‘YouTube Music adds option for playing locally stored music files’

Google has started adding an option to music streaming service YouTube Music that allows users to play music files stored on their phone through the app. At least that’s what the website MSPoweruser states.

MSPoweruser shows a screenshot showing that a tab called ‘device files’ has been added to the artist page. This means that audio files that are stored on the smartphone, and in principle therefore completely outside YouTube Music, are displayed. The feature is not yet widely available and will likely be added to YouTube Music in phases. Google has not officially announced an update with this new feature.

When selecting the option, a message will appear indicating that playback of local files is possible in the app, but the songs cannot be added to rows and playlists in YouTube Music. Casting the local files to another device is also not an option.

With this, Google seems to be taking another step to eventually present YouTube Music as a full replacement for Google Play Music, the default player on Android. YouTube Music still lacks some features, such as the ability that Play Music offers users to upload their entire music library for streaming anywhere.

YouTube Music hasn’t been around that long. The service was released in the United States in May last year, followed by its introduction in the Benelux at the end of August. There are two versions available: a free version with ads and a Premium version for 10 euros per month that also allows downloading music and playing in the background.