Which music services are supported on Google Assistant and the Google Nest speakers?
One of the most common uses for all the best smart speakers, like the Google Nest Audio, is as a music device. The Nest speakers are more than just a fancy music device, but it’s definitely one of the most used features. For music, you need a service to supply the tunes.
You could always send music from your smartphone. But when you have an AI like Google Assistant built into the Nest Audio, you’re really going to want to take advantage of that. So, which music services can you use?
Here are all the supported music services for the Google Nest speakers.
Which music services are supported on the Google Nest speakers?
Unlike some of the competition, such as the Apple HomePod Mini, the Google Nest speakers have wide-ranging support for third-party music services. The primary one for folks embedded into Google’s ecosystem will be YouTube Music.
YouTube Music
YouTube Music isn’t free, so unlike on the Amazon Echo, you’re going to need to pay to get anything from the first-party service. The good news is that YouTube Music is included as part of YouTube Premium. This subscription gets rid of ads on YouTube, enables background play on mobile, and allows downloads, so it’s worth having just for that.
Access to the YouTube Music library is a nice bonus to have. The service perhaps isn’t as user-friendly as Google Play Music used to be, but for hands-free access on the Nest Audio, you have no worries at all. And since it’s most likely already linked to the same Google account as your speaker, there’s no additional setup involved.
YouTube Premium costs $11.99 a month for an individual plan but there’s currently a two-month free trial to check it out first.
Spotify
Spotify is available on the Amazon Echo for both free and paid subscribers, though if you’re on the free tier your experience is significantly more limited.
Free members can listen to music through Google Assistant but with pretty strict limitations. Paid subscribers will have full access to the Spotify library. In supported markets, this also includes Spotify’s podcast library.
New subscribers who haven’t had Spotify Premium before can currently sign up and enjoy a three-month free trial before paying.
Apple Music
Apple Music subscribers can link their accounts to Google Assistant to listen on the Nest Audio and other supported speakers, but it isn’t as widely supported as some of the other services.
Currently, Apple Music can be used on the Amazon Echo in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
If you haven’t tried Apple Music yet, or in some cases even if you’re a returning user, you can get a month’s free trial to take it for a test listen.
Deezer
Deezer’s 73 million-strong song library is available to use on Google Assistant for paid subscribers on the Premium and Hi-Fi plans.
Deezer is also region-restricted on Google Nest devices to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.. As with other popular services you can try it first for free with a one-month trial.
Pandora
Pandora users in the United States (currently the only market for the service) can link their free, plus, or premium accounts to Google Assistant and enjoy music through the Google Nest speakers.
This includes podcasts and tier-specific perks such as unlimited skips on the plus and premium subscriptions.
Sirius XM
Sirius XM users in North America have full access to the service through Google Assistant with the various subscription tiers available. The service is unavailable to users outside of this region.
Sirius XM has one of the more generous free trial periods available with three-months access to try it out before you have to pay.
iHeartRadio
iHeartRadio is one of the free music services available on the Google Nest speakers, albeit only to users in North America, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.
Radio stations, music, and podcasts are all available through iHeartRadio and if you have an account you can link it up and keep your activity in sync across all your devices.
TuneIn Radio
The basic tier of TuneIn Radio comes preloaded inside Google Assistant for use on the Nest speakers to listen to radio stations from around the world. If you have a premium subscription you can also link this and have full access to your account.
Google Cast
The Google Nest speakers have an additional bonus over the competition by supporting the Google Cast protocol. This means that unsupported services, for example, Tidal, that have Cast built into their apps can be used this way with the speakers.
It works the same as with video. Tap the Cast icon, choose the speaker you want the music to come out of, and you’re all set. While this isn’t quite as convenient as full hands-free access with the Google Assistant, it’s a decent alternative and better than using Bluetooth.
That covers all the main ways you can listen to music on a Google Nest speaker. While the free services you can use are limited to radio and radio-like experiences, there is at least something to get started with. For the rest, there are plenty of free trials you can use before settling on your favorite service.
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