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Google killed Play Music in Oct 2020, a service many people loved for one characteristic in detail: its online music file locker with uploaded songs that seamlessly integrated with Play Music'south streaming catalog. You could also just add together titles y'all ain and listen to them without e'er having to pay a dime. Luckily, there are a few alternatives that replicate some of Play Music's capabilities, including its successor YouTube Music.

Real online digital lockers

The first category is a drove of services that replicate Play Music'due south feature fix almost i:1 — you tin can upload your files to these platforms and heed to them via the respective apps, just as though you would stream music regularly. However, these services have slightly different approaches than Play Music, then hither'south what you lot need to watch out for.

YouTube Music

If you don't heed the YouTube Music interface, information technology's the about straightforward solution you lot could promise for. You lot don't demand to create a new account, you lot can just keep using your Google login. For a express time, you could even directly move your files from Play Music to the newer platform. Once you've uploaded your files to YouTube Music, you'll find that there are some meaning differences when it comes to library management and adding new songs, though.

YouTube Music strictly separates uploaded music from music available on the streaming platform. When you search for your uploaded songs, you always have to switch from the YT Music tab to the Uploadssection, a separation that also divides the library when you manually scroll through your songs. When you sort your library past creative person and desire to encounter someone's albums, you're out of luck: You tin only run into an overview of all songs when you go this road.

You likewise lose the dedicated desktop uploading tool that Play Music had. When y'all desire to add new files to YouTube Music, you have to drag and drop it on the service'due south website or rely on an unofficial third-party service.

YouTube Music is a calendar month if you lot desire to access the streaming service portion of the service without ads, only the online locker is free and doesn't take ads if you just desire access to your own files.

We explored the differences between Play Music and YouTube Music uploads in groovy item in this article.

Apple Music

If you can't stand up YouTube Music at all, you lot might desire to give Apple tree Music a try. It allows you to upload 100,000 songs only like YouTube Music using iTunes on your reckoner. And much similar Google'south new service, your uploaded library is separated from the music bachelor on the service itself when you search, and so that'southward a limitation you lot'll take to live with.

To access your music on an Android device, you'll have to pay $10 a month for Apple Music, just the digital locker portion of the service called iTunes Match is also available standalone for $25 a year if you only utilize Apple tree products.

iBroadcast

iBroadcast may not accept the prettiest interface, but if you merely want admission to your uploaded songs wherever you are, it might be the best solution. The costless service lets you shop an unlimited amount of files, comes with Android and iOS apps on top of the web app, supports Chromecast, and has some intelligent Spotify-like playlists. The privately funded Seattle visitor behind it promises that it doesn't sell your data (nosotros'll take to take its discussion on that) and is currently working on a $3.99/month premium service with actress features to stay afloat in the long term.

iBroadcast even has desktopand Android apps that monitor your folders for new music. If your files don't come with the right metadata, y'all can adjust it after the fact — a Play Music characteristic YouTube Music never got. There'southward also Chromecast support.

You can sign up for the service here.

Media Leap

Media Leap is a recently launched Canadian service that allows you to upload up to 1TB of your ain songs on its servers for free. Information technology then lets you stream that music to upwards to v devices via a web interface and mobile apps, and you tin can download songs to your phone for offline listening. In contrast to the other services presented here, Media Leap nevertheless feels pretty rough around the edges when it comes to the interface, but streaming itself worked without bug for me. Exist aware that a lot of features you usually take for granted are merely slated for later, equally a spokesperson told the states. The team is working on a proper queue, Chromecast support, an blaster, boosted file formats such equally m4a and aac (merely mp3, ogg, and flac are supported correct now), one-click anthology and creative person downloads, mass metadata editing, duplicate song checking, and a low-cal fashion.

When you sign up, the service will enquire you to add together your habitation address and phone number, but you don't have to fill up out these details — you just need to enter your name, email, and password and proceed setup. If yous need more than 1TB of storage, you lot can sign upwardly for a $5 monthly plan — that's when yous practise need to enter more of your personal data. In the future, the company will "nigh likely" add ads for free users, and so you might accept to pay the subscription fee in the long term if you want to avert that.

Deezer

Deezer isn't our get-to solution every bit it just lets you upload a maximum of 2,000 MP3 files. That limit means information technology'south simply suitable for people who desire to augment the service's catalog with a select few titles. Like in YouTube Music, your ain files are hidden away and aren't seamlessly integrated with Deezer'south library. They only show up in an actress section in the desktop app, hidden away under Favorites in the sidebar -> More -> My MP3s(which is also where you lot upload files). In the Android app, you'll simply find your uploaded titles under Favoritesin the bottom bar ->Playlists -> My MP3s.Deezer tin can be set as the default sound provider on Google Habitation and Nest devices, the only service in this list to support it other than YouTube Music — which is our chief reason for including it in this roundup.

You lot demand to pay for the /month premium subscription to admission the online locker, which will as well give you access to millions of songs without ad interruptions.

Cloud-hosted digital lockers

Some people might not be comfortable with uploading their music to an unknown online location and might just want a better experience when they listen to music added to their existing cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, or their own server. That'southward where the post-obit services come in.

Astiga

Astiga is a web service that offers a convenient interface for listening to music you lot've saved to your deject storage. It'll automatically organize your titles into a streaming service-similar style once you've synced your library.

The basic functionality is free, but if y'all oft add together music to your cloud library, y'all might want to pay for the $four/calendar month or $24/yr premium subscription. It allows you to sync automatically or every bit often as y'all want to instead of but once all three days. Astiga is officially bachelor on Android and the web, but there are third-party and experimental apps for other platforms. You can read more about it and sign up here.

CloudBeats

Like Astiga, CloudBeats is an app that connects to a cloud storage service or your own server and lets yous stream your music files to your phone. The basic functionality is free, just if you lot want to download files to your telephone through the app or send music to a Chromecast target, you lot demand to pay a 1-time fee of $vi.99.

In dissimilarity to the other options listed here, CloudBeats is simply available on Android and iOS. Yous'll need to use another player on your desktop to mind to your songs at that place, and then you might run into roadblocks when you want to sync playlists.

CloudPlayer

CloudPlayer'southward approach is near identical to CloudBeats'. The Android app connects to your OneDrive, Dropbox, and/or Google Bulldoze storage and organizes recognized sound files in a library. You can comb through the library by anthology, artist, playlists, genres, songs, or playlists. You lot also go access to online radios. If you don't like the default light theme, y'all can modify it, and in that location are quite a few more options in settings if you don't like some blueprint decisions or the default playback behavior.

A $7.99 in-app purchase gives you more than features like a x-band equalizer, loudness normalization, gapless playback, Chromecast and AirPlay support, and an advertising-complimentary radio experience. There's no iOS app — the CloudPlayer Android app is the merely way to get.

Muzecast

Muzecast is another solution when you want to access your own files in the cloud, and it'due south very much similar to the others listed here. You can stream content from your computer, Dropbox, or OneDrive. The player supports the usual DRM-free file types. Lossless streaming of up to 24/192 KHz is available, songs are cached on your Android device, it has a built-in equalizer, and playlists tin can be synchronized beyond Android phones and even other apps that support M3U and WPL. Muzecast is also bachelor on Android Car, Wear OS, and Android TV. It works with Chromecast.

I personally dislike the design, but some people might enjoy its out-of-the-box retro await. There's a free, ad-supported version of Muzecast and a $seven.99 ad-gratuitous variant. The Android Television app costs $4.77.

Self-hosted digital lockers

Here are a few solutions that only work with servers or computers situated in your home or your webspace.

Plex

You lot've probably already heard of the abode amusement director Plex that organizes media stored on your calculator or server — cloud services aren't supported (anymore). It wants to be a one-stop solution for all of your media files like music, films, TV shows, pictures, and so on. It offers cute clients for most all of your devices.

Plex recently launched a standalone music player called Plexamp. It'south among the prettier solutions with a blueprint that takes cues from Soundcloud and Spotify, written in responsive and modernistic React Native code. Y'all need to pay a month to utilise it, but y'all can besides exam the regular costless Plex app before committing.

Jellyfin

Jellyfin is a completely complimentary and open-source alternative to Plex, built on the now proprietary Emby media server. Its Android app isn't equally pretty as Plexamp, but it admittedly doesn't have to hide its face up, either. Y'all tin install the host software on your computer or a server, and one time you've got everything indexed, you're ready to go. Jellyfin lets you download offline copies of your media when yous're out and about, there'south Chromecast support, an Android TV app, and, nigh recently, an Android Auto interface.

Jellyfin doesn't have native support for deject storage services, just there are solutions if you really want to. To get started, you lot need to install the server application and the Android app.

Personally, I don't think whatsoever of these services nails music storage too equally Play Music did — Google'southward service merely had the best integration betwixt your uploaded files and the streaming catalog. The solutions listed hither are either only actually skillful as streaming services or as storage solutions for music you already own. Unfortunately, there's no turning back now that Play Music is discontinued, so you lot'll have to settle for one of these. Of class, yous can also manually move your music to your phone and utilise a player like Phonograph.

UPDATE: 2021/01/09 eight:59am PST By MANUEL VONAU

Added more services

Added Media Leap.

Thanks: DonPorazzo, ikeofkc, Oleg Vorkunov

About The Author

Manuel Vonau (1639 Articles Published)

Manuel is a tech enthusiast and Android fan based in Berlin. When he's non writing articles for Android Police, he'due south probably out and near as a videographer.

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