Google Play Music can act as a central hub for all your audio files. If you subscribe to Google’s service, you’ll have access to Play Music’s catalog of songs, and can also upload 50,000 of your own tracks.
But you can also download the music from Google Play to your phone! Keep reading to find out how.
The Easiest Way to Find Free Music on the Google Play Music Store. With a credit or debit card or PayPal information to download free music. Google Play Music helps solve the problem of having limited storage space on your phone or other device. Instead of having the music installed directly on your phone, the music is streamed from Google Play Music. This is the step where you will be prompted to download the “Google Play Music Manager” if you do not already have it on your. Music is a great way to liven up your presentations and keep your audience engaged. Unlike Microsoft PowerPoint, however, Google Sheets doesn’t include support for audio files. But with the. It’s possible to get your music from the same source where you get apps for your Android phone — the Google Play Store. The music you buy at the Play Store isn’t downloaded to your phone. It shows up, but it plays over the Internet. That means you can hear it only when the phone [].
The Easiest Way to Find Free Music on the Google Play Music Store. Search the site GO. Software & Apps. How to Find Free Music on Google Play. Your access to the music also disappears. However, any music you've saved that's free to download and play will remain available, regardless of your subscription status. By putting your music on Google Play, you can make it easy for everyone to discover your songs. And when Google Play pays you for your download or streaming revenue, 100% will go directly into your account. Take your career to the next level - get your music on Google Play without compromising a dime of the money you earn. How to Get Free Music Using Google. Explore this Article Alternate Methods Ask a Question Related Articles. Download Music from Spotify. Download Music to MP3 Players. Save Music from Websites. Download Free Music to iTunes. Download Songs from SoundCloud.
Downloading Your Own Music
There are three types of tracks in your Google Play Music Library: tracks you uploaded, tracks you bought, and tracks from a Play Music subscription. We’ll look at streaming tracks later. For now, let’s focus on tracks you own.
Because you own the tracks, you are free to download them from Google Play and use them on your other apps and devices.
How to Download Music From Google Play
If you only want to download a particular album or one of your playlists, it’s easy to do with the official Play Music Android app. Just follow the step-by-step instructions below:
- Open the app and navigate to the music you want.
- Tap on the name of either the album or playlist to open the context menu.
- On the context menu, tap Download.
You’ll receive a notification on your device when the download is complete.
If you want to see which songs you have saved locally through the Google Play Music app, tap on the three horizontal bars in the upper left-hand corner, then scroll down to Downloaded only and slide the toggle into the On position.
How to Download All the Music You Own on Google Play
So far, so good. But what happens if you want to download all the music you own on Play Music—meaning every song you’ve ever uploaded and every song you’ve ever bought?
Clearly, the method we just explained isn’t suitable. It would take an untold amount of time to download every album and playlist individually, and that’s before you worry about accidentally overlooking some of the files.
Oddly, the Google Play Music app does not provide a simple “Download All” button. Instead, you’ll need to revert to the web app and follow a workaround. The Play Music web app is available at play.google.com/music.
The workaround involves creating batches of playlists, with each having 1,000 songs. Unfortunately, Play Music does not allow playlists with more tracks.
To make a new playlist in the Play Music web app, navigate to Music Library > Playlists, then click on the three horizontal lines in the top right-hand corner and select the large Plus icon. Give your playlist a name (for example, “Temporary 1”) and, if you wish, a description.
Drag the first 1,000 songs in your collection into the list, then repeat the process. Don’t worry about mixing artists and genres; the files won’t be tied to the playlist when they eventually arrive on your phone.
Once you’ve got all your music in playlists, return to the Android app and repeat the download process described earlier.
Listening to Your Downloaded Songs
Now you have downloaded a copy of all your music onto your Android phone. But what’s next?
Unfortunately, you can only listen to the music through the Google Play Music app. That’s annoying for people who use more full-featured music players on AndroidThe 15 Best Offline Music Player Apps for AndroidThe 15 Best Offline Music Player Apps for AndroidWant to play music on your phone without using Wi-Fi or data? Here are the best offline music player apps for Android.Read More.
However, more concerningly, you cannot access the original MP3 files without a rooted phone. That rules out a lot of people. If you do have a rooted device, you can browse to Data > com.google.android.music > Files on your device’s storage.
How To Download Music On Google Pixel 2
(Note: Making a mistake while rooting your Android device could lead to data loss. Make sure you back up your files before attempting anything).
Use Google Play Music Manager
Although the Play Music web player supports a drag-and-drop interface to upload your songs, a more efficient way of doing it is to use the official Music Manager app.
Did you know that in addition to uploading music, the Music Manager app can also download your music from the service? Best of all, there are no weird restrictions; it will download regular MP3 files that you’re free to move and listen to elsewhere.
Therefore, if you want MP3 copies of your whole music library on your phone, the best solution is to download them using the Music Manager app, then transfer them onto your phone via a USB cable.
To download songs, open the desktop app and go to Download > Download my Library. You can select a destination folder before proceeding.
The Music Manager app is available on Windows and Mac for no cost.
How To Download Music In Your Google Drive
Download Streaming Songs From Google Play Music
Naturally, you cannot (legally) download MP3s of the music Google makes available through its Play Music subscription service (a plan costs $10/month for a single user).
You can, however, download the music for listening offline. This lets you keep listening when you lose a data signal.
To download the music to your phone, tap on an album, playlist, or radio station, then select the three vertical dots and choose Download from the popup menu.
You can see which songs are currently downloading by returning to the app’s home screen, tapping on the vertical horizontal lines in the upper left-hand corner, then going to Settings > Manage downloads.
Consider Using a Different Service
How To Download Music To Google Drive From Youtube
Google Play Music’s 50,000 upload limit is, quite rightly, a very popular feature. But it’s not the only choice you have open to you. If you think the process to get MP3s directly onto your device sounds like a bit of hard work, you’re right.
Instead, you could try using a service that doesn’t alter your files when you first upload them. Services like OneDrive and Dropbox spring to mind. Remember, you get a free 1TB of storage on OneDrive if you sign up for Office 365.
If you’d like to learn more, we’ve covered some little-known Google Play Music tips and tricks7 Cool Things You Can Do With Google Play Music7 Cool Things You Can Do With Google Play MusicIn this article, we'll introduce you to some cool things you can do with Google Play Music that both beginners and veterans alike may not be aware of, but should make use of.Read More that you should check out.
How To Download Music In Google Play Music
Explore more about: Download Management, Google Music, Google Play Music, Streaming Music.
Actually, you can download MP3 portable music files from google play music directly to your android device for any music you have purchased or uploaded to the google play music website.
Very easy...but one and only one way...and you can only do each track, or complete album 3 and only 3 times. You have to trick your android device into believing it is a computer by switching chrome browser to desk top. You have to access the google play music web site where your music (purchased & uploads are stored) by bookmark (only!). So, you have to enter the url then make it a bookmark. Then, after switching to desktop mode in your chrome browser, select the google play music bookmark. The url you need to enter is as follows:It may ask you to log into your google account. It will then load your entire google play music library and you will be in the home directory. Simply select 'MUSIC LIBRARY' then select 'ARTIST' at the top bar. You can then select any artist in your library. It will show you several categories....go down to 'MY LIBRARY' and select 'SEE ALL'. Simply pick an album...you can either download the whole album, or pick a track. To download the album click on the 3 dots...then select 'DOWNLOAD ALBUM' in the pop up menu. It will take you to another pop up menu titled 'DOWNLOAD MUSIC'. Click on the underlined words 'download directly'. This will give you yet another pop up window also entitled 'DOWNLOAD MUSIC'. Click on the orange words 'DOWNLOAD NOW'....and wait until its finished downloading. Your album will be a portable zipfile in your download directory on your android device. Unzip it and it will create the proper directories, artwork, trac numbers, everything, as mp3 files that can be ported, or played in any music player....my favorite is JetAudio....check it out.
I just wanted to say thank you. Your article explaining how to get music from my Apple computer onto my Android phone was the only one I found that was truly helpful. So, thanks!!
The work-around for the 1,000-song limit on playlists is to just make multiple, generic >1,000-song playlists. It takes very little time to do that. Once the playlists are downloaded to the phone, the songs can be manipulated in the GPM app by genre, etc., regardless of the fact that they were downloaded as playlists. Not sure if the playlists can be deleted after this method. Probably so, but there's really no reason to do so.
If you change your download cache location to use your Sdcard, you dont need root, as all files will now be located on the sdcard.
If i delete that temporary playlist will the music stay on the phone?
I agree this is less than ideal, but it DOES work. I just downloaded 6000 songs, 1000 at a time, and it took about 5 minutes to follow this method. Not a big deal.
Too bad Google doesn't make it easier.
Like a fellow already mentioned - this does NOT WORK, since playlists are limited to 1.000 songs. You could however make various batches of playlists to do this. It's a pretty dumb and slow process though. And Google Play Music is more like the 'Worst music player'for android than anything else.
Thank you, so helpful. I'm just wanting to download music to put on an MP3 for my kid who does not need internet access at all times, very helpful!!
Come on Google make this easier then it is.
This does NOT work.
Playlists are limited to 1,000 songs.Thank you, very helpful dont know why Google play can't have an easy option to do this on your phone
You don't need to root to find, name and move the files. Any file explorer can do it.
Thanks! That made a very non-intuitive process easy to understand!
There should be an easier way to retrieve
personal music /recordings that were uploaded to the app before lost on device. Allowing for your personal inventory to be restored to new device. (Phone)Thank you, excellent tip! It's a pity Google Play Music is so dysfunctional. It can play music - Yes. It can sort and manage music - No.
This folder is empty for me :(
If you are downloading the music to your sd card check there instead that's what happened to me
You can also just download the mp3's with a PC app called 'Song Spout' it works great with a google music subscription!
Can you play downloaded music on the new google home speaker?
Such a clever work-around! Thank you!
Can I transfer music from my android tablet to my iphone? Or vice versa??
Unfortunately you have to use multiple playlists if you have over 1000 songs because Google limits the length of a playlist to 1000 songs.
I found a way around that. If you select them like mentioned here and then thumb them all up, there's an auto 'thumbs up' playlist that can have more than a thousand and you can download that.
This sounds like a great solution but when I tried it, I cant seem to thumbs up more than one song at a time. did something change?
How do I just get music without having to download any other storage apps
This tutorial is obsolete for Marshmallow and the Google Play app as of 10/13/16. It needs to be rewritten in a *numbered*, step-by-step, user action-app response style. I can't figure it out as is.
The downloaded mp3's won't play anymore. I checked the file through the hex editor, a typical header hex for mp3s (0x 49 44 33) is not present anymore. It looks like they've encrypted mp3 files in the newer version of play music (DRM maybe?).
Yup. They have applied encryption on the songs. The songs don't play anywhere and thus, this method won't work.
Why is this so much more complicated than iTunes?
Why is this so complicated compared to iTunes?
Thankssssssss YOU
Thank you for the simple to follow instructions! My music was really eating up my data, now not a worry!
Thank you for the clear and concise directions. Got my downloads started to my hard drive.
Is this a method I could use if the data package is being tuned off on my phone and I want to still have all the songs I purchased (one by one, individually on my phone) from Google play.
Okay. Is this method we can use to save songs my daughter has purchased from Google play over the last couple of years? We're turning off data package on the phone (too much data usage) but don't want her to lose the the years' worth of songs she's purchased. We don't have a monthly subsciption have purchase songs individually. I could use some advise.
Yes, this is Thee method to to save all songs, from Google Play Music, to a smartphone so that they can accessed offline without the need for any data or even Wi-Fi usage. I recommend a (micro SD card Class 10) as storage for the music as well (I prefer Samsung SD cards because I've heard rumors of some problems that can arise with SanDisk. These problems may be totally false, but I just like to play it safe). The amount of storage (32gb, 64gb, 128gb) is up to you to decide.
Thank you for this! Worked great and was exactly what I needed.
It's kind of ridiculous that I'd have to rename purchased mp3 names if I wanted to use them elsewhere. Sucks!
While this idea seems great in concept, it fails because if you download via a playlist, those albums do not show up in your collection unless they are mp3's you own. So let's say you add a bunch of albums to a list, download it, and then want to listen to just one album from that list offline.
You can't.
Not unless you go to the playlist, find the album in it, and play from there. Obviously, this is pretty tedious. Especially if your playlists are not ordered well or if an album spans 2 lists because of that stupid 1000 limit. Playlists should add all of the albums (even if it has one song) to the library but Google does not think this is a good idea (they have told me that...for reasons).
What I REALLY want to see, and I can't even believe this is not a thing, is the ability to indicate via the web that I want a song to be downloaded to my phone. This could be as simple as 'try to fit everything indicated into whatever space available' or there could be profiles for your different devices. Much like Google Play has you choose where to install an app. If the former were implemented, the mobile apps could have a switch that says whether or not to allow auto-download of pinned songs.
This is all a pipe dream though because I have given them feedback over and over and no one listens. They seem to think that everyone should just stream. Like we all have unlimited data or are always on wifi.
Also, the nice thing about the web download tag is that if you get a new device...bam! All your metadata is saved and you don't have to go through the whole process again.
I have about 8,000 songs offline and when you get to about 3-4K, the app slows to a CRAWL between hitting a button and a dialog opening.
I don't understand either why the songs in my playlists doesn't appear in the song tabs of my music library. I guess like you said that google think that everyone just stream.
I am absolutely Blown Away by the sheer stupidity of this design decision. Google Music has to be the worst designed music player app I've ever used
Thanks for posting this. This is the first workable solution I've come across, and although not perfect (due to the 1000 song playlist limit), it's closer than any other solution I've found.
Please consider updating your article with some info about how to work around the 1000 song limit. I personally select the first 1000, take a note of what song is the 1000th, make a playlist called '0-1000', then repeat starting with the last song I had selected. A pain for sure, but again, better than the (lack of) alternatives.
There is an easier way to download all your songs. Just go to Playlists and download the 'Last Added' Playlist. The Last Added Playlist is automatically generated by play music and it will always be up to date with all your songs.
There is a max song limit of 1,000 songs per playlist... so this doesn't work....
make more than one playlist?
Does anybody know an alternative to Song Spout? Or any other way to download to music of Google Play Music?
+12017625582
i dont see a download button just a check mark?
Seems there is a 1000 song limit to a playlist, so I cannot load them all
If your looking to download google music's subscription tracks then Song Spout on your PC is by far a better option! It will automatically save anything that is in your play queue to your machine with meta tags and album art! Its by far the fastest and easiest way to do this...
Nice suggestion. Spotify in addition to allowing downloading Playlists, Albums and Songs also allows you to download an artist which is very convenient.
I started downloading albums after I had grabbed individual songs I liked from various artists, not realizing that google play grabs the whole album even if you have one song that you selected from the Album. That sucks. I'll do the above to keep my playlists under control.
Update!!!!
Just checked and now Google Music no longer has this restriction as long as your using Google Chrome to download on PC. You have to use the Google Chrome browser or there Music Manager. Here is a copy paste from there help article. Read it at this link yourself:
'On your computer:
When you download using Safari, Internet Explorer, or Firefox, you can download a song to your computer two times. When you use Google Play Music for Chrome or Music Manager, you can download to your computer an unlimited amount of times.'
Unfortunately this way will not work any more. You will still need to be rooted and use the following: Play Music Exporterhttps://www.david-schulte.de/en/play-music-exporter/ More info here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2620331
I followed all of the instructions and can see the files (they're .mp3 files), but I can't play them with anything and they all appear to be 00:00 in length, although they're the size you'd expect (8/9MB).
Any suggestions?
If you copy the files to your internal storage or sdcard you'll be able to play it as normal with any music player of your choice. You DO need to be rooted to do this though.
Google has a playlist limit of 1000 songs, and my library has over 3500 songs. Very strange that this article doesn't mention this limitation. Of course, I can just make four separate playlists to download entire library, but both the fact that playlists are limited to 1000 songs and the fact that there's no simple, dedicated way to download your entire libary to your phone is just ridiculous.
I agree, it could be easily integrated. Also a good updated view of new releases would be nice. Rdio was good for that.
I purchased my first phone, Samsung Galaxy s5 last year. I loved the fact that their Music Icon allowed me instant access to my personal music folder on my desktop. Now, with the upgrade they just put on my phone this weekend, they have taken that away requiring me to download the software on my computer. I'm not doing it. I was told Google Play Music would work, but it's not letting me access my music folder. How do I get my songs streaming from my PC to my phone?
Google play will no longer play music at all, no error message or anything pops up. It registers that I click the song but nothing plays.
Just a heads up, it appears that if you delete the playlist that you use to cache these songs, the cached songs will disappear as well :(...Downloaded 7 gigs of music overnight, deleted the playlist, and now I'm back to square one.
Yes, this is still the case with the latest version, as I found out today with 45GB of music, now downloading for the second time...
Justin,
Appreciate you posting this. It was helpful in getting my phone loaded up. Article was sufficiently complete that I didn't even have to wander into the comments.
Cheers.
Any reason why Google saved music as numbers? It's the dumbest thing ever...
Also found that files are not playable through Music, other top 3rd-party music players. Will try other options besides Copy+Paste. If anything works, will share the good news.
Any way to have the music show up with artist/song title instead of the number system? I have a music app that has more features than the Google play app that can browse folders and I just want to use Google play to backup and buy my music.
The files aren't playable?
Going to be going from Google Play Music to Xbox Music soon and was looking for an article like this, Thanks!
You are a life saver! THANK YOU for this article!
What a pain. Solution: Amazon music.
After I move my file to my SD Card and try to play it, it says the file type is unsupported, though it says its a media/mpeg3
Fantastic article. Clear instructions and thank you for the tip to make sure you on on wifi when downloading the library.
If I cache my music this way, it remains invisible in 'My Library' view. Most of it anyway. I can play downloaded songs from the playlist view though. Is this a bug or am I missing something? I am slowly starting to think dumping iPod was a mistake.
Hey Matteo,
I'm facing the same issue. I put my entire lib into 6 playlists and downloaded these. The songs are can be played in offline mode. But SOME of the songs don't appear in the artist-section or the titles-section. It' s really frustrating, because it's inconsistent. Most of the titles can be accessed, but some can't. Any help for that issue?
Contrary to advice above I find the two download limit has no workaround.
Music Manager for Windows lets you download your whole library. 'Download free and purchased' is greyout out. 'To download a specific song, visit the music player'. Once there obviously you're under the 2 song limit rule.
Google Limits you to 1000 songs per playlist but the maximum in the library is 20,000 songs so you need to make 20 playlists if you are at capacity.
How ridiculous. What is so difficult for the most genius programmers in the world to just add a 'download your library' button?
I know this is a slightly old article but just though i say this for anyone else who stumbles onto this
Theres a slightly easier way to download all songs for offlime play without going on a computer.
On the device you are using simply go to my library -> songs
Then press play on the first song, switch to list view and click save queue, make a new playlist then download itThis method still only creates playlist of 1000 tracks.
Great tip, why isn't there a 'make entire library available offline' button!
Google, the maker of the self driving car. Oops we forgot a button.
It still doesn't work in India... Is there some workaround..pls
@Howard B
You don't have to buy anything...
Why don't they do away with the ugly grey background in the app or at least let the user choose a picture of his own?
FWIW, the offline option is also a great way to avoid ever needing to use iTunes to manage the music on an iPod Touch. Just delete all the saved music and install Google Play Music. I haven't plugged my iPod into a computer since the iOS app came out, and doubt I will ever have to do so again.
As long as you're writing to SD card you can do this on an un-rooted android device too...
where you from james?
where you from james?
Or, if you're like me, you ripped all your old CDs and store them locally, not buying *anything* from Google and have no need to download *anything.* Not even once.
As far as downloading all the Play songs at once to my phone goes, I find it a lot easier to just go and click 'keep on device' for the automatically created 'Last Added' playlist Google Play gives you. It has all of your songs on it already, and will automatically download any new ones you put in your collection later
The 'Last Added' playlist is limited to 500 songs.
that's not enough for me.
This is a great article. Ever since switching from iTunes to Google Music I've been downloading my music to my phone one album at a time, so this article will be a great help. Three quick questions: (1) it seems that a playlist on Google music has a limit of 1000 songs - is there any way to get around that limit; (2) if the new playlist includes songs that are already on the phone, does the app skip those songs during download, or does it download a duplicate; and (3) if I don't have a rooted phone, can I plug the phone into the USB on my computer and use Windows to move the songs to a SD card.
Again, many thanks for this articleI just completely filled up my internal storage. Seems that the option to save to SD card is device specific and I'm out of luck. Oh well, c'est la vie.
'for some reason, Google only allows each song to be downloaded to your computer twice. '
I'm pretty sure this two download limit does not apply if you use the Google Music Manager application: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1229970
Also, unless something has changed since I tested it when it first came out, that also was not the case if you used the new Google Play Music app for Chrome, at least on Chrome OS, as described here: http://www.omgchrome.com/browser-uploading-now-available-google-music/
And when using either of these options you get a file with the artist and song name. That said, I have done it the way you describe as well in Android a few times.
Niciminaj music. No my phone
How to clean my phone so I could get to my music