The End of Personal Music Uploads

Yeah... I'm not a Classical Music fan myself, but I know there are MANY recordings that aren't part of many streaming services... not to mention things like import tracks that can be purchased and downloaded, but often aren't available for streaming... I've used my own music library to fill holes in Google Music's service since I started using it when it first became available through Sonos. I know that Google does most of its work through matching, and only uploads that which they don't have... so hopefully I don't have too much to worry about there!

I guess the question is how long will Google continue to support uploads before they follow Amazon's lead? Getting burned by one streaming service makes me hesitant to invest a lot of effort into moving my music files to another since any of them can pull the plug at any time. I am going to reset my focus back to finding the best way to play music from my local library as my primary source and just use streaming services as a secondary option.

I use my own Plex server to play my music library on my Sonos system.

I guess the question is how long will Google continue to support uploads before they follow Amazon's lead? Getting burned by one streaming service makes me hesitant to invest a lot of effort into moving my music files to another since any of them can pull the plug at any time.[...]
For those who aren't aiming at cancelling their subscription everything will remain unaffected. From the help page: "While you remain a paid member, you retain the ability to upload music and renew your subscription."

I guess the question is how long will Google continue to support uploads before they follow Amazon's lead? Getting burned by one streaming service makes me hesitant to invest a lot of effort into moving my music files to another since any of them can pull the plug at any time.[...]
For those who aren't aiming at cancelling their subscription everything will remain unaffected. From the help page: "While you remain a paid member, you retain the ability to upload music and renew your subscription."

It also says "As of December 18, 2017, the ability to upload music will be removed from the Amazon Music for PC/Mac app." So does that mean you can still upload music using a phone app? What would be the point of making that distinction?

[...] It also says "As of December 18, 2017, the ability to upload music will be removed from the Amazon Music for PC/Mac app." So does that mean you can still upload music using a phone app? What would be the point of making that distinction?
You can't upload music using a phone app, only download. If you have a valid music storage subscription, the ability to upload music within the PC/Mac app is still there. Go check it out.

I received a message yesterday about the ending of Amazon Music linking to Sonos. I signed-up when I bought my Sonos equipment as it was the perfect solution for me. I do not want to stream other music, just listen to my own record collection. I understand it is because they want to sell Alexis speakers.

It would be good if Sonos were to move into supplying their own digital locker service. If they do not retaliate, I fear for their long term survival.

I understand that Google Play Music is going down the same route, for the same reason.

Does anyone know of a similar solution from another organisation? I want to be able to create my own playlists, like I can on Amazon Music and also stream to my phone, or iPad when I am driving, or away from home.

Having my own server attached to my router is far from perfect as I tend to move between 3 countries and so have no way of attending to its needs during the 5-months that I am away from my main home.

As noted above, check out Plex. They support uploading to a cloud service and streaming from there. Running a Plex server and streaming over Wi-Fi is the easiest. If you have a laptop while away from home, you can stream to your Sonos.


I received a message yesterday about the ending of Amazon Music linking to Sonos. I signed-up when I bought my Sonos equipment as it was the perfect solution for me. I do not want to stream other music, just listen to my own record collection. I understand it is because they want to sell Alexis speakers.

It would be good if Sonos were to move into supplying their own digital locker service. If they do not retaliate, I fear for their long term survival.

I understand that Google Play Music is going down the same route, for the same reason.

Does anyone know of a similar solution from another organisation? I want to be able to create my own playlists, like I can on Amazon Music and also stream to my phone, or iPad when I am driving, or away from home.

Having my own server attached to my router is far from perfect as I tend to move between 3 countries and so have no way of attending to its needs during the 5-months that I am away from my main home.

[...] I understand that Google Play Music is going down the same route, for the same reason. [...]
Google just doubled the upload limit from 50.000 to 100.000 tracks.

[...] I understand that Google Play Music is going down the same route, for the same reason. [...]
Google just doubled the upload limit from 50.000 to 100.000 tracks.

After the Amazon debacle I still would not trust any streaming service to be the primary repository for my music collection. Besides the risk of potentially losing access to my music if their policy should suddenly change is the even greater risk of losing the time invested in creating carefully crafted play lists that don't translate easily from one service to another.

People who care what songs and versions of songs they listen to as well as what order they listen to those tracks in should still stick with local music libraries.