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 Although YouTube Music arrives relatively late to the music streaming scene, the Google company is constantly rolling out new features to draw people's eyes, especially to attract the former Google Play Music users. Since April 2019, Google announced the launch of the ad-supported free tier of YouTube music on Google Home and other smart speakers. YouTube Music finally gain the ability to have personal playlists be played from Google Assistant. With YouTube Music and Google Home, you can now just say such as "Hey, Google, play music for working out," then your speaker will fill out the room with some music that pumps you up. You can ask Google Home to play the right music for any genre or mood, and YouTube Music will play the perfect station, customized to your tastes based upon your request. Here in this article, we'll seek the three possible ways to play YouTube Music on Google Home. Continue reading the passage to learn more about YouTube Music on Google Home. Part 1. Cast YouTube Music to Google Home via Google Home AppTo ensure free and ad-supported YouTube Music on your smart speaker, you can follow these steps below via Google Home app. 1. Launch the Google Home app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device.. Once connected, you'll be able to play your YouTube music through any Google smart speakers you own. Part 2. Stream YouTube Music to Google Home via BluetoothTo play YouTube Music on Google Home via Bluetooth, you can either choose the voice assistant or Google Home app. 1. Pair Bluetooth with Voice Assistant There's no doubt that voice command is the easiest and fastest way. You just need to say "Hey Google, Bluetooth pairing," and the smart speaker will automatically search the nearby Bluetooth devices. Then you can select the right one to connect with Google Home. Make sure the Bluetooth on your phone have been opened first. Once you've done that, you'll be able to control your music with voice commands and play it through any Google smart speakers you own. 2. Pair Bluetooth with the Google Home app Another way is to use the Google Home app, which may be a little complicated than the former. You should launch the Google Home app first, go to the 'Settings' of and scroll down to find 'Paired Bluetooth Devices' and then select 'Enable Pairing Mode'. After that, you can go back to your phone to connect the Bluetooth and your Google Home speaker. When the Bluetooth connection is set up, you can play YouTube Music on the phone and mirror the audio to the speaker. Part 3. Play Specific YouTube Music on Google Home FreeAlthough both free and Premium subscribers have access to the capability of supporting personal playlists playback via Google Assistant, but the ad-supported YouTube Music experience can only allow you to stream music that is closely related to the album, song, or playlist that you request. The program won't let you cast specific songs, artists, and playlists on-demand or repeat songs unless it is music you have uploaded or you've just paid for its Premium service. If you want to enjoy the feature of playing specific YouTube tracks, compared with being a constant YouTube Music Premium subscriber, to upload your own YouTube Music is more economical. To make it, TunesKit Audio Capture will be your best assistant. Best YouTube Music Downloader You'll NeedAs a powerful audio recorder, TunesKit Audio Capture is specialized in capturing any audio on a computer and convert them to MP3, WAV, AAC, M4A, M4B, FLAC. With this tool, you can easily download your favorite YouTube Music tracks for permanent saving, and you can move them to any device for offline playing at ease. You can follow the quick tutorial below.
1Install and launch TunesKit Audio CaptureFirst, you should download the TunesKit recorder from its official website and launch it after successful installation. Once launched on your computer, you can select any of the browsers to access the YouTube website or add the YouTube Music application from your desktop. 2Adjust the capture audio parameters of YouTube MusicSecond, click the 'Format' button at the bottom right corner to adjust your output audio preferences. You're available to set the format like MP3, WAV, AAC, M4A, M4B, and FLAC. In addition, you can also adjust the codec, channel, sample rate, and bit rate as you need. As to specify the output path, you should click the top three-horizontal line 'Menu' button and select 'Preferences'. 3Start to capture YouTube music tracksNow go back to the YouTube app or website you've selected and locate the music tracks you want to capture. Just start to play the music and you'll immediately find a new recording task in the capture list. The program supports recording several tracks of different programs at the same time. To stop recording, you just need to stop playing the song and close the media program. 4Edit recorded YouTube music tracksAfter recording, you can split or merge the recorded YouTube Music by clicking the 'Edit' button at the rear of each track. Moreover, you're able to manage the ID3 tags of the audio, including adding the cover picture, artist, music title, year, etc. Then click the 'Save' button to export the records to the output folder you've specified before. You can easily locate the recorded YouTube Music files by clicking the 'History' icon at the bottom of the window. Once downloaded to your computer, you can easily upload music to YouTube and control the playback of any songs or playlists on Google Home at ease. Part 4. ConclusionIn this passage, we explored several possible ways to play YouTube Music on Google Home. Although both free and paid users can enjoy the recommended music playback via Google Assistant, you can only cast to specific songs and playlists unless you're Premium users or the music tracks were uploaded by yourself. Compared with constant subscription to the Premium plan, TunesKit Audio capture will help you save a hamburger every month. Don't be hesitate to have a try.
Adam Gorden is an experienced writer of TunesKit who is obsessed about tech, movie and software.
Do you remember March 2018? We initially published this post with all the Google music commands starting with: “Hey Google, play the album with a diving baby and a dollar bill on its cover.” Back then, Google replied: “Alright, here’s the album Nevermind on Google Play Music.” We were impressed, what a Google music command! Today, early 2021, Google Play Music no longer exists. And with Google’s Youtube Music service as a replacement for Google Play Music, our little voice assistant simply forgot some music features. Today, he usually responds with a random song, when we describe an album cover. Never mind? Well, we do mind, hence this update, where we’ve tested new and unlearned music services and features for our Google Assistant. In this post, we will explore all the Google music commands to enjoy all the music services supported by our Google Home and Nest devices. From basic playback commands and playing our favorite music, to setting sleep timers, music alarms, and creating our own music commands with Google Routines. Please note, you’ve found a living post. We published this post initially in March 2018 and added four big and many smaller updates since then. A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of you who take the time and share their Google Music experiences, questions, and answers in our thoughts section below! We are continuously updating this post based on your feedback. You can enjoy this post in three flavors: Estimated reading time: 32 minutes
Pro-Tip: you can subscribe to receive an e-mail when we update this post with new features and someone adds a comment, or when someone replies to your comments. Google’s Music ServicesGoogle supports many music services nowadays: YouTube Music, Apple Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Pandora, Deezer. It mostly depends on your location, which music services you will find in your Google Home app. YouTube Music Free and PremiumGoogle Play Music is history, but we left it in our Music Command Jump Table as a reference for what used to work with Google Music Services. Google nowadays provides an ad-supported, free YouTube Music service and if you’re not into ads, you can subscribe to Youtube Music Premium. YouTube Music Free (ad-supported)With the free, ad-supported YouTube Music service, our listening experience depends on which Google device we use. On Google Home / Nest speakers, some genre, mood, and activity-related stations are accessible, others will remind you: “It looks like … music is only available for YouTube Music Premium subscribers, but here is a similar station”. Requesting songs or albums you’ll hear: “Choosing songs/albums is only available for YouTube Music Premium members, but you might like this station.” Google display devices, like the Nest Hub, Chromecast, or your Google Home app, currently play those restricted stations, songs, and albums without a notification. But, they will interrupt music playback from time to time with third-party video ads. YouTube Music PremiumYouTube Music Premium, which offers more than 60 million songs gives you access to your personalized stations. You can play any song and also track your favorites (likes) from Youtube. With YouTube Premium, which includes YouTube Music Premium, you can additionally play your Youtube videos ads-free. You can play music in the background on your android device and download music and videos for an offline mixtape. You can subscribe to an individual plan, a family plan for up to six family members, or a student plan. Google offers a 30-day free trial of YouTube Music Premium, which you can extend to three months if you provide payment information. Pro-Tip: the first time you sign into the YouTube Music app with your Google account and cancel the 30 day trial offer, Google might suggest a 14 days trial without payment information. Apple MusicApple Music streams over 70 million songs. You can pick between an “Individual plan” or a “Family plan” for up to 6 people. If you’re a college student you can subscribe to the Student plan (50% off). You can listen to Apple Music across all your Apple devices and as long as you’re living in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, or Japan, also on your Google devices. Apple Music includes many local live radio stations around the world. You can enjoy Apple Music on your Apple Watch when you’re away from your iPhone or in your car with CarPlay. Apple offers free Apple Music trials from 30 days to 3 months. Note: With Google, you won’t be able to play your Apple Music favorites or music library, listen to Apple Music Radio stations, or play similar music. You’ll miss some features, where Siri could help. Spotify Free and PremiumSpotify supports Spotify Free, an ad-supported streaming tier. For ad-free music, you can subscribe to Spotify Premium available with Individual, Duo, Family, and Student plans. All Spotify services can stream the music directly from the Spotify app on your smartphone to any Google Cast Device. Spotify Free (ad-supported)Amazingly, you have access to over 50 million songs and over 700,000 podcasts, that is, if you can live with ads in your listening experience or just similar stations to what you’ve requested. You can download songs for up to 14 days for offline listening. For Spotify Free it depends which Google device you are using: On Google Home / Nest speakers some genre, mood, and activity-related stations are accessible, others will remind you: “Playing albums is only available to Spotify Premium subscribers, but give this … station a listen.” Requesting songs you’ll hear: “Choosing songs is only available to Spotify Premium subscribers, but try this … station.” Additionally, you’ll encounter a skip limit of six skips within an hour. Google display devices, like the Nest Hub or Chromecast, currently play those restricted stations, songs, and albums without notification from Spotify. But, they will interrupt the music playback from time to time with ads. And no, there is no skip-limit for Spotify Free on Google display devices. Spotify PremiumSpotify Premium has the same over 50 Million songs in its library, but this time without ad-interruptions. You can set the audio quality to very high (up to 320 kbit/s) and download songs in the Spotify app to listen without an internet connection. You can pick between “Premium Individual”, for one person, “Premium Duo” for two people living together for one discounted price, and “Premium Family”, for up to 6 people living together. If you’re currently enrolled at an accredited college or university you can get 50% off a Premium subscription with the Premium Student plan. Pandora, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio ServicesTuneIn and iHeartRadio come preinstalled as radio-like services, Pandora requires account linking. With radio services, we’ll find natural limitations around music playback control and selecting specific music. How to set up Google Music Services?To link a music service in the Google Home app and set a default music provider:
You can now use all the music services you’ve linked to, just by adding the service to your request:
For your default music service, e.g. “YouTube Music”, you can omit the service in your voice command:
This is an overview of all the Google music features across selected Google music services. We’ve added Google Play Music for historical reference. The colored boxes indicate whether a feature is supported for a music service. You can tap on the colored boxes to jump directly to the Google Home music commands you’re interested in. Note, if you have not set your preferred service as default music service in the Google Home app, make sure to add “… from YouTube Music”, “… on Spotify”, “… on TuneIn”, etc. at the end of your Google Home music commands. How to control Google’s Music Volume?Following music commands will change Google’s volume in 10% increments:
If you’d like to set the volume to a specific level:
Note, you can check the volume with the command:
And for extremes (level 10 and level 1):
For muting Google Home, we have the following commands: 🟩 Controlling the Volume is a Google feature and available for all music services. How to control Google’s Music Playback?We can stop and resume playback by saying:
Note, resume, and continue times out (forgets what has been played) after around 20 minutes. But we can also listen to some music we might like:
To navigate within an album or playlist, we just need to say:
To navigate within a song, we can say:
For shuffling and repeat we can use:
🟧 YouTube Music Premium, Apple Music, Spotify Premium currently don’t support the repeat/loop mode. Spotify Premium currently doesn’t support shuffle. Note, Google will come back with: “Got it, music will start shuffling” and “All right, this will keep repeating”, but with no effect.🟧 With YouTube Music Free and Spotify Free, the repeat mode does not work. Skipping songs is limited to six skips per hour for Spotify Free on a Google speaker, but not on a Google display device. Skipping within and restarting a song is not supported on a Google speaker, but works on a Google display device.🟧 YouTube Music Free treats Google speaker groups as “speaker” devices – even if there are only display devices in the group – and therefore shows all the speaker limitations, regardless of which device type you ask. (Thanks, Bryan!) 🟥 Radio-like services (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc.) are naturally missing most of the music control features. How to control Google’s Equalizer?Though there are no Google Home music commands to control the equalizer, it’s worth to mention, that there is an equalizer settings page in the Google Home app. Tap on your Google device, then on the Settings icon on the top right. You can find the Equalizer setting under Sound settings. In the equalizer settings page, you can control bass and treble in the range of +/- 6 dB in 0.5 steps. There are so many ways which lead to your favorite music in the millions of songs, we need to structure this a bit … How to play Music by Title/Album/Artist?If we know, what we want to hear, we can say:
🟧 The ‘free’ services YouTube Music Free and Spotify Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve requested. Unless you use a display device like Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast.🟧 YouTube Music Free treats Google speaker groups as “speaker” devices – even if there are only display devices in the group – and therefore shows all the speaker limitations, regardless of which device type you ask. (Thanks, Bryan!) 🟥 Radio-like services (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc.) are naturally missing these features. However, you can mostly request or create an “artist radio” station. For TuneIn, you need to specify the radio station name. How to play Music by Genre?
The following genre list comes from YouTube Music: Moods and Genres: Note, while Google Play Music asked for ‘genres’, we now need to let Google know which ‘artists’ we like in the YouTube Music app.
🟧 With Pandora, it seems to be a hit or miss which genre station is played. How to play Music by Mood?YouTube Music has some defined moods, which we can request to play the music that fits what we are up to. These are mapped to (curated) playlists and stations.
🟧 The “free” services YouTube Free and Spotify Free will mostly play a station similar to what you’ve requested. How to combine Moods and Genres in Google Music Commands?We can combine some moods and genres. If there is a matching station, Google will play it:
🟧 YouTube Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve requested (vs. curated playlists with paid services).🟥 Spotify is especially weak in finding combined stations, it will mostly play similar sounding albums. 🟥 Radio-like services (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc.) are naturally missing this feature. How to play New Music?To play a station from our “new music” suggestions, we can just say:
If you want to hear some fresh tracks from your favorite artist, you can say:
A nice feature, which works with YouTube Music Premium – thanks Joe for sharing it with us – is to request the latest album by artist:
🟧 Apple Music doesn’t support new genre and new artist music. However, you can play your “New Music Mix”.🟧 YouTube Music Free and Spotify Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve requested unless you use a display device like Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast.🟧 Spotify Premium hardly finds new music. 🟥 Radio-like services (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc.) are naturally missing this feature. How to play Popular Music?
🟧 YouTube Music Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve requested unless you use a display device like Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast. How to play Similar Music?A very nice feature that works with YouTube Music and Spotify Premium. (Thanks a lot, Roshan for sharing!)
Recommendations from Spotify (Premium) & YouTube Music (Premium)
🟩 With YouTube Music on a Google speaker, Google will try to get a better idea which music you like. He will play some songs and ask you to tell him what you ‘like’ along the way. On a Google display device, Google will display recommended videos.🟩 With Spotify Premium on a Google speaker, Google will play recommended songs from Spotify. On a Google display device, Spotify will display a list of recommended songs.🟧 Apple Music cannot recommend music. 🟧 Spotify Free will recommend some music only on a Google Nest Hub or if you request it to “play … on a Chromecast.” How to play your Favorites and how to like/dislike Songs?To listen to your favorites on YouTube Music, just say:
For Spotify:
To tell Google, what to put into the thumbs-up auto-playlist, just say:
If you want to let Google know, that you don’t like a song, you can say:
🟧 Apple Music will display your likes/dislikes only for songs in your library. We couldn’t find a voice command to play the songs we like. How to play Songs by Lyrics?Some of us, rather remember some lyrics (snippets) than the title of our favorite songs:
🟧 YouTube Music Free and Spotify Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve asked for. Unless you use a display device like Google’s Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast. How to play Songs by describing the Album Cover?Yes, we can describe an album cover, and Google can (sometimes) find the right record:
Here are some examples:
🟧 Spotify Free will play on a Google speaker a station with music similar to what you’ve requested unless you use a Google display device like the Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast. How to play Music by Location?Google Nest is always at home, why look into location-based music? Well, locations (from your smartphone) are only one example of the data, that Google can take into account when personalizing music suggestions for you. To enable this feature, you’ll need to turn on location-based recommendations in the YouTube Music app. Google has a novel approach to figure out your activities. You don’t need to tell Google where you are and what you are up to. Google can take all the information it has collected from you to personalize your Google Assistant and music experience: This includes:
How to control your Music Library and Playlists?You can control what goes into your music library by saying:
And you can control what you’d like to hear from your library:
To listen to your own playlists, you can say:
🟧 Apple Music won’t play songs from your library.🟧 Spotify Free will just play some music, not your playlists. 🟧 YouTube Music Free will play on a Google speaker a station with music similar to what you’ve requested unless you use a Google display device like the Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast. How to listen to Google’s Stations?Listening to radio is as straightforward as saying:
🟥 Apple Music Radio stations won’t play on Google devices. Note: if you want to listen to a different service, add e.g. “… on TuneIn” to your command. Google has a bit of information when asked about what’s playing:
🟧 YouTube Music Free and Premium rarely provide music information on a Google display device (seems it’s missing for videos). How to listen to Podcasts?There are two podcast services we can configure in our Google Home app: Google Podcasts (a separate app) and Spotify Podcasts. We can use the following additional commands for podcasts:
🟧 Spotify Free does not support “play the (number) episode of (podcast).” How to control Music Playback on another Speaker?To play on another Google Home / Chromecast device, just say:
How to create Google Speaker GroupsTo play your music throughout your home, on multiple devices, you need to create groups. In the Google Home app tap on your Google device, then on the Settings icon at the top right. Tap on “group” to select a group or create a new one.
🟩 Controlling playback on another speaker is a Google feature and available for all music services. Note, with YouTube Music Free a Google Nest Hub in a speaker group sometimes responds: “for display devices in a speaker group you need a premium subscription” and interrupts playback. How to “Move” Music to another Speaker or Group?We can move the music from a Google Home, Nest Hub, or Chromecast on which it is currently playing to another device, room, or speaker group:
🟩 Moving playback to another speaker is a Google feature and available for all music services. Note, in the Google Home app you can tap on the cast button to choose where you’d like to move your music or podcast to. How to set a Sleep Timer and Music Alarm?To set a sleep timer, you have the following voice commands if the music is already playing:
If you want to specify the time, when starting the music:
To check how much time is left:
To cancel your sleep timer, say:
Note: If you have not set the music service you’d like to hear as the default music service, or want to hear some different service, add e.g. “… on TuneIn” to your command. You can control your music alarms with the following voice commands:
This will let Google ask you, which music to play. You can also specify the music together with the time/weekday:
And if we want to stop a timer or alarm, it’s enough to say Yes, we don’t need to say “Hey/Ok Google” for that. How to create Your Own Google Music Commands with Google Routines?We have looked into the predefined music commands, but what about creating our own? Google Routines are a powerful feature, which supports this and much more. If you are completely new to Google Routines, you might enjoy our overview – Google Routines: How to Automate your Life with Google Assistant! Here’s Google, explaining and creating his routines: A Google Routine (you can find them in your Google Assistant / Assistant Settings or the home screen of your Google Home app) can be activated by
Within a routine, we can combine many different actions
Here’s where you can get creative. You could specify your own voice command for a radio station that is difficult to pronounce or set the right lighting scene with the right music for a romantic dinner. The only limit is your imagination! How to control your Music in Multiple Languages?Google Home supports setting a second Google Assistant language. If you do not see the option (under “Google Home / Settings / More Settings / Assistant / Languages” or “Google Assistant / Settings / Assistant / Languages”, you could try setting your smartphone region and language to English US and re-downloading the Google Home / Google Assistant apps from the US stores. This has the advantage, that you can access all US features/services and actions, and select two from the currently supported languages and varieties: Danish, Dutch, English (Australia, Canada, UK, Indonesia, Ireland, India, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the US), French (France and Canada), German (Germany and Austria), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Peru, USA) and Swedish. But I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For!Sorry! There are so many interesting topics around music and though we – everyone who takes the time to contribute to this post – have climbed the highest mountains … we might have missed what’s important to you! Please join us, by taking the time to share your Google music experiences, questions, and answers in our discussion section below! You are helping to improve this post for everyone! Alphabet continuously develops and refines Google’s music commands. They rely on statistical data based on our Google usage. But once you try a command and it does not work for you, you’ll rarely try it again … To support the development of the music commands we are missing, we need to send feedback to Google! It’s easy, we can do it directly from the Google Home app:
What songs can Google sing?Our Google Assistant has learned to sing some songs recently. We cannot ask for a specific song, but there are different categories, and Google will come up with different songs and song snippets (where indicated):
We covered the “Ode to search” and Google’s beatboxing in our Ai-News Episode 2, “The Epic Rap Battle.” And if you’re into more remixes with Google, Alexa and Siri, check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel. ConclusionHere we are in 2021 and Google’s YouTube Music surprises us with some unlearned features compared to Google Play Music: no loop mode across all music services, no music information (for YouTube Music videos), no podcast episode access, no more album cover art recognition. However, it is surprising that there are many features available to Spotify and Apple Music users: We can like/dislike songs, search by lyrics, and even play a record by describing the album cover. If you are interested in free music services, like Spotify Free and YouTube Music Free, you might enjoy them more on a Google display device. The five-second third-party video ads on a Google display device appear less annoying than Spotify’s and YouTube’s ads on a Google speaker device, which frequently remind you to subscribe to their premium services. (Update: we’ve recently seen video ads with up to 20 seconds on YouTube Music Free.) Surprisingly, you’ll also find fewer restrictions for the free music services on a Google Nest Hub: no skip limits, direct access to artists, albums, and songs, playing by lyrics, skipping within songs, restarting songs, and more. Unfortunately, this does not apply to Google speaker groups with YouTube Music Free. Here you’ll need Spotify Free to make use of your Nest Hub in a group with speaker devices, e.g. Google Mini. (Thanks, Bryan!) Google Routines are still a powerful feature to customize voice commands and integrate music and other media into simple or more complex routines. There are features only Google can offer, based on the vast amount of data it collects from us, like our web search, YouTube history, or our location. This puts Google in the position to personalize our music suggestions to the fullest. We hope you’ve enjoyed this extensive list of Google’s music commands. If yes, please consider helping this living post to grow by sharing it with friends and family. If you have any questions or want to help others with their questions, please join our thoughts section below! You can subscribe to receive notifications when we’re updating this post. Happy Google, ahem, YouTube Music! P.S. You can find more of our Google posts here: Google Assistant. |
