Spotify is one of the best services to listen to streaming music while we are away from home, but from the mobile app it allows you to listen only to the songs in the random play modes if we do not have a subscription to Spotify Premium, a decidedly heavy limitation for those who want to listen to a specific piece of music or a disc in the precise order in which the artist made it. If we have a large amount of MP3 or other songs saved in the PC's memory, we can reuse them to create our personal and completely free Spotify by taking advantage of the online space offered by Google Drive and using the app that can play streaming music without limitations.
We will show you both compatible apps for Android and compatible apps for iPhone and iPad, so you can listen to music saved on Drive with any device in your possession.
How to upload music to Google Drive
Before seeing the apps to listen to music via Drive we will have to upload the songs in our possession to the cloud.
We have two methods to do this: through the official website or through the synchronization program for Windows.
From the site it is very simple to load the songs: first of all we open the site from here -> Google Drive and click in the center on Go to Google Drive ; we will be asked for the access credentials for our cloud space, which we will insert (they are the same credentials that we use for Gmail or for any other Google service).
Once we reach the homepage of our Drive space, click on the top left on New then click on Upload a folder .
The file manager on the PC will open, with which we will have to select the entire Music folder or only the music folders that we want to upload to the cloud.
We can upload all the folders we want, but remember that the space on Google Drive is limited for free accounts to 15 GB, which can be increased by subscribing to a monthly or annual subscription plan (from here -> Google Drive subscriptions ) or by making some operations sponsored by Google (for example tests for privacy or account security, addition of a new Google device such as Chromebook or Nexus etc.).
App to listen to music saved on Drive
After seeing how to upload music files to the cloud, let's see which apps we can use to stream music saved on Google Drive.
1) CloudPlayer (Android)
If we have an Android smartphone or tablet, the best app we can use to listen to streaming music via Drive is CloudPlayer.
This app allows you to log in to your Drive account (or, if necessary, also DropBox), in order to view previously saved music folders even when we are away from home (under 4G or 3G coverage); just select the folders or songs to play to start listening to the songs.
The reproduction is very fluid, especially if we are under 4G coverage or under WiFi, with very rare errors or clicks while listening.
Excellent management of tags and covers, as well as the presence of an adjustable equalizer and the ability to download songs to the internal memory of the device to listen to it offline when we have no network coverage.
The app is free for the first 30 days, then you need to purchase the "Cloud Support" feature to continue listening to music saved on Drive; the app in question can be downloaded from here -> CloudPlayer .
2) CloudPlayer (iOS)
Although the name is identical to the app presented for Android, this CloudPlayer is a completely different application and is available for iPhone and iPad.
Once installed we can easily listen to all the songs saved on Google Drive or other types of cloud and download the music we want to listen to offline when we have no network coverage.
Excellent playback quality and integrated buffer, especially if we are on 4G network.
The app is free and allows you to add only one account at a time, without the possibility of downloading files offline unless you buy the full version.
We can download it from here -> CloudPlayer .
3) X-Plore File Manager (Android)
One of the most famous file managers on Android presents, among its many features, also access to the space of Google Drive and an integrated media player, great for listening to music streaming from the cloud. To obtain this functionality, simply open the left side sidebar, expand the Network item and finally click on Cloud; a window will open where you can choose which cloud service to add, select Drive and enter the login credentials for the Google cloud. After logging in, all folders will appear, including music folders; we select a folder, one or more songs to play and, in the selection window, we select the preferred player. Now you can listen to music without limits or subscriptions to pay, completely free. ES Player offers a good quality in the reproduction, but it is advisable to always use fast connections since the buffer is not exceptional.
We can download this app for free in the article dedicated to X-Plore File Manager .
The alternative to Drive : Google Play Music
A valid alternative to uploading music to Google Drive is to take advantage of the cloud space offered with the Google Play Music app, the Google signed music player. With this service you can upload up to 50, 000 personal songs (MP3 or other formats) completely free of charge, so that you can listen to them via the streaming app anywhere in the world, all you need is an Internet connection. In order to upload the songs on the PC we will have to use Google Chrome and an extension.
We download Google Chrome to the PC from here -> Google Chrome and the necessary extension from here -> Google Play Music .
Now that everything is ready, all we have to do is visit the Google Play Music web page, reachable here -> Google Play Music site .
We log in with the Google account and as soon as we are in the main screen of the service we select the menu icon (in the shape of three parallel lines at the top left) and click Upload music .
In another article, the guide to Upload music online to Google Music to listen to it from anywhere via the Internet
In the new window we drag the files to be loaded or select them with the Select function from your computer .
At the end of the upload we will have the music ready to be listened to through the Google Play Music apps, which can be downloaded for free from here -> Google Play Music (Android) and Google Play Music (iOS).
READ ALSO: Share music online by uploading mp3s from your pc to listen to them via the web
