Different methods for getting free tunes on your Google Assistant speakers
Smart speakers have really evolved over the last few years, but music listening remains one of their most-used features. All the major music services can be found on these devices, but what if you don’t want to pay for yet another? On the Google Home or other Google Assistant speakers, you can listen to music for free.
Similar to how you can listen to free music on Amazon Echo speakers, you can do the same with Google’s equivalent devices – if you know how.
Read this: The best smart speakers
There are different methods to use here, so we’ve offered several suggestions below. Try these out for some free music sources on Google Home.
Try YouTube Music, Spotify or Pandora for free
While you’ll get much more out of paid-for subscriptions, most of the major services support some level of Google speaker integration for non-paying members.
It started with Spotify, Pandora and Google Play Music, and this year Google rolled out a free version of its YouTube Music service to all Google Assistant speakers too (still no Apple Music though). Now, these free experience are supported by ads, so you’ll have to put up with the odd commercial between tracks, which could be an issue if you were planning to use your Google Home to DJ your next house party.
And while you’ll be able to ask the Google Assistant to play certain genres, you can’t request specific songs, artists, or albums on the free tiers of these services. If you do, you’ll be given a station based on similar music instead.
Still, better than a kick in the teeth, right? And if you truly fall in love, maybe you’ll upgrade to the premium tier – which is certainly what these companies would like. All of them offer free trials of varying lengths too.
To get one of these services working for free on your Google Assistant speaker, either ask the Assistant to specifically play from the service, or set it as your default. To do that, open the Google Home app on your phone, head to Settings, scroll down to Music under Google Assistant services, and then select YouTube Music as your default provider.
Build playlists on Google Play Music
Google Play Music offers the very basics with Google Home, similar to Spotify and co, but if you have a collection of music you’ve bought/uploaded to your library, you can have them play on your speaker without paying for a premium subscription.
Simply build a playlist containing these songs, name it, and then ask your Google Home, “Play [song, album, artist or playlist] from my library” or, “Play my [song, album, artist or playlist].”
Use Bluetooth
If you’d prefer, you can simply connect a smartphone or other music source to your Google speaker using Bluetooth. To pair, just do the following…
1. Open the Google Home app.
2. Tap the Google Home you want to pair on the main overview screen.
3. Tap the cog icon at the top right.
4. Scroll down and select Paired Bluetooth devices.
5. Tap Enable Pairing Mode at the bottom right of the screen.
More Google Assistant how-to guides
- How to change the Google Assistant voice
- How to set up Google Home parental controls
- How to get the most out of Google Assistant Actions
- How to control Sonos with Google Assistant
- How to make voice calls on Google Home smart speakers
- How to add and control lights and devices with Google Assistant
- How to set up guest mode for Google Home smart speakers
- How to pair your Google Home with better sounding Bluetooth speakers
