Google Play Music Desktop Player, an open source and unofficial Google Play Music player, has been updated to support the new YouTube Music. This follows its expansion to a number of European countries and Canada. The problem is that there's no official desktop client from Google. Instead, the only way of using it is through a web app in the browser. The player has a huge number of features that make it better than the web client, which you can take a look at below. We've been hearing about an official desktop client for a while now.
Screenshots of Google Play Music Desktop Player
Firstly, this web application is mostly just a wrapper for the websites of both services. It has a few extra features built in, but all of those could, in theory, break if the websites are ever updated. Having said all of that, there's nothing wrong with using this application and it has some pretty great features as shown above. One of my favorite features is the addition of hotkeys, which allows me to change the music in the background while I'm playing a game - without having to tab out. While I don't use it, LastFM integration is also pretty great for those that do, especially as it's often a much-requested feature of any music service. There's even a remote control service that you can use from your phone on the Google Play Store! You can read the list of main features below.
- Media Keys support (Play, Pause, Stop, Previous, Next)
- Last.FM Scrobbling and Now Playing support!
- Desktop notifications on track change
- Simplistic mini player
- Customizable dark theme
- Taskbar media controls (media controls embedded into the taskbar) Windows only
- HTML5 audio support - No more Adobe Flash Player
- Built-in audio equalizer - Make it sound how you like it
- Background music playing, minimize to the taskbar
- Customizable hotkeys. No worries if you don't have media keys - Choose your own shortcuts!
- Choose your audio output device from within the player
- Interface for external applications such as Rainmeter
While YouTube Music and Google Play Music are two great streaming services, they suffer greatly from the lack of a desktop client when pitted against the likes of Spotify. You can't configure much at all per machine, for example. If you dislike the current state of either service, Give Google Play Music Desktop Player a try. It may well be exactly what you're looking for.