Tip: How to always keep your favorite music with you offline automatically with Google Play Music All Access
Google Play Music All Access is my favorite way to listen to music on my laptop, my Chromecast, my phone, and my tablet. My library is synced across all my devices, and my music is literally available wherever I am, at all times. However, if you’re anything like me, your library is a little too large to store completely on your mobile device, given the more limited amount of storage available on phones and tablets.
Luckily, I found a way to keep all of my favorite music with me at all times, available even offline, so I can listen when I don’t have access to a data connection – for example, in an airplane or on a camping trip in the middle of nowhere.
For the past few months, whenever I am streaming music through Google Play – whether I’m listening to my own library, or one of Google’s awesome radio stations that it creates for me based on my tastes and listening history – I’ve been careful to select the thumbs up or thumbs down. While this concept isn’t new (I think that maybe Pandora pioneered this system), I’ve found that the more you tell Google about whether you like or dislike a song, the better Google gets at creating awesome radio stations for you, and the better Google’s recommendations get at suggesting both old and new artists and albums that I might like.
However, I use this system another way, too: on my phone and tablet, I have set the “Thumbs up” auto playlist to sync to my device and automatically download tracks as they are added to this list. Since I’ve also got unlimited LTE data through T-Mobile, I’ve also dug even further into my settings, deselected the option to download via WiFi only, and set the mobile networks stream quality to high.
Now, no matter where I’m listening to music – whether that’s on my phone, tablet, or laptop – if I give a track the thumbs up, it is automatically downloaded to my phone, usually within minutes, and always at the highest quality. I love this kind of automation, because I don’t have to think about it at all: my absolute favorite tracks are always in my pocket, no matter what device I’m using at the time or what network I’m connected to.
What’s your best Google Play Music tip or trick?
