Google Play Music - the end. Alternatives?

[mjazzg]

I've used GPM for a few years as my cloud storage and player for downloads, casting to a Chromecast Audio.  Not audiophile I realise but a perfectly acceptable set up, for now.

Google's decision to close GPM and migrate everyone to YouTube Music has been particularly tiresome as you have to pay for YouTube Music Premium to access the cast function. Thanks Google!

I've found Plex as an alternative, working nicely, but not being cloud-based that feels a step backwards.

Anyone know of free cloud-based storage/player that has the cast function?

[Tom in RI]

Watching with interest.

[JSngry]

If you want to make sure that you always have your music, keep hard(ish) copies and hardware to play it on where you can put your hands on it at any given time.

Convenience is only convenient until it's not.

 

[mjazzg]

I have copies saved in two places, not on the cloud

[Daniel A]

I realize that I am maybe not answering your question, but here's what I do:

I keep my files on a local network drive which is also mirrored in Google Drive. At home, I am streaming directly from the local drive, but when I am elsewhere, I am streaming from Google Drive to my mobile phone, using the standard (Android) music player. 

That said, I believe that there are ways to cast to a Chomecast unit from Google Drive. I know that VLC can do it, though it's primarily a video player. 

[mjazzg]

28 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

I realize that I am maybe not answering your question, but here's what I do:

I keep my files on a local network drive which is also mirrored in Google Drive. At home, I am streaming directly from the local drive, but when I am elsewhere, I am streaming from Google Drive to my mobile phone, using the standard (Android) music player. 

That said, I believe that there are ways to cast to a Chomecast unit from Google Drive. I know that VLC can do it, though it's primarily a video player. 

Your certainly close to answering or at the very least giving interesting context 

I'm not up on the tech side in the slightest and get quite confused by the language sometimes. I was very happy with an arrangement that evolved built around the Chromecast which seems an ideal method of laptop to amplifier connection. But this is now the restricting factor as it requires the cast function in the player.

When at home and streaming from your local drive are you doing so to an amplifier? If so how?

I have thought about Google Drive as the cloud storage. Something to investigate more.

I thought VLC would be the answer as their mobile app is just the sort of interface I was looking for and had used as my player on my Android for some timebut when downloaded onto a laptop it was very different and quite restricted. I need to look again as I can't quite believe there should be the difference. 

[Daniel A]

 We have several playback units that adhere to the DLNA standard. These particular models seem to be discontinued, but there are many other current models. We're using a couple of Revo Superconnect table radios for the kitchen and children's rooms. 

For the music room we use a Yamaha CD player with Spotify, internet radio and network drive streaming capabilities. 

There are many amplifiers with similar functionality. If you want to use an existing amplifier, there are dedicated streaming devices at varying price levels. 

I am using a Synology NAS which has inherent DLNA support. That means that media files will automatically be accessible from units that support the standard, either from proprietary apps or remote controls or the free but somewhat clunky Undok app. 

 

 

[mjazzg]

Thank you, that is a really helpful explanation. It gives me information to work from.

[sidewinder]

I’m using one of these for my Spotify streaming. Haven’t yet hooked it up to a NAS but that might be a good project to look at.

Preference though is for CDs on the main system, with LPs the priority option when I have it on vinyl.

Edited August 29, 2020 by sidewinder

[hopkins]

Youtube Music is the replacement for Google Play Music. You can import your albums from one service to the other, though I have not checked if that is still possible now. You can also upload your own music as you could with Google Play Music. 

https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/thread/52908732?hl=en

I don't like the YouTube user interface, and anyway I had made the switch to Spotify a long time ago. With Spotify you can play your own music "locally" which is fine at home, but you cannot access it outside of your home network. 

In my living room I  play my own albums (mostly CDs ripped to a hard drive) or LPs (I only buy those when I cannot find a CD version). 

Edited November 20, 2020 by hopkins

[mjzee]

Has anyone set up a music server accessible through the Internet?  I'd think a Raspberry Pi (or any mildishly-old home computer) coupled with an external hard drive could make this work.  I'd love to read step-by-step instructions to set up such an arrangement.

[hopkins]

There are several ways to go about this.

One option is to set up your own "cloud storage", using for example Nextcloud (https://nextcloud.com/athome/) or OwnCloud (https://owncloud.com/), which are both free for single users. There are music applications available for both: https://github.com/owncloud/music or https://github.com/Rello/audioplayer.

It seems that you can also connect some iOS or Android apps with nextcloud or owncloud, for example CloudBeats: https://www.cloudbeatsapp.com/

I am sure there are plenty of tutorials available on line to help setting these up.

I came to the conclusion that it is not worth the hassle and am fine with playing music on my phone from Spotify, without access to my own files.

Edited November 21, 2020 by hopkins

[GregK]

11 hours ago, mjzee said:

Has anyone set up a music server accessible through the Internet?  I'd think a Raspberry Pi (or any mildishly-old home computer) coupled with an external hard drive could make this work.  I'd love to read step-by-step instructions to set up such an arrangement.

this is what i have. My music is on a network drive, and I have a raspberry pi that acts as the DLNA server, using JRiver. I can then use that to play music to my stereo system or to my phone. It works great and was much easier to set up than I was expecting. I don't like the JRiver app though, so I have a second raspberry pi that hosts the BubbleUPNP Server, which offers a much better mobile app.

[hopkins]

I thought mjzee was asking about something you could use outside your home (and providing access to your music stored on a computer at home). 

Edited November 21, 2020 by hopkins

[mjzee]

3 hours ago, hopkins said:

I thought mjzee was asking about something you could use outside your home (and providing access to your music stored on a computer at home). 

Correct.  It sounds like GregK has set up such a system, since he can access it on his iPhone.
I’m guessing a “DLNA server” and a “BubbleUPNP server” are two different technologies that accomplish the same thing, and each had its own mobile app. 

[GregK]

19 hours ago, mjzee said:

Correct.  It sounds like GregK has set up such a system, since he can access it on his iPhone.
I’m guessing a “DLNA server” and a “BubbleUPNP server” are two different technologies that accomplish the same thing, and each had its own mobile app. 

Almost. I use an Android phone, and the BubbleUPNP app is only for Android. My set up allows for both in-home streaming to my stereo system, and also over the internet streaming to the app on my phone, thus replacing the functionality lost from Google Music. Additionally, this set up also allows me to stream full high-res FLAC files. 

[Dave Garrett]

On 11/21/2020 at 6:00 PM, mjzee said:

Has anyone set up a music server accessible through the Internet?  I'd think a Raspberry Pi (or any mildishly-old home computer) coupled with an external hard drive could make this work.  I'd love to read step-by-step instructions to set up such an arrangement.

Plex offers this functionality. Here's a piece from last year comparing Google Play Music and Plex:

I ditched Google Play Music for my own Plex server: The good and the bad

[mjzee]

2 hours ago, Dave Garrett said:

Plex offers this functionality. Here's a piece from last year comparing Google Play Music and Plex:

I ditched Google Play Music for my own Plex server: The good and the bad

Interesting.  The article mentions a few times "your server" (as in "Plex has a feature it calls Sync, which allows you to save things to your remote device and your plays, skips, ratings, etc., get synced with your server when you get a data connection back") or "self-hosting your music library" (as in "It should be mentioned that there are other options out there for self-hosting your music library. I chose Plex because I already use it for other forms of media, but if you’re starting fresh you can go with other platforms...").  Are they referring to a virtual drive on Plex's (or a competitor's) server, or do your music files reside on a hard drive you own?

[mjazzg]

I use Plex, my files sit on my hard drive. I haven't synced to other devices though as I use Tidal or Spotify when I'm out and about 

[mjzee]

12 hours ago, mjzee said:

Interesting.  The article mentions a few times "your server" (as in "Plex has a feature it calls Sync, which allows you to save things to your remote device and your plays, skips, ratings, etc., get synced with your server when you get a data connection back") or "self-hosting your music library" (as in "It should be mentioned that there are other options out there for self-hosting your music library. I chose Plex because I already use it for other forms of media, but if you’re starting fresh you can go with other platforms...").  Are they referring to a virtual drive on Plex's (or a competitor's) server, or do your music files reside on a hard drive you own?

Also, if the music files reside on your external hard drive, does it need to be a NAS (Network Attached Storage) EHD, or will any EHD work?

[Dave Garrett]

On 11/23/2020 at 10:27 AM, mjzee said:

Also, if the music files reside on your external hard drive, does it need to be a NAS (Network Attached Storage) EHD, or will any EHD work?

Apologies for the delayed reply. The server refers to the machine on which you have installed the Plex Media Server software. This could be a separate, dedicated machine, depending on what your intended use case is, but I have it installed on my regular Windows desktop machine, which is fairly old and far removed from current performance standards. Plex transcodes media files on the fly depending on available bandwidth and the device you're accessing the files on (another computer, a TV connected to a streaming device such as a Roku with the Plex channel installed, a phone with the Plex app, etc.). This can be CPU-intensive, so folks that are running a Plex server with multiple users accessing it to view high-resolution video files are probably not going to want the server running on the same machine they're using all day. In my case, I use Plex infrequently and I'm never using my desktop for other things at the same time I'm streaming video to my Roku, so I can run the server on my desktop with no problems. 

It's quite common to store a Plex media library on an EHD or a NAS, but my understanding is that while it's technically possible to install and run the Plex Media Server software on an external drive as well, it's not really recommended due to performance issues.

All of my (admittedly limited) experience with Plex has been with using it to stream video, but I'd imagine that using it to stream music files probably doesn't require nearly the horsepower that using it to stream video does.    

[mjzee]

12 minutes ago, Dave Garrett said:

Apologies for the delayed reply. The server refers to the machine on which you have installed the Plex Media Server software. This could be a separate, dedicated machine, depending on what your intended use case is, but I have it installed on my regular Windows desktop machine, which is fairly old and far removed from current performance standards. Plex transcodes media files on the fly depending on available bandwidth and the device you're accessing the files on (another computer, a TV connected to a streaming device such as a Roku with the Plex channel installed, a phone with the Plex app, etc.). This can be CPU-intensive, so folks that are running a Plex server with multiple users accessing it to view high-resolution video files are probably not going to want the server running on the same machine they're using all day. In my case, I use Plex infrequently and I'm never using my desktop for other things at the same time I'm streaming video to my Roku, so I can run the server on my desktop with no problems. 

It's quite common to store a Plex media library on an EHD or a NAS, but my understanding is that while it's technically possible to install and run the Plex Media Server software on an external drive as well, it's not really recommended due to performance issues.

All of my (admittedly limited) experience with Plex has been with using it to stream video, but I'd imagine that using it to stream music files probably doesn't require nearly the horsepower that using it to stream video does.    

OK, fascinating, thanks Dave.