YouTube Music becomes the future of Google’s music streaming ambitions

At the moment Google runs two music services, YouTube Music and Google Play Music Library. Three years ago, Google merged the two teams that run these services. Then over the last few years, a number of the features of Google Play Music (GPM) have been introduced on YouTube Music.

The final stage of this is now upon us, with a very simple way for you to transfer your music libraries, personal taste preferences and playlists to YouTube Music.

Google sees YouTube Music as their new home for music listening and discovery and is available for both Android and iOS.

To give everyone plenty of time to get to grips with the new service and the transition the GPM service will not be switched off until later this year.

"We know many listeners have spent a lot of time creating their perfect music and podcast libraries in Google Play Music, so we've made it simple to move both to their new homes. All Google Play Music users will soon receive an email with detailed instructions on how to begin transferring your full Google Play Music history and content, as well as podcasts, to their new homes" says a Google spokesperson.

On the GPM system, you could purchase music as well as upload 50,000 of your own songs. This means the transition could take a few hours, although this happens in the background and you get a notification and email once it's done.

In addition, Google has doubled the number of songs you can upload, to 100,000. This doesn't impact your Google Drive storage usage.

For those who love Podcasts, there is an option to move your podcast history and subscriptions to the Google Podcasts app which is available on Android and iOS, and accessible from Google Assistant, Google Search, Google Home and more.

We're looking forward to Google Play Music users transferring their libraries, so they can begin listening and exploring on YouTube Music and Google Podcasts.

For those who are new to YouTube Music, it is a paid music streaming service with over 50 million official tracks, albums and high-quality audio, as well as deep cuts, B-sides, live performances, and remixes you can't find anywhere else.

You can listen to YouTube Music on smartphones, desktop computers and smart speakers.

Google has worked very hard on the YouTube Music experience with personalised recommendations and mixes that blend the discovery of new songs as well as old favourites.

As well as knowing your taste of music, the service also knows your location and time of the day when suggesting songs to listen to. So when you open your YouTube Music app at the gym you will see different recommendations.

YouTube Music has an impressive set of features including offline listening, lyrics on songs and playlists can hold an amazing 5,000 songs.

Either you can pay $12.99 (AUD / NZD) per month for the premium version of YouTube Music or use the free ad-supported version. A paid membership gives listeners background listening, downloads and an ad-free experience.