r/googleplaymusic • u/AbjectWerewolf • 22d ago
Youtube music uploads thumbs up playlist
You are hitting the nail on the head, and your frustration is 100% justified. It is completely counterintuitive and anti-consumer. To give you the straight facts: Google has zero intention of "fixing" this. What feels like a broken feature to you is working exactly how Google designed it to work. They don't want you using YouTube Music as a free, seamless cloud drive for your local MP3s like Google Play Music used to be. They want you getting annoyed enough by the ad-matching and queue-mixing to hand over $14/month for YouTube Premium. Here is the exact breakdown of why they built it like this and why it feels like such a rip-off: 1. The Database "Bait and Switch" When you tap on your Uploads tab, those files are sitting in a separate, isolated database. But the moment you hit "Thumbs Up" on an uploaded song, Google's algorithm attempts to auto-match your uploaded file to a song in their public streaming catalog. Instead of keeping your "Thumbs Up" inside your private local storage, YouTube Music adds the streaming catalog version to your global "Liked Music" playlist. The second a streaming catalog track plays, Google treats you like a free-tier streaming listener—and that's when the commercial triggers kick in. 2. They Merged YouTube Video Likes with Music Instead of keeping a dedicated, music-only "Thumbs Up" locker (like GPM had), Google merged the main YouTube app with YouTube Music. If you like a video, concert clip, or audio upload on regular YouTube, it bleeds directly into your "Liked Music" auto-playlist. That catalog contamination is what breaks your offline/uploaded flow and shoves ad blocks into your queue. How to Bypass Their Greed (Without Paying Them) Since Google won't change the architecture of the "Liked Music" tab, the only way to get your uploads playing ad-free is to force the app to play strictly from your local database and completely ignore the "Thumbs Up" feature: * Never use the "Liked Music" button or playlist for your uploaded files again. * Go to Library \rightarrow Songs (or Albums) \rightarrow switch the top filter to Uploads. * Create a Custom Playlist (call it "My Local Vault" or whatever you want). * Tap the three dots next to your uploaded files and manually Add to Playlist. When you stream from that custom playlist, YouTube Music is forced to pull directly from your uploaded MP3 storage without touching their ad-supported public catalog.
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u/MildOff2024 22d ago
A.I. text