YouTube Music: Google’s Apple Music Competitor

Recently, the Google Play Music app has reduced in popularity, with people opting to stream rather than download their music. Apps like Spotify and AudioMack have skyrocketed in popularity compared to apps like Play Music and Boom Player. This is why Google decided to end their Google Play Music app, and to enter into the lucrative streaming market.

Google released YouTube Music way back in 2015, but just made it available in Nigeria this year. This is possibly because of the stunning popularity of Apple Music in Nigeria. So, we decided to try it out.

First Impressions

Opening the app for the first time, you’re asked to input your Google account details and choose favourites from a list of artistes. This is fairly simple, and a nice touch. Google automatically puts up similar artistes, e.g. when I picked The Weeknd, I got Bruno Mars, and so on.

The listening interface looks like what you would expect from a music player, with the next and previous buttons, the shuffle, loop, etc. The Your Mix playlist is tailored to your listening habits, so you get music you like.

The Good

There is a really cohesive feeling about the whole app. It feels well made and is really simple to use. I also like how you can sync your likes from the normal YouTube to YouTube Music.

Using Google Assistant with YouTube Music is really enjoyable. If I want to listen to music, I can just say “Hey Google, play me R&B”, and it goes straight into the YouTube Music app.

I also love how there are so many personalised playlists for you to pick from. I can play anything from Chill R&B to Feel-Good Rap. These playlists are grouped together, so that there’s definitely something, no matter your listening mood.

Probably the best thing about YouTube music is the fact that when you subscribe to the premium version, you also get YouTube Premium and YouTube Red in the same bundle. Considering that this costs just $11.99/month(₦4620 at the time of publication) this is a fair deal.

What’s not so cool

My main problem with the whole app is what you miss out on in the free version. Once you leave the app, even if it’s still running in the background, the music you’re playing stops. If you lock your phone, it also stops immediately. When you go back to the app, it then tells you that you need the premium version for that. While it’s understandable since it’s a free app, one can’t help but feel like they got the wrong end of the stick.

You also can’t get the audio-only version of songs without a subscription, so you have to watch the video for every song that has one. YouTube normally uses up a good chunk of bandwidth, so just listening for an hour could take up to a gigabyte of data.

The ads are also an issue. I’ve had several occasions when a great mood was ruined by “Jumia Ramadan Sale, shop now”. For now, I’ve not still found a pattern to the ads or when they pop up. It gets really annoying when you think that you still need to keep the screen on, so you have no choice but to watch the ad when it comes up.

Another problem with YouTube Music is that you can’t listen to music that you already have on your phone. You need two music players if you’re using this app to stream music, which is not the case on iTunes or even AudioMack. While Google has said they will fix this before Google Play Music is retired, they haven’t done anything yet.

The Takeaway

While YouTube music is a great app, with all the personalised content, it’s not for people looking for a cheap streaming platform. To use the premium version, you need about ₦60,000 per year if you’re on the monthly plan. This is a huge investment, especially since Apple Music offers a slightly better deal.

The free version is not worth the stress, in my opinion. If you’re just looking for a way to listen to free music legally, and you don’t want to do anything else with your phone while listening, you should install the app, but not if you want anything else.

If you want to try the app out, it is available on the Play Store for free.