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Google killed Play Music in October 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. You could also just add together titles you ain and heed to them without always 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's characteristic fix almost one:ane — you can upload your files to these platforms and listen to them via the corresponding apps, just equally though you would stream music regularly. However, these services have slightly dissimilar approaches than Play Music, then here's what yous need to sentinel out for.

YouTube Music

If yous don't heed the YouTube Music interface, it's the most straightforward solution you could hope for. You lot don't need to create a new account, you can but keep using your Google login. For a limited time, y'all 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 at that place are some significant 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 Uploadsdepartment, a separation that also divides the library when you manually scroll through your songs. When y'all sort your library past artist and want to see someone's albums, you're out of luck: You can only run into an overview of all songs when you go this route.

You too lose the dedicated desktop uploading tool that Play Music had. When you want to add together new files to YouTube Music, you have to elevate and drop it on the service's website or rely on an unofficial third-party service.

YouTube Music is a month if you want to admission the streaming service portion of the service without ads, but the online locker is costless and doesn't accept ads if you only want access to your own files.

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

Apple Music

If you lot can't stand up YouTube Music at all, you might want to give Apple Music a try. It allows yous to upload 100,000 songs just like YouTube Music using iTunes on your computer. And much like Google's new service, your uploaded library is separated from the music available on the service itself when you search, and then that's a limitation you'll accept to alive with.

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

iBroadcast

iBroadcast may not have the prettiest interface, but if you only want access to your uploaded songs wherever you are, it might exist the best solution. The gratis service lets you store an unlimited corporeality of files, comes with Android and iOS apps on meridian of the spider web app, supports Chromecast, and has some intelligent Spotify-like playlists. The privately funded Seattle company behind it promises that it doesn't sell your data (we'll have to take its word on that) and is currently working on a $three.99/calendar 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 up with the right metadata, yous can arrange it after the fact — a Play Music characteristic YouTube Music never got. There's also Chromecast support.

You can sign up for the service hither.

Media Leap

Media Leap is a recently launched Canadian service that allows you to upload up to 1TB of your own songs on its servers for costless. It and so lets yous stream that music to up to 5 devices via a web interface and mobile apps, and you can download songs to your phone for offline listening. In contrast to the other services presented here, Media Leap nonetheless feels pretty rough around the edges when it comes to the interface, only streaming itself worked without bug for me. Be aware that a lot of features you usually take for granted are only slated for after, as a spokesperson told us. The team is working on a proper queue, Chromecast back up, an equalizer, additional file formats such as m4a and aac (simply mp3, ogg, and flac are supported correct at present), one-click anthology and creative person downloads, mass metadata editing, indistinguishable song checking, and a low-cal mode.

When you sign upwardly, the service will ask you to add together your domicile accost and phone number, but you don't have to fill out these details — y'all simply need to enter your name, electronic mail, and password and continue setup. If yous need more than 1TB of storage, you can sign up for a $5 monthly plan — that's when you do need to enter more than of your personal data. In the future, the company will "most likely" add ads for free users, so you might have to pay the subscription fee in the long term if you want to avert that.

Deezer

Deezer isn't our go-to solution as it only lets you upload a maximum of ii,000 MP3 files. That limit means it's but suitable for people who want to augment the service'due south catalog with a select few titles. Similar in YouTube Music, your own files are subconscious abroad and aren't seamlessly integrated with Deezer'southward library. They only show up in an extra section in the desktop app, subconscious away under Favorites in the sidebar -> More -> My MP3s(which is likewise where yous upload files). In the Android app, you'll just notice your uploaded titles under Favoritesin the bottom bar ->Playlists -> My MP3s.Deezer can be set every bit the default audio provider on Google Dwelling house and Nest devices, the only service in this list to support it other than YouTube Music — which is our main reason for including it in this roundup.

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

Cloud-hosted digital lockers

Some people might not be comfy with uploading their music to an unknown online location and might just want a better feel when they mind to music added to their existing deject services like Dropbox, Google Bulldoze, OneDrive, Box, or their ain server. That's where the post-obit services come in.

Astiga

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

The bones functionality is gratis, but if you lot oftentimes add together music to your cloud library, you might want to pay for the $4/calendar month or $24/year premium subscription. It allows you lot to sync automatically or as often as you want to instead of only one time all three days. Astiga is officially available on Android and the spider web, just there are third-party and experimental apps for other platforms. You lot can read more than well-nigh it and sign upwardly here.

CloudBeats

Similar Astiga, CloudBeats is an app that connects to a cloud storage service or your ain server and lets you stream your music files to your telephone. The basic functionality is free, simply if you lot want to download files to your phone through the app or send music to a Chromecast target, you need to pay a ane-fourth dimension fee of $6.99.

In contrast to the other options listed hither, CloudBeats is only bachelor on Android and iOS. Y'all'll demand to apply another histrion on your desktop to heed to your songs there, and so you might see roadblocks when you want to sync playlists.

CloudPlayer

CloudPlayer'southward arroyo is nearly 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 lot tin rummage through the library by anthology, creative person, playlists, genres, songs, or playlists. Yous also get access to online radios. If you don't like the default low-cal theme, you tin change it, and there are quite a few more than 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 ad-free radio experience. There'due south no iOS app — the CloudPlayer Android app is the merely way to go.

Muzecast

Muzecast is another solution when you lot want to access your own files in the cloud, and it's very much like to the others listed hither. You lot tin can stream content from your calculator, Dropbox, or OneDrive. The thespian supports the usual DRM-free file types. Lossless streaming of upwardly to 24/192 KHz is available, songs are buried on your Android device, information technology has a built-in equalizer, and playlists tin be synchronized across Android phones and even other apps that support M3U and WPL. Muzecast is also available on Android Car, Wear Bone, and Android Boob tube. It works with Chromecast.

I personally dislike the design, but some people might relish its out-of-the-box retro wait. There'south a free, ad-supported version of Muzecast and a $7.99 ad-gratis variant. The Android TV 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 amusement manager Plex that organizes media stored on your computer or server — cloud services aren't supported (anymore). It wants to be a one-end solution for all of your media files similar music, films, TV shows, pictures, and and then on. It offers beautiful clients for almost all of your devices.

Plex recently launched a standalone music histrion chosen Plexamp. It's amongst the prettier solutions with a pattern that takes cues from Soundcloud and Spotify, written in responsive and mod React Native code. You lot need to pay a calendar month to use information technology, but you lot can besides test the regular complimentary Plex app earlier committing.

Jellyfin

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

Jellyfin doesn't have native back up for cloud storage services, but at that place are solutions if you really want to. To get started, yous need to install the server application and the Android app.

Personally, I don't think 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 itemize. The solutions listed here are either simply really adept equally streaming services or as storage solutions for music you lot already own. Unfortunately, there'due south no turning back at present that Play Music is discontinued, and then you'll have to settle for 1 of these. Of course, yous can likewise manually move your music to your telephone and use a histrion like Phonograph.

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

Added more than 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'southward not writing articles for Android Police, he'due south probably out and about as a videographer.

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