the winter

Has anyone tried migrating their own music from YTM to Spotify

Do you mean moving playlists, or music that you’ve actually uploaded (i.e. cd > computer > YTM)?

The first is possible, the second not.

YTM app is bobbins, but it serves my needs very well for obscure music and jungle mixes 🙂

The person playlist feature is dreadful, but the autoplay to next song in similar genre can be a thing of wonder!

I use tidal hifi, qobuz and for overall control over my music I use roon.

Very happy with all of them but gawd knows if they work with garmin , even garmin doesn’t work with garmin.

I use spotify for music I don’t own or random playlists and I’m trying out Pulsar and VLC to replace Google play music for what I already own. Both seem to be OK so far but I’ve not had the opportunity to test their Andtoid Auto functionality yet (for obvious reasons).

Do you mean moving playlists, or music that you’ve actually uploaded (i.e. cd > computer > YTM)?

The first is possible, the second not.

@ajantom
Thanks, I think that answers my question i.e. I can’t automatically transfer my entire library across to Spotify….
Related question: Does Spotify allow you/need you to upload your own music though?

@markgraylish
Yes, I think you can. It describes the process here:

https://gizmodo.com/how-to-add-your-old-cds-to-spotify-1772337116#:~:text=Thanks%20to%20Spotify’s%20support%20for,included%20in%20Spotify’s%20cloud%20library).&text=Visit%20the%20Spotify%20Preferences%20page,to%20include%20in%20your%20library.

Reading with interest. Not getting on with YTM either.

I was happy with the non-subscription Play Music. “All” I want to do is be able to play music I own on either my android phone or two Chromecast Audios. As far as I’m aware I purchased that functionality with the chromecast audios.

YTM seems a massive step backwards even though google have reluctantly added casting your own library without a subscription. Defaults to YTM rather than uplaoded music in the library, search is terrible etc. Not sure if this is better if you subscribe.

Is there an android app that will allow me to stream my own library (from PC or NAS) to the chromecast audios without the pain of YTM? Something that just works?

I don’t mind paying a fee for an app that works, I’d prefer not to use a subscription service as I tend to buy music (don’t agree with the artist fees – personal choice). However I accept this may be a feature I’ll end up paying for (but hopefully not YTM).

Thinking of ditching the chromecasts and switching to Audio Pro (link 1 then adding speakers for other rooms), but have seen issues with accessing your own files reported.

Going to have a play with iBroadacst – couldn’t see chromecast support on the home page, but it’s mentioned in the FAQs

Several days into a free trial of Youtube music. I have to say I’m not finding it that bad really.
Seems to have what I need.

I’m coming from not really doing much music streaming as I’m normally on Six Music, but some days I would use free Spotify, so I’m not used to the way that one service works particularly.

Only thing now is I’ve gone and messed up my algorithm by putting on some Taylor Swift and Katy Perry for the other half! 😂
Not sure how I get rid of that now…

I ended up back on Samsung Music on my phone after Play died.  I store the files on the phone and it works pretty much the same way as Play did for me.  I appreciate that I’ve got quite a Luddite approach to digital music though.

I’m pretty sure I’m in a group of very low numbers, but I don’t want to stream music that I don’t own, so the streaming services really wind me up and I refuse to pay for a service – so for now I’m on YTM as I’m tied in with Google with Nest speakers and Hub. The hub will allow me to request a song to be played and it will – but it doesn’t play it from my library of files – it plays from YTM; the Nest speakers tell me I need to pay a subscription to YTM to have them play requested songs – even though they are in my uploaded library.

It is truly rubbish for someone who isn’t bothered about streaming random tunes.

Saying that, the quality seems to be very good.

I buy the music I want to listen to and stick it in my iTunes folder, I then upload that to YTM (or it was Google Music before) and I want to listen to it. Whilst on the bike, the ipod is plugged in to my ears and I get the music I want on that – can’t do the same with the YTM set up though.

Off to look at the ibroadcast stuff in case that works better, but it needs to work with Google Home so I can get it playing through the speakers and hub – also would need to be able to play on my phone, but that really isn’t a common thing I do.

Have been thinking about similar but I use Youtube a fair bit and pay the full wack sub for family so we get add free youtube plus full music access. Tempted to try another service but it must be compatinle with google for us to bark orders at it. works very well for us at the mo and it would be very annoying if it woud default to YTM rather than spotify, tidal, etc.

Yeah, Google Play worked fantastically as that just played the music that I’d uploading from my own desktop folder. From what I can tell so far, iBroadcast won’t work natively with Google Home, so until that happens, I’d need to use the app and then cast it (I think I can cast to the Nest Speaker – but I’ve never tried) – that isn’t as convenient as just asking the speaker to play stuff, but it might mean my annoyance of a terrible service from YT is removed.
I’m fine with YT – work well and has some great content, but YT Music seems a serious fall. I get they want you to pay – they are there to make money after all, but I’m thinking a tenner a month is far too much to pay when I just want to play the music that I already own (which admittedly has been uploaded to their cloud).
Anyway, I’m about to start ranting again…part of my issue is I have no idea how to get in touch with Google or YT Music to flag how poor the service is – poor enough to actually make sure I don’t pay for any fancier features.

I’ve just downloaded the paid version of poweramp to replace Google Play. Hopefully it will work out brilliant but for £3.99 it’s worth the punt

So … using VLC player and it works fine … downer though, it doesn’t work with voice commands in Android Auto. Looks like Spotify is about it for now. VLC for when I want to queue up a string of albums for a long journey. Spotify for when I suddenly want different tunes in the car. Booooooooo

Poweramp looks very good – just playing with it now, bass is now jumping!

I use Amazon music HD for their highest quality and it is a great bit of software. Not sure how it works with your own music as a phone/android app but I believe the desktop app lets you import your own media.

I also use mconnect which handles my own library stored on a NAS downstairs. Again works perfectly although doesn’t seem to support gapless playback through the iPad I use it on. It does however, when controlled from iPad but played into and through a Pi running volumio and sat on our network.

We use Apple devices but the mconnect app is available on android so may give the same use experience. Can also run Tidal and a few others through it I believe.