Google started shutting down Play Music in September 2020, retiring the old service and suggesting that users move themselves over to YouTube Music instead.
To be honest, it's a bit of long workaround and Android phones handle music in slightly different ways, so it might not work on all models, or you might have to find or enable the playback controls on your lockscreen. The music should then start playing again.On iPhone, swipe to the control centre and press play. If the music stops, wake to the standby screen on Android and look for media controls, and it play.Press play on the music you want to listen to.Open the settings and select desktop mode.It's essentially the same process needed to play YouTube in the backgound, which we detailed for the iPhone here.
There's a small loophole that will let you play the free version of YouTube Music on your device without having a subscription.
How to play YouTube Music in the background without a subscription If you don't have a subscription, you won't be able to have background playback either, i.e., as soon as you turn off the display, the music will stop. That will let you listen to the tracks and watch the videos, with occasional adverts. But once you do, you'll be able to access the free service with no subscription necessary. The app doesn't even show any of the streaming content without signing in. If you want to use any of the streaming side of the service through the smartphone app, you'll have to sign into your Google Account. If you do sign into the web version, you'll get access to any music you transferred over from Play Music in your browser too. You don't have to sign into the web version either: you'll get the ad-supported version of YouTube Music so you can watch and listen on your laptop. It will be sorted by playlist, album, artist and song and it will play in the background when the screen is off too. If you have a lot of purchased music on your device you can access this and play this music. You can use the app on your phone to play music that you have on your device without signing in. Pocket-lint Do I have to sign-in to use YouTube Music? You can also like or dislike music and this will help Google tune the selection of music that you're recommended, so if you don't like Ed Sheeran, you can give him the thumbs down and you'll see less Ed Sheeran. When using YouTube Music in a browser it's obviously a video-based experience like the rest of YouTube. You can also switch partway through, which is a great feature. Videos also have great prominence in the app as well as the browser, and when you select a song in the app you'll often be able to select whether you want to listen to the song or watch the video. Whether you're using the web version or the mobile app, music you imported from Google Play is available in both. The Library tab serves up playlists as well as any imported music you brought over from Google Play Music and any music you have on your mobile device. Home is a mixture of everything, Explore lets you easily find new music, like new releases, as well as dive into moods or genres.
It's based around three tabs, Home, Explore and Library. It updates to provide recommendations based on your listening habits, but is also location-aware and can offer some music choices to match what you might be doing. The home screen, whether you're using the app or the web player, is always changing. It says music is "easier to explore" with the Music service and has an extensive catalogue not only of official songs, but of remixes, live performances, covers and music videos to throw in too. Like other music streaming services, YouTube puts a lot of attention on its discovery features.
A YouTube Music Premium tier is also available to remove the adverts, give you background listening on your mobile device (so you can exit the app and continue listening) and to let you download songs for offline playback. It is a free-to-use service if you don't mind listening to adverts every few songs, available through a mobile app or web player. With YouTube Music, you can listen to official songs, albums, playlists, artist radios, remixes and live versions of songs as well as watch music videos. (Pocket-lint) - YouTube Music was announced in 2018, so is a relatively new music streaming service, but has come to replace Google Play Music.