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Google killed Play Music in Oct 2020, a service many people loved for one feature in particular: its online music file locker with uploaded songs that seamlessly integrated with Play Music's streaming catalog. Yous could also just add together titles y'all ain and heed to them without ever 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 collection of services that replicate Play Music'due south feature set nigh 1:1 — you tin upload your files to these platforms and listen to them via the respective apps, just as though you lot would stream music regularly. Still, these services have slightly different approaches than Play Music, so here'southward what you need to scout out for.

YouTube Music

If you don't mind the YouTube Music interface, it's the most straightforward solution you could hope for. You don't demand to create a new account, y'all can just continue using your Google login. For a limited time, y'all could even directly movement your files from Play Music to the newer platform. Once you've uploaded your files to YouTube Music, you'll find that in that location are some significant differences when it comes to library management and adding new songs, though.

YouTube Music strictly separates uploaded music from music bachelor on the streaming platform. When y'all search for your uploaded songs, yous always take to switch from the YT Music tab to the Uploadssection, a separation that too divides the library when yous manually curl through your songs. When you sort your library by artist and want to encounter someone's albums, y'all're out of luck: You tin can only see an overview of all songs when you go this route.

You also lose the dedicated desktop uploading tool that Play Music had. When you want 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 tertiary-party service.

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

Nosotros explored the differences between Play Music and YouTube Music uploads in great detail in this article.

Apple Music

If you tin't stand YouTube Music at all, you might want to give Apple tree Music a try. It allows you to upload 100,000 songs simply like YouTube Music using iTunes on your estimator. And much similar Google's new service, your uploaded library is separated from the music available on the service itself when you search, and so that'south a limitation you'll accept to live with.

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

iBroadcast

iBroadcast may not take the prettiest interface, but if you only want access to your uploaded songs wherever you lot are, it might be the best solution. The costless service lets you lot store an unlimited amount of files, comes with Android and iOS apps on peak of the spider web app, supports Chromecast, and has some intelligent Spotify-similar playlists. The privately funded Seattle company behind it promises that it doesn't sell your information (we'll have to take its word on that) and is currently working on a $3.99/month premium service with extra 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 correct metadata, you can adjust it after the fact — a Play Music characteristic YouTube Music never got. There'due south also Chromecast support.

Y'all can sign up for the service here.

Media Bound

Media Leap is a recently launched Canadian service that allows yous to upload up to 1TB of your own songs on its servers for free. It then lets yous stream that music to upward to five devices via a web interface and mobile apps, and you lot can download songs to your telephone for offline listening. In contrast to the other services presented hither, Media Leap yet feels pretty rough around the edges when information technology comes to the interface, but streaming itself worked without problems for me. Exist aware that a lot of features you usually accept for granted are merely slated for later, equally a spokesperson told united states of america. The team is working on a proper queue, Chromecast support, an equalizer, additional file formats such as m4a and aac (only mp3, ogg, and flac are supported right now), ane-click anthology and creative person downloads, mass metadata editing, duplicate vocal checking, and a lite manner.

When yous sign up, the service will enquire you to add your home address and phone number, but you don't accept to fill out these details — you just need to enter your name, electronic mail, and password and continue setup. If you need more than 1TB of storage, you can sign up for a $5 monthly plan — that'southward when y'all do need to enter more of your personal information. In the futurity, the company will "near probable" add ads for free users, so you might have to pay the subscription fee in the long term if yous want to avoid that.

Deezer

Deezer isn't our go-to solution equally it but lets you upload a maximum of 2,000 MP3 files. That limit means it's only suitable for people who want to augment the service'south catalog with a select few titles. Like in YouTube Music, your own files are subconscious away and aren't seamlessly integrated with Deezer's library. They only show upwards in an extra section in the desktop app, hidden away nether Favorites in the sidebar -> More than -> My MP3s(which is besides where yous upload files). In the Android app, you'll only find your uploaded titles under Favoritesin the bottom bar ->Playlists -> My MP3s.Deezer can exist prepare as the default sound provider on Google Home and Nest devices, the only service in this list to support it other than YouTube Music — which is our master reason for including information technology in this roundup.

You need to pay for the /calendar month premium subscription to access the online locker, which volition besides give you access to millions of songs without ad interruptions.

Deject-hosted digital lockers

Some people might non exist comfortable with uploading their music to an unknown online location and might merely desire a meliorate experience when they listen to music added to their existing cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, or their own server. That's where the following services come in.

Astiga

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

The basic functionality is costless, but if you often add music to your deject library, you might desire to pay for the $4/month or $24/year premium subscription. It allows y'all to sync automatically or as often as you lot want to instead of simply in one case all three days. Astiga is officially available on Android and the web, simply there are third-party and experimental apps for other platforms. Y'all can read more than nearly it and sign upwardly hither.

CloudBeats

Like Astiga, CloudBeats is an app that connects to a cloud storage service or your own server and lets you lot stream your music files to your telephone. The bones functionality is gratis, only if you lot desire to download files to your phone through the app or send music to a Chromecast target, you need to pay a one-time fee of $6.99.

In dissimilarity to the other options listed here, CloudBeats is simply available on Android and iOS. You'll need to employ another player on your desktop to heed to your songs there, so you might come across roadblocks when you desire to sync playlists.

CloudPlayer

CloudPlayer'due south arroyo is about identical to CloudBeats'. The Android app connects to your OneDrive, Dropbox, and/or Google Drive storage and organizes recognized audio files in a library. You can comb through the library past anthology, artist, playlists, genres, songs, or playlists. You also get admission to online radios. If you don't like the default light theme, you can change it, and there are quite a few more options in settings if you lot don't like some design decisions or the default playback behavior.

A $seven.99 in-app buy gives you more features like a 10-ring equalizer, loudness normalization, gapless playback, Chromecast and AirPlay support, and an ad-free radio experience. In that location'south no iOS app — the CloudPlayer Android app is the only manner to go.

Muzecast

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

I personally dislike the design, but some people might bask its out-of-the-box retro await. There'southward a free, advertizement-supported version of Muzecast and a $7.99 advert-free variant. The Android Television set app costs $4.77.

Self-hosted digital lockers

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

Plex

You've probably already heard of the home entertainment manager Plex that organizes media stored on your computer or server — deject services aren't supported (anymore). Information technology wants to exist a ane-terminate solution for all of your media files like music, films, Boob tube shows, pictures, and so on. It offers beautiful clients for almost all of your devices.

Plex recently launched a standalone music histrion called Plexamp. It's among the prettier solutions with a design that takes cues from Soundcloud and Spotify, written in responsive and modern React Native code. You lot demand to pay a month to utilise it, but you can besides exam the regular free Plex app earlier committing.

Jellyfin

Jellyfin is a completely gratis and open-source alternative to Plex, built on the now proprietary Emby media server. Its Android app isn't as pretty every bit Plexamp, but it absolutely doesn't take to hide its face, either. You can install the host software on your figurer or a server, and in one case you've got everything indexed, you lot're fix to go. Jellyfin lets you download offline copies of your media when you're out and most, there's Chromecast back up, an Android TV app, and, almost recently, an Android Auto interface.

Jellyfin doesn't have native support for cloud storage services, but there are solutions if you actually desire to. To get started, you demand to install the server application and the Android app.

Personally, I don't recall any of these services nails music storage as well as Play Music did — Google's service just had the best integration between your uploaded files and the streaming catalog. The solutions listed hither are either only really good every bit streaming services or equally storage solutions for music you already own. Unfortunately, there's no turning back at present that Play Music is discontinued, so you'll accept to settle for one of these. Of course, you tin too manually move your music to your phone and employ a player like Phonograph.

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

Added more than services

Added Media Leap.

Thanks: DonPorazzo, ikeofkc, Oleg Vorkunov

About The Author

Manuel Vonau (1637 Articles Published)

Manuel is a tech enthusiast and Android fan based in Berlin. When he's not writing articles for Android Police, he'south probably out and about as a videographer.

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