There are a few queries like this, and I am in the same position.

But the request should go to Google, not Sonos. It is us up to Google whether a free tier is made available that would allow us to access our libraries.

I expect Google no longer wants to provide this service for free.

Google does provide a free tier on YouTube Music.  Just the same as Google Play Music. The issue is simply that while Sonos supports the Google Play Music free service, “YouTube Music on Sonos is only available to YouTube Music Premium members”. So, unless I misunderstand (quite possible) then the issue is that Sonos needs to support YouTube Music basic members in the same way it supports Google Play Music, otherwise there are going to be a lot of unhappy Google Play Music Members when Google eventually switches this service off.

I not 100% sure either way, but I thought this was the same as Spotify. In the past, Spotify didn’t allow people on its free tier to use Sonos - you had to be a premium subscriber - but then they changed their policy when a bit more competition arrived. I think Sonos just makes its service available to music providers, and its on them to choose how to make use of it.

Happy for someone who really knows to put us straight  

@jay we Sorry for the slow reply and welcome to the Sonos Community. As DGR1 points out, this is something done by our music partners. We do not solicit them and they make the choice to have a music service be a premium paid service to use on our platform. As in the previous example, until recently Spotify needed to be a paid premium service to use with Sonos, but they now allow both a paid and free service to be used. What you now describe in your email from Google Play music is that they are changing things on their end.

I would not tell you to go out and buy something new from Sonos to adjust for this change from the music partner(s), but are you using an iOS device running the Sonos app that can Airplay to one or more Sonos products? If no, something to think about is weighing the cost of the music service for a year against buying a Sonos One SL, Trade up to an S2 product or look at the IKEA styled products, mainly the Bookshelf unit. The IKEA products are compatible with an iOS device for Airplay and are about the same cost as our Sonos Boost depending on your Region.

Ok thanks. Airplay is an option, but Google Play was a good no cost alternative. I’ll try lobbying Google, fwiw.

@jay we Glad to know that Airplay is an option for you and yes, in general, free is always a good choice.

I don’t post much, so if I don’t respond to any responses quickly, sorry. Like above, I’ve read elsewhere that Google may allow free-tier YTM users to cast via Sonos in the future, but I’m not betting on it (they realize the $$ they’re missing out on being the only service that allows this). So I looked into other options and thought others might benefit from sharing my experience. 

I used GPM since 2015 as a free content locker for a  personal library of ~4000 songs (including a fair amount of content you can’t get on streaming services), and loved the streaming from the cloud to Sonos (and friends’ sonos at parties, and bluetooth speakers from my phones, etc). My music everywhere for free. Love it.

Of course, with GPM going caput, this all goes away, and YTM has limitations currently (as above). There are no other free (non-subscription) cloud-based options that I could find. There are local server-based options like Roon and JRiver, but they cost $$$ and don’t seem to integrate very well with Sonos. A free alternative is Plex, which I thought would be good as Sonos has an in-app connection with them. Plex lets you designate a folder on your computer (or network access server (NAS)drive) as an intranet server. (NAS was new to me, but is 2TB and up, harddrive that connects via ethernet cord to your router, and stays on all the time, but doesn’t use that much power. Some have dual drives that auto-backup, $200 and up). Then if you leave that machine (either computer or network harddrive) on, and connected to your network all the time, you can stream music from it to Sonos and control it via Sonos mobile app. But, in an attempt to look pretty and stay organized, Plex attempts to organize your songs by their embedded data/tags/metadata. I found that after I downloaded all my files from GPM, and tried to import them into Plex, it was a hot mess. GPM dumps your tracks all as separate files, without separation into folders. Plex demanded that I sort each artist into separate folders, and then each album separately into folders, and the file name was an issue too (I had previously put the artist in the front of the song in the file name (I think for GPM sorting purposes), but had to go through and delete these for all 4000 songs). There may be a 3rd party software that helps clean up file names, but I couldn’t find one.

Anyway, after a few hours of this, I gave up when I realized that if you load Sonos app on your computer where your files are, it does a great job of organizing them based on metadata (way less finicky than Plex), and you can access them from the sonos app on your phone. (Of course all the effort I put into organizing half my library for Plex may have helped, but it looks like the artists that I didn’t organize worked just as well). This doesn't allow access anywhere outside your network like Plex Pass (paid subscription) does, but from this point forward I guess I’ll use YTM for mobile play of my YTM cloud library via bluetooth, and Sonos app from files on NAS drive controlled via mobile sonos app at home.

Hope this makes sense. Of course this is all based on the stubborn notion that I shouldn’t have to pay to play music that I paid for, on speakers that I paid for, over a network that I pay for. But understand that cloud storage and streaming is a service that I’ll end up paying for at somepoint.

Thanks for the input and your thoughts. I am much in the same boat as you so it all makes sense. Except that it has just dawned on me here at the end of September why Google Play continues to pest me with a transfer to Youtube Music.

Damn - the free Play-service is dying.

I have also come to the conclusion that “cloud-things” need some kind of payment but it irritates me that these things dont match well, seen from a consumer point of view. I spend a few dollars each month on both Google storage and Apple iCloud - but afaik none of this helps me with me music problem. The Plex thing as well as Sonos music library might be interessting but it seems to go in the direction of having a local server powered on permanently. Not sure I want this though because of the added layer of maintenance/cost. Will keep looking...

While I remember: “tag and rename” does a excellent job renaming music-files. The program could be prettier and a bit more user-friendly but it works and I have had it for 10+ years. Even paid to onetime fee: https://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm

With the loss of free google play on Sonos my speaker is one step closer to the bin. First Sonos disables my dock. Move your library to google play Sonos they suggested - I did that. Then my ability to play music from my phone library was taken away (can’t remember the order). 
 

My Sonos speaker is now a dust collector but hey the hassles of being an early adopter. 
 

At least I have a Bose speaker that has no such hassles and it hasn’t dismantled me limb by limb. 

Try iBroadcast, one of the many other threads on the problems with YTM recommends it.