The rise of YouTube Music has been a steady one, but it has also experienced some significant bumps in the road. Now the choice is clear that users need to migrate to YouTube Music or find another option, another bump has appeared. A number of readers commented recently that on a free account, your personal library cannot be cast to speakers. 9to5google may have some good news though in a recent APK teardown.
In their article, the 9to5 team note a couple of code strings that will excite some users and a finding that will annoy as well: let’s start with the good news. The restriction that prevents users from casting their own personal library will be fixed and seemingly soon. Unfortunately, free users — despite some of the advertising you’ll be subject to — will not be able to cast YouTube Music songs to your speakers.
The code strings earlier referenced, show this in reasonably clear detail:
<string name=”audio_only_castability_missing_start_playback_toast”>Play your uploads now or get Premium to play all YouTube Music songs</string>
<string name=”audio_only_castability_missing_queue_toast”>You can only add uploads to your queue. Upgrade to add YouTube Music songs.</string>
<string name=”mdx_audio_cast_uploads_confirmation_dialog_message”>YouTube Music songs will be removed from your queue once you connect to your speakers</string>
It looks like some pretty good news for users who’ve uploaded significant personal libraries. Being fair to Google, they’re running a business, so it makes sense to push users to pay for a subscription if they want to cast to speakers versus using headphones on a mobile device.
