How to download music on Play Music: You just heard a particularly nice song via Google Play Music and would you like to listen to it offline? Do you have to take a flight and want to download all your favorite songs to your device so that you can listen to them while on the plane? Do you have to go to an area where the data connection is not working very well and would you therefore like to use Play Music in offline mode? No problem: if you want, I can explain how to do it.
In today’s guide, in fact, I will explain you in detail how to download music on Play Music on all major software platforms and all devices. It does not matter from which system you want to take advantage of the well-known music service offered by Google, since I will show you how to perform this operation both from smartphones and tablets and from computers, through the Play Music Web player and through its official client for Windows and macOS. In short, as long as you subscribe to an appropriate subscription, you can listen to your favorite music anywhere!
Note: from October 2020, Google Play Music is replaced by YouTube Music. To find out more about this service, consult my dedicated guide.
Google Play Music prices
Before going into the details of the procedure on how to download music on play storeI think it might interest you to know what the prices related to the Google music subscription are.
Well, below you can find a complete overview of the Google Play Music offer and its prices. In this case, the free basic subscription is omitted as it does not allow you to download music for offline playback.
- Unlimited Personal: In addition to adding your own songs to your library, this subscription gives you unlimited access to your entire Google Play Music library. Songs can be downloaded locally and played offline on smartphones and tablets. It also allows you to create customized radio stations and listen to existing radios without “skip” limits. It costs 9.99 euros / month.
- Unlimited Family: a plan with the same features as Google Play Unlimited Personal, but which can be shared between up to 6 people. Each family member has their own personal library and preferences. It costs 14.99 euros / month.
Google allows you to make one 30 day free trial for both subscriptions. I also remind you that all plans provide for the possibility of associating up to a maximum of 10 different devices (10 for each member, as regards the Family plan). In any case, I invite you to check out my guide on how Google Play Music works for more details.
As for the download of music for offline playback, the two aforementioned subscriptions allow you to use this service only from smartphones and tablets, while from your computer you can only download songs and albums purchased individually through the Music section of the Play Store. Usually, the average cost of a single song is € 0.99.
How to Download Music to Google Play Music
As mentioned in the previous chapter, the Google Play Music subscription plans allow you to download your favorite songs and albums to play them offline: this is only possible from smartphones and tablets, but there is another way to listen to your music without an Internet connection. even from a computer. Below you will find all the relevant information.
Smartphones and tablets
To download a song on smartphones and tablets, you have to go through the official Play Musica application, often pre-installed on Android devices and available for free through the Play Store and also available for ioS, through theApp Store.
Once the Play Musicyou simply have to search for the song, album or playlist you want to download locally, using the search bar at the top, select the most relevant result and press the icon Download (down arrow symbol), located to the right of the screen.
After that, you just have to wait for the orange bar to completely cover the icon in question and you can listen to the song or album of your choice offline. To access the songs you have downloaded, just press onthree horizontal lines icon at the top left and select the item Downloaded music only. In short, nothing could be easier!
I remind you that the music that can be played through Unlimited Personal and Unlimited Family remains accessible only as long as you have an active subscription to Google Play Music and, moreover, you cannot transport the songs to other devices, since they are saved as data associated with the Play Music application.
Web Player
Google Play Music allows you to access its boundless catalog and download music for offline listening even through its official Web Player. But be careful: it is possible to download from the Web Player only music purchased from the Play Store and not the one present in the subscription.
In fact, the purchased songs can be downloaded in MP3 format and therefore, for obvious security reasons, they must be paid individually. Also, you can download the same song / album from the Web Player a maximum of two times.
In any case, to proceed, you need to connect to the Play Music official website and press on the item LOGIN. At this point, enter theemail address and the password of your Google account and press on the item Forward. Once this is done, you just need to search for the song, album or playlist you want to download, via the search bar present at the top, and click on the most relevant result.
Now, click on the item ADD TO MY COLLECTION and select the item Music collection present on the left. Perfect, now you can download the music simply by pressing thethree vertical dots icon and selecting the item Download / Download album from the menu that opens.
Music Manager
Another method to download Google Play Music to your computer is to go through the official program Music Manager, available for Windows and macOS. However, this program allows you to download only music purchased from the Play Store. There are no limits regarding the number of downloads and therefore Music Manager can be useful for this reason.
To install Music Manager on your computer, you need to connect to the official site of the programlog in with your Google account by entering email address And password in the appropriate text fields, and press on the item DOWNLOAD MUSIC MANAGER. In case you are redirected to another page after logging in, just use the link above to return to the program download page.
When the download is complete, if you are using Windowsopen the file musicmanagerinstaller.exe obtained and select the item Forward. If, on the other hand, you are using a Macopen the file musicmanager.dmg obtained, drag the icon Music Manager in the folder Applications computer and open the program.
At this point, enter theemail address and the password of your Google account and click on the entry Forward (or Go on, on macOS). Then press successively on Next, Next, Next, Yes, Next And Go to the music player.
Once installed, Music Manager will continue to run in the background. Press, therefore, onprogram icon and the Music Manager window will appear on the screen. Now, go to the tab Download and use the buttons Download my collection And Download for free and purchased to download your music to your computer. You will have to repeat this process every time you buy new songs from the Play Store.
The songs are provided in MP3 format and are saved in the default folder (Music on Windows and Download on macOS). For more details on the methods of downloading music to Play Music, I recommend that you take a look at the official Google guidelines.