Blog

I’ve been enjoying YouTube Music daily since it replaced Google Play Music in 2020. But lately, the algorithm seems unfocused and I’ve been missing the feeling of swinging to the music. Thankfully, these two small changes to recommendations and streaming quality fixed everything.

Create a custom radio with Your Music Tuner

There are several ways to improve YouTube Music recommendations and get better playlists, but one in particular makes a big difference. I’m talking about creating your own radio station with hand-picked artists and bands.

Instead of simply hitting the thumbs up or thumbs down buttons to tell the algorithm if you like a song, tell it exactly what you want to hear. Sometime in 2023, Google introduced a feature called “Your Music Tuner” that lets you create a custom radio station. You can find it by opening YouTube Music and then scrolling down a bit on the main home screen.

Tap the “+” button to start creating your own music tuner. You’ll see a wide selection of bands or artists you listen to frequently. The app will auto-populate many of these, and when you select one, it will show even more similar artists. Select everything you want to hear from this custom radio station and click “Done” at the bottom. Now all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the magic.

I don’t know why I didn’t try this sooner, but it works wonders. Google’s algorithm is fantastic at tuning and leaves Spotify far behind. Lately, it’s been doing a great job of playing exactly what I want to hear while also offering a few random options to broaden my listening tastes.

Enable high-quality audio streaming

For some reason I never thought to enable high quality streaming on YouTube Music, especially because I usually stream over WiFi at home. I thought it would default to high quality when I don’t have mobile data, but it doesn’t. By default, all music you stream, regardless of WiFi or a cellular connection (or downloads), is set to “Normal,” which isn’t the best quality.

Open YouTube Music and tap your profile photo in the top right corner. Then go to Settings, select Data Storage, and increase the quality on either cellular, Wi-Fi, or both.

YouTube Music Premium subscribers can adjust the audio streaming quality on their mobile devices and computers. They can choose between Low, Normal, High, and Always High. The default option, Normal, maxes out at 128 kbps AAC. Switching to High gives you significantly better audio quality, up to 256 kbps AAC or OPUS depending on network conditions. Or choose Always High for the best of the best.

I wouldn’t call myself an audiophile, but I can definitely hear the difference between low quality 128 MP4/AAC and something with a higher bitrate using OPUS, the open source audio codec for audio streaming.

When I switched everything to High or Very High, I noticed a significant difference. The music is loud, crisp, clear, with stronger bass, and sounds miles better than before. Sure, it’s not FLAC or lossless audio, but it’s better. Keep in mind that these changes will use more data, so make sure you don’t go over the limit if you’re on a cellular plan. It will also increase file sizes for offline playback.

Unfortunately, you can only adjust the streaming quality if you are a paying subscriber to YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium. I recommend signing up for Premium as it removes ads, gives you more features, offline playback, and even removes video ads on YouTube.

While it may seem like these are just two small changes, the impact has been huge. My YouTube Music recommendations are better than ever and exactly what I really want to hear. The quality is excellent. Whether I’m sitting by the pool, rocking out at work, or streaming from the car, YouTube Music is now my first choice.