A group of YouTube Music staff found out that they had been made redundant while speaking at a council meeting in Texas, urging councillors to support them in their efforts to get the Google-owned company to negotiate with their union. Google says they were contractors whose agreements have expired
I’m sure this was labor retaliation or something but watching YouTube music eat google music and then steadily get worse. I don’t know. Fuck google and their lack of support. I don’t like Spotify particularly but now I use it because i really hated youtube music’s suggestion algorithm.
Time for a rebrand!
Google Music with Podcasts™️.
In the store it’s of course advertised like just about any app from a large company, as something like “Google Music, fast&secure”. Seriously, why do all big apps want to desperately sound like really bad chinese malware?!
gMusic here we come!
Youtube Music’s interface is a cluttered mess and I much preferred the spartan UI of Google Play Music. It took much time for the former to reach feature parity as well. Oh, and now they shutdown their dedicated Podcasts app in favor of merging It into YT Music. It is a disappointment, to say the least.
Yeah play music looked good, it was easy to find full albums by genre, and their suggestion algorithm played stuff I liked but had never heard.
The podcast app sucked anyway, couldn’t even download episodes to the SD card.
I don’t think it’s even reached feature parity. I think YouTube Music still doesn’t let you upload your own music to your account?
One can upload their own music to Youtube/Music’s servers via their web client.
Interesting! I’ve often been really impressed by the playlists it throws together (but I recognize my experience is certainly not universal).
I hate YouTube Music for other reasons, like how they fucked up my Google Play Music library, and how playlists and even legitimate albums will have songs that won’t play because the same song is elsewhere on YouTube (like in the Top Gun Maverick soundtrack Danger Zone won’t play, because it’s in the original Top Gun soundtrack).
Whenever I say (OK google, play xxx radio) within twenty songs all the playlists end up being The Band or electroswing. Which are things I like but I’m trying to find novel music not stuff I already like
It is interesting you say that, because no matter what genre of song I originally start on, within 10 songs, the algorithm is going to start throwing in The Band and Fleetwood Mac.
Now, do I generally want to listen to either of those two groups? Yes, but probably not when I specifically turned on a Bonobo playlist.
Yeah that’s my thing exactly. I don’t think most people who start out with swisha house radio end up with rjd2 even though the genres are related. Maybe enough people only listen to songs they know they like to skew suggestions for people looking more for discovery than previously liked?
There is something wrong with the algorithm, where even when it does force you to listen to artists it knows you likes, there is no second layer which says, “this person loves Fleetwood Mac, I can disregard their top 5 most popular songs and allow a selection from their too 50 songs now.”
It’s not that google knows I love Fleetwood Mac is the issue, it is that they don’t know that. They think I just love 4 songs off Rumours.
Same with The Band. Google wants me to listen to the band once every 3 or so hours, but only the weight and the night they drove old Dixie down. If I search a specific song, it never gets added into rotation.
I haven’t noticed this issue with newer artists. The algo gives them much less priority, but seems to be willing to play more of their catalog.
Same. Always hated Spotify, always avoided them.
But the absolute shitshow of an app that was/is early Youtube Music drove me to Spotify regardless. Good work, Google, I was a happily paying customer for years.
Same same. I’m thinking of trying tidal next when my introductory pricing on Spotify ends. I tried just using other apps for Spotify that uses youtube but my family is addicted to voice control through the smart speakers.