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Comment by knaik94 | Hacker News Reader

Youtube Music actually does have a option to upload up to 100,000 songs. This was one of the biggest selling points of Google Play Music and the feature was mostly carried over. The difference now is that uploaded files aren't automatically added to the library, they live in a different section. You can make a playlist that includes uploaded songs and songs on youtube music, but the song suggestion/radio feature does not combine them. But there are no limits to listening like you experienced with Apple music. Youtube music premium can be bought standalone or bundled with youtube premium.

The other alternative is self hosting, plex and plexamp are popular.

https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/thread/52908732/faq-...

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(You have an Indian-sounding handle, so you might identify with this problem!)

I'd uploaded all of my offline library to Google Play Music, back when it was relatively easier to do so, and before it became YouTube Music.

Unfortunately the service seemed to do some sort of acoustic fingerprinting to make uploads more efficient, and I ended up with the wrong language versions of several of my film soundtrack songs! Loads of them got randomly converted from Tamil -> Telugu, Tamil -> Hindi, Hindi -> Telugu, Hindi -> Tamil, etc.

I did not have that experience with Google Play Music, but I have run into a different struggle with metadata. The new Youtube Music doesn't allow editing metadata online, you have to download the file, edit the tags, and then reupload.

My tags for Hindi songs were always in English. Because of the way Hindi songs are credited, searching by tags like artist was always annoying, but that's not a problem specific to google music. I did have times where Japanese track names got translated to English in the old Google Play Music, but I haven't experienced that with Youtube Music.

FYI this doesn't happen on YT music at all; the user uploads are completely segregated from the YT catalog for licensing reasons so your files are stored exactly the way you upload them.

I made the mistake if uploading all my mp3s from the 2000s to Google Music then deleted them locally to "save space". Missed the memo on Google Music getting sunset in 2020 (there were other things going on at the time) and rolled into Youtube Red Music Plus (or whatever) and they are now lost and gone forever.

Now I either buy music via Bandcamp and download the FLAC or replace the ones I lost via other methods and store them locally in Plex and play with Plexamp + Tailscale. That should avoid them getting googled again from any service.

I felt like the grace period to recover your files was okay and if you logged into Youtube Music, there was a way to transfer them for free. They kept the original file, no transcoding. The feature parity is not perfect between the old Google Play Music and the new Youtube Music, but I have not lost any files. Some of the metadata was incorrect, but nothing else.

Your music is still there (I hope). Did you check here: https://music.youtube.com/library/songs

I have songs purchased in 4 different mediums, sometimes more than once.

Pretty irritating, tbh. I haven't bought a license to listen to a song, I've bought a license to use destructible chunks of plastic or bits...

Even if not in YouTube Music, it's very likely still available in Google Takeout.

The other concern here is that, as an Alphabet product, you need to try to guess when it's going to be canceled, which basically means having an alternative already on day one of use. And if you have an alternative, why use the product that's going to be canceled?

I would be very surprised if user uploads aren't shelved in YouTube music within the next 2-3 years.

It's purely a loss for them financially and is a giant thorn architecturally for YouTube's backends since it's very different rights- and lifecycle- wise than their other content.

They pretty much only brought it over from GPM because they were worried about the user outrage if they didn't, so as fewer people care about curating music files they will eventually decide pulling the plug is worth it.

I ripped and uploaded my Tool CDs to Youtube Music before they got the license deal fixed, and it was a good experience. Even though Tool wasn't allowed in the streaming subscription, there was no issue me listening to it with my uploads. I also have a few other albums that aren't available on streaming that I uploaded, and those likewise work great.

I can also recommend Youtube Music for that.

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