A few weeks ago, I ran an Open Thread asking readers why they prefer using YouTube Music over many available alternatives, including my service of choice, Spotify. It would be an understatement to say that it received a flurry of comments and strong opinions from our community questioning my views. With just under 400 replies at the time of this writing, not to mention the big win for Google’s streaming service in the accompanying poll, it’s clear that I was perhaps missing a trick by siding with Spotify. So, as I enjoy reevaluating my opinions, I once again signed up for YouTube Music to see what the fuss is all about. A little over a week later, I’m thoroughly impressed by the strides made by Google’s offering.
I was a happy Google Play Music user for many years, and regularly defended the service when people recommended alternatives. But when Google announced the end of the service in 2021, I was left disillusioned by its replacement. In its early days, YouTube Music was unintuitive and leaned too heavily on its video-hosting namesake. It often pushed video when I wanted an audio-first service. It was also heavily influenced by my YouTube browsing and viewing habits, and was astonishingly slow in operation. In short, it sucked, and I quickly jumped ship to Spotify.