Top 6 Google Play Music Alternatives for Android in 2023

Last Updated on Mar 09, 2023

Now that Google Play Music is no longer available, people might start to look for a new music player. Let us briefly review Google Play Music before comparing it to its alternatives.

Google Play Music is an application launched by Google that provides various lists of popular music for its users. With this app, we can stream music without having to save music to our cellphone’s memory. Additionally, it also offers the function to access video clips from YouTube; access radio podcasts; upload your favorite music; as well as share music with your friends. 

With all these features, we can conclude that Google Play Music actually contains a lot of features that users can enjoy. It is such a pity that it has been deactivated now. 

Hence, it is time to look for a new one. Nevertheless, you should find a reliable music player that has most of the following features:

• Designed with a user-friendly interface
• Provide music controls
• Provide sleep timer
• Support music in the background
• Support lyrics

Seeing this, we have provided 6 recommendations of alternative music players that are suitable for you to use to play your favorite music. Let’s see:

Alternative 1: Lark Player

Lark Player is a top-rated, 100% free, and unlimited media player that will change the way you watch videos or listen to your favorite songs. It supports almost all major media formats from video and music.

Pros:

• It can retrieve all kinds of content stored on both your Android device and online sources like Google Drive or OneDrive. 
• It allows you to customize equalizers like bass, reverb, volume, etc.
• It allows you to customize the background preset.
• It supports playing music in the background with lyrics.
• It supports a floating player function, meaning that you can watch videos while accessing other applications. 
• It allows you to set a sleep timer.
• It allows you to customize your playing speed. 
• It supports subtitles of a video.

Cons:

• It may contain some ads
• There may be times when the music is not synchronized real-time
• You may have to occasionally update the music library to get the latest songs

Ratings: 4.5/5

Price: 100% Free

Alternative 2: Spotify

Spotify is a music platform that provides legal music entertainment. It also acts as a digital copyright provider for uploaded music, therefore, songs that are uploaded in the app are definitely official songs and users can enjoy various official albums as well. In other words, users can listen to music from various genres and artists, both national and international.

Pros:

• It will frequently update new songs.

• It has a simple yet light appearance
• It has various playlists according to your mood, genre, artists, albums, etc. 
• It has plenty of podcast content, such as comedy, motivational, business, education, etc.
• It is said that it supports almost all music available on the internet

Cons:

• In order to enjoy its full features, it requires you to pay a premium fee
• It does not support theme customization

Ratings: 4.4/5

Price:

• Spotify Free (Free)
• Spotify Premium Student ($4.99/month)
• Spotify Premium Individual ($9.99/month)
• Spotify Premium Duo ($12.99/month)
• Spotify Premium Family ($15.99/month)

Alternative 3: YouTube Music

With YouTube Music, you can listen to the latest hits, stay in touch with your favorite artists, and discover new music to enjoy across all your devices. YouTube Music is a music streaming application similar to Spotify. This app is equipped with a Google-style search feature, which allows users to search for music content using any keywords in the application. You can even search a song based on the lyrics. 

Pros:

• It can automatically recommend songs or albums based on your daily genres.
• It supports thousands of playlists of any genre, language, mood, or activity.
• It is designed with a built-in search engine that allows you to use it as a browser

Cons:

• Same as Spotify, you have to pay in order to enjoy its full features.
• It does not support music or video transfer from local or online storage.

Ratings:4.5/5

Price:

• YouTube Music Free (Free)
• YouTube Music Family ($14.99/month)
• YouTube Music Individual ($99.99/year)

Alternative 4: Deezer

Deezer is a digital online music streaming service. You can filter through several genres yourself or take advantage of recommendations based on your listening habits. It supports both music and podcast for you to listen to. 

Pros:

• It supports the best audio quality.
• It supports cross-device sync.
• It supports offline listening, which allows you to listen to songs without an internet connection.
• It supports personalized recommendations, which are all accessible for you to discover new music.

Cons:

• The app may crash from time to time.
• It contains very long video ads for the free version.
• It does not support playing music in the background.

Ratings:4.4/5

Price:

• Deezer Free (Free)
• Deezer Student (Free for 30 days then $5.99/month)
• Deezer Premium ($9.99 for 3 months then $10.99/month)
• Deezer Family (Free for 30 days then $17.99/month)

Alternative 5: Amazon Music

Amazon may be more popular as a marketplace that provides all kinds of products for various needs. But did you know that Jeff Bezos launch a music app as well?

Amazon Music is one of those music applications that are functionally the same as what Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and various other music streaming services offer.

Pros:

• It supports audio lossless, which gives you the highest music quality.
• It allows you to connect with the Alexa device, an artificial intelligence that can work as your assistant.

Cons:

• The app may contain a lot of bugs.
• It cannot do playback without a live internet connection.
• The equalizer may randomly disappear. 

Ratings: 3.5/5

Price:

• Amazon Music Unlimited Individual Plan ($9.99 to $10.99/month)
• Amazon Music Unlimited Student Plan ($4.99 to $5.99/month).

Alternative 6: SoundCloud

Launched in 2007, SoundCloud is a music-sharing and music-streaming platform where users can upload, promote, and share the songs they put on their profiles. From newbie musicians to professionals, everyone can use SoundCloud as their main tool in promoting their songs. 

Pros:

• It supports various audio format like ALAC, AIFF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, etc and be able to convert it into MP3.
• It allows you to upload music of your own up to 180 minutes for the free version.
• It allows you to download any song as long as the owner opens the option. 

Cons:

• It does not support playing music in the background.
• It requires you to pay a subscription fee to listen to renowned songs.
• The app may crash often.

Ratings: 4.7/5

Price:

• SoundCloud Free (Free)
• SoundCloud Go+ ($12/month)

Conclusion

That’s it! These are the top 5 apps similar to Google Play Music for your Android device in 2023. If you really don’t want to spend a penny on a music player, then use Lark Player. It is completely free of charge, and yet, you will have to manually update the music library to have the latest music and albums. Alternatively, if you’re willing to spend some money, either one of those is worth trying. 

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