London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Google Play Music no longer being default is the best thing for everyone

Through sheer dysfunction, Google Play Music's demotion is actually the best thing for it. Last week, Google announced that it would be YouTube Music, not Google Play Music, pre-installed as the default music app on all Android phones.
Many people commented that this was terrible news for Play Music users and yet another nail in a coffin that must look like an iron maiden by now. Actually, as a longtime GPM user, this news made me cheer. Now I can stop worrying as much about that nonsense device limit whenever I get a new phone! For years, one of the first things I'd do on a freshly set-up.

Last week, Google announced that it would be YouTube Music, not Google Play Music, pre-installed as the default music app on all Android phones. Many people commented that this was terrible news for Play Music users and yet another nail in a coffin that must look like an iron maiden by now.

Actually, as a longtime GPM user, this news made me cheer. Now I can stop worrying as much about that nonsense device limit whenever I get a new phone!

For years, one of the first things I'd do on a freshly set-up phone I'd received to review was to disable Google Play Music so that it wouldn't authorize itself accidentally. GPM has a ten-device authorization limit, which is fairly normal, and a four device de-authorization limit, which is anything but normal. What made this worse was that while YouTube Music only counted devices you download offline music on, Google Play Music authorized any device you installed the app on, whether you were just streaming or downloading.

If you hit the de-auth limit, sometimes Google Support would reset your device limit, but many times it wouldn't. And if it wouldn't, then you better hope your current phones don't die, because you couldn't add any more for months. Being locked out of your own music at $10 a month for the privilege was just ten kinds of insane, and that's far less of a worry now.

This next section might be wishful thinking on my part — I am a hopeless dreamer, after all — but YouTube Music being the default should also mean that we see more and more efforts put towards getting it ready for global use, something YTM can't really say it is right now.

YouTube Music is available in just over 70 countries right now, which seems like a lot until you remember that Apple Music is available in 115 and Deezer is available in 182. Setting aside the global availability, YouTube Music is still a hot mess and 18 months into this refresh you still can't even shuffle it while casting, to say nothing of how far we are from the feature parity we need before Google Play Music libraries and users can be migrated to the service.

YouTube Music is the service I use more these days because I've been swapping phones too often to risk burning an authorization on anything lately, but also because it really does music discovery and algorithms better than anyone else in the industry (at least for me) and its library is impossible to match. The core service is good if you're willing to live with its bugs, but it could be drop-dead awesome once the service is actually stable and full-featured.

My colleagues think that feature parity isn't going to happen, that GPM's music locker users will get their music in a Drive folder and get kicked to YTM or the curb. I truly hope they're wrong — because Google Play Music was the last of its kind and I don't want to go back to having two separate libraries for purchased and streamed music — but YouTube Music being the app more people use and report issues with is the next step to YouTube Music getting where it needs to be.

Or it's the next nail in Google's coffin as being utterly and eternally incapable of delivering a quality music experience.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×