5 Google Play Music features that YouTube Music doesn’t have yet

Google Play Music gracefully ceased to exist in 2020 to make way for YouTube Music. Many of us, myself included, made the migration and hoped for the best. After all, Google promised us that this would be an even better music experience. And while YouTube Music has some great features, we’re still missing some of Play Music’s most beloved tools and features. Features like metadata editing, play count, and lighting mode are still nowhere to be found.

1 Editing song information.

The power of personalization

Google Play Music included the ability to change the metadata of the songs that we had uploaded to our library. We can edit the name of the artist, the album, the title of the song and even the musical genre. This is a pretty standard option across all music streaming services, from Spotify to Apple Music. It’s also a blessing, because it gives you supreme organizational power and allows you to meticulously curate your music library.

Google never included that feature in YouTube Music. All our own music is blocked now. Whether this is intentional or just an oversight, but now that Google Play Music is gone, we’re left at the mercy of Google’s mysterious organizational powers.

2 An audio-only app

Why does YTM insist on giving me videos?

YouTube is the best source on the Internet for music videos. After all, the platform was created for videos. Likewise, Google Play Music was one of the best audio streaming platforms. This clear separation between the two services was simple. YouTube Music, on the other hand, combines them and my home page and searches are often littered with video suggestions.

It’s not that bad on the web app, but the YTM app on mobile is where the line gets blurred between video and audio. If you listen to music while driving and let Google randomly select songs for your listening pleasure, you risk popping up music videos (and consuming data). The only way to avoid this is to select your playlists before you hit the road.

3 The game counts

Music Statistics for Audio Nerds

Google Play Music understood that there’s something satisfying about seeing how many times you’ve played that song. It would allow us to organize our library based on play count if we wish. YouTube Music has decided it’s best to keep our musical interests a secret. Our listening history doesn’t exist on YouTube Music, at least not for us to see.

Sometimes we music nerds need our stats. Play count isn’t just a vanity metric, either. They tell a story about our tastes and give us the chance to go back in time. Remember how crazy I was about the Chainsmokers in 2016? Good times.

4 light mode

GPM was bright and colorful

Google Play Music had a brighter, cleaner look. Its light mode was a welcome option, a refreshing contrast to Spotify’s dark-only trend. It’s baffling that so many apps offer light and dark modes that automatically adjust based on your device’s settings, but YouTube Music stubbornly insists on a dark-only interface.

We miss the light, airy feel of Google Play Music’s interface and wish YouTube Music would implement it.

5 crossfade

Where did the smooth transitions go?

Google Play Music understood the beauty of crossfading: a smooth, seamless, magical transition from one song to another creates an uninterrupted flow of music. The feature has been around for a while. Even the old Windows Media Player had it. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere to be found on YouTube Music, leaving us with jarring moments of silence between our songs.

Those gaps can be brutal when listening to a carefully crafted playlist. But then again, maybe Google doesn’t want us to create our own playlists anymore?

The best of GPM and YTM

Google could add these missing features to YouTube Music

There are many things I like about YouTube Music. For starters, the Explore page is exceptional and one of the best of any music streaming service. The service’s recommendations are excellent and even better than those on Spotify’s Discover page (IMHO). It just needs to improve some of Google Play Music’s usability.

After all, Google successfully implemented these things in Google Play Music, so we know they are capable of it. With a little effort, they could easily introduce customizable metadata, play counts, and a crossfade feature to YouTube Music. A light mode should be a no-brainer. And get rid of the music videos, for God’s sake. Leave the videos on YouTube.

Hello Google, can we get these features back?

YouTube Music has certainly evolved since it first appeared in 2015. However, Google promised that Play Music features would move to YouTube Music when they announced they were shutting down their beloved streaming service. Many details are still missing and it is disconcerting.

We miss the ability to track our play count or customize our song information to carefully curate our playlists. Almost everyone is scratching their head at the lack of crossfade. Each of the elements we’ve discussed contributed to making Google Play Music one of our favorite music streaming platforms. Consider this a gentle nudge from your user base to bring back Google Play Music features so we can love YouTube Music too.

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