Google Play Music for Android has seen a minor update today that brings some improvements around searching for YouTube videos in the app. The updated build is version 6.4.21 for those keeping score at home and if you have the app installed on your phone or tablet, you should see the update come to you via an OTA in the coming days. There isn’t much to report on as far as new features go, just the improvements around finding videos of your favorite bands or artists within the app.
Finding videos and playing them within the Google Play Music app has actually been in the app since the 6.2 release, about the time that Google launched their unlimited subscription program. But the search results were never all that great and playback of videos was not as good as they were in YouTube itself. The video playback issues seem to have sorted out in 6.3 and in this update, searching for a band’s videos produces more results. Also, if you search for a band that Google Play Music doesn’t have the license for in their library, you can still pull up videos for that band from
Video Searching in Google Play Music
YouTube. For example, if you search for the German metal/punk band Rammstein, you will see none of the bands albums in the library for you to purchase or download. However, scroll down and you will see all of the videos that are available for the band from YouTube. From there you can tap and play any of them (Never heard of Rammstein? Play the video “Feuer Frei!“. If you have seen the Vin Diesel movie XXX then you will recognize this song).
Google Play Music is free to download and you can upload your library to the service for streaming to your devices for free as well. The $9.99 per month unlimited subscription ($14.99 for a family plan up to 6 members) allows you to download music from the service that you don’t own to stream or listen to offline later.
