The music problem

by Jon Sullivan - 2020-07-23 - Internet

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>

---

Google Music is going away and being "transitioned" to YouTube music.

Music has always played a huge part in my life. I suppose that's true for most of us. But the rise of digital music, as opposed to needing a carry around a physical block or disc for every song we had, had a big impact on my life. The idea that I could have all of my music with me wherever I went was life changing. And the Google Music option to upload all of my music to the cloud, and then play it on any device, has always been one of my favorite tech advances.

But in true Google fashion, they are getting rid of the service. And like with Google Plus a few years ago, I'm done with them. I've tried YouTube Music and it's nowhere near what I need. Worse yet, paying $13 a month to listen to my own music is just silly. And the concept in general is just wrong for me. My music all becoming videos just has no value. I make playlists, and listen to music. Simple as that.

The current plan is to move back to MediaMonkey. It lacks the tight Android integration, but it will do what YouTube music won't : just play my music. The irony is that it was what I was using before Google Music came out.

I'll still use YouTube Music's free version as a cloud backup. But for the most part I'll just build and maintain my playlists in MediaMonkey and keep it sync'd to my phone. It seems to play nice with Android auto. But I'll lose the Google Assistant integration.

It feels like a step back. Google Music was a pretty perfect solution for me. But as Google keeps reminding us, you can't trust Google.

Buy prints

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>

---