What you need to know
- The YouTube Music app will now seamlessly play long albums without the pause that occurs in playback when switching tracks.
- This is a server-side update that needs to be flipped by Google before you can get the full experience.
- It's one more step toward YouTube Music being a viable Spotify or Apple Music replacement.
If you're a fan of bands that like to make albums sound like one giant song, Google's got your back with the latest update to the YouTube Music app. Bands like Tool or Pink Floyd are famous for creating long songs that are bridged over several different tracks and, while these tracks were able to seamlessly flow together on physical mediums or other music apps, YouTube Music's playback would always have a slight pause when changing tracks. That's because the app had always needed to stop audio playback of one song before continuing to the next, but a great new software trick allows
As of a server-side update that's slowly rolling out to customers, that annoying hitch in music playback no longer exists. Folks who use the YouTube Music app should soon find that their favorite LPs now flow together in ways they never have before on Google's newest music-playback app, and the effect is truly glorious when it kicks in.
Google initially rolled out the feature to select users nearly a month ago, and it has now confirmed that gapless playback is available for all YouTube Music Premium members starting today. If you subscribe to YouTube Music, the feature will be automatically enabled from now on.
This move is one of the many things Google needs to do before it will be able to convince users to switch over from Spotify or Apple Music. Still, though, we're seeing signs of this happening slowly but surely, including YouTube Music being set as the default music player on all Android phones going forward.
