OK Google, Play Some Music! Your List of all Google Music Commands

Do you remember March 2018? We initially published this post with all the Google music commands starting with: “Hey Google, play the album with a diving baby and a dollar bill on its cover.” Back then, Google replied: “Alright, here’s the album Nevermind on Google Play Music.” We were impressed, what a Google music command!

Today, early 2021, Google Play Music no longer exists. And with Google’s Youtube Music service as a replacement for Google Play Music, our little voice assistant simply forgot some music features. Today, he usually responds with a random song, when we describe an album cover.

Never mind? Well, we do mind, hence this update, where we’ve tested new and unlearned music services and features for our Google Assistant.

In this post, we will explore all the Google music commands to enjoy all the music services supported by our Google Home and Nest devices. From basic playback commands and playing our favorite music, to setting sleep timers, music alarms, and creating our own music commands with Google Routines.

Please note, you’ve found a living post. We published this post initially in March 2018 and added four big and many smaller updates since then. A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of you who take the time and share their Google Music experiences, questions, and answers in our thoughts section below! We are continuously updating this post based on your feedback.

Thank you (in alphabetical order): ANONYMOUS, all three Brians, Bryan, Claire, Don, Eddie, Gayle, George, Joe, Julie, K., Ken, LC, Lynn, Mark, nickodemus, Roshan, S, Sean, Shamrock, Travis and zkam!

You can enjoy this post in three flavors:

Estimated reading time: 32 minutes

1. Do you have time? Great, just read on. This post is quite detailed as it has evolved over the years. You will get a good overview of all Google music services and features.
2. Would you like to quickly see which music feature works for which service? Check out our new “Google Music Commands Jump Table“, which gives you an overview of all Google music features across all music services. Just tap on the colored boxes to jump directly to the music commands you’re interested in. Swipe or tap back to return to the table.
3. Do you want to quickly find a Google music command? Check the “Table of Contents” below to jump directly to the topics you’re currently interested in. Just swipe or tap back to return to the table.

Pro-Tip: you can subscribe to receive an e-mail when we update this post with new features and someone adds a comment, or when someone replies to your comments.

Google’s Music Services

Google supports many music services nowadays: YouTube Music, Apple Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Pandora, Deezer. It mostly depends on your location, which music services you will find in your Google Home app.

YouTube Music Free and Premium

Google Play Music is history, but we left it in our Music Command Jump Table as a reference for what used to work with Google Music Services. Google nowadays provides an ad-supported, free YouTube Music service and if you’re not into ads, you can subscribe to Youtube Music Premium.

YouTube Music Free (ad-supported)

With the free, ad-supported YouTube Music service, our listening experience depends on which Google device we use. 

On Google Home / Nest speakers, some genre, mood, and activity-related stations are accessible, others will remind you: “It looks like … music is only available for YouTube Music Premium subscribers, but here is a similar station”. Requesting songs or albums you’ll hear: “Choosing songs/albums is only available for YouTube Music Premium members, but you might like this station.”

Google display devices, like the Nest Hub, Chromecast, or your Google Home app, currently play those restricted stations, songs, and albums without a notification. But, they will interrupt music playback from time to time with third-party video ads.

YouTube Music Premium

YouTube Music Premium, which offers more than 60 million songs gives you access to your personalized stations. You can play any song and also track your favorites (likes) from Youtube. With YouTube Premium, which includes YouTube Music Premium, you can additionally play your Youtube videos ads-free. You can play music in the background on your android device and download music and videos for an offline mixtape.

You can subscribe to an individual plan, a family plan for up to six family members, or a student plan. Google offers a 30-day free trial of YouTube Music Premium, which you can extend to three months if you provide payment information.

Pro-Tip: the first time you sign into the YouTube Music app with your Google account and cancel the 30 day trial offer, Google might suggest a 14 days trial without payment information.

Apple Music

Apple Music streams over 70 million songs. You can pick between an “Individual plan” or a “Family plan” for up to 6 people. If you’re a college student you can subscribe to the Student plan (50% off).

You can listen to Apple Music across all your Apple devices and as long as you’re living in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, or Japan, also on your Google devices.

Apple Music includes many local live radio stations around the world. You can enjoy Apple Music on your Apple Watch when you’re away from your iPhone or in your car with CarPlay. Apple offers free Apple Music trials from 30 days to 3 months.

Note: With Google, you won’t be able to play your Apple Music favorites or music library, listen to Apple Music Radio stations, or play similar music. You’ll miss some features, where Siri could help.

Spotify Free and Premium

Spotify supports Spotify Free, an ad-supported streaming tier. For ad-free music, you can subscribe to Spotify Premium available with Individual, Duo, Family, and Student plans. All Spotify services can stream the music directly from the Spotify app on your smartphone to any Google Cast Device.

Spotify Free (ad-supported)

Amazingly, you have access to over 50 million songs and over 700,000 podcasts, that is, if you can live with ads in your listening experience or just similar stations to what you’ve requested. You can download songs for up to 14 days for offline listening.

For Spotify Free it depends which Google device you are using:

On Google Home / Nest speakers some genre, mood, and activity-related stations are accessible, others will remind you: “Playing albums is only available to Spotify Premium subscribers, but give this … station a listen.” Requesting songs you’ll hear: “Choosing songs is only available to Spotify Premium subscribers, but try this … station.” Additionally, you’ll encounter a skip limit of six skips within an hour.

Google display devices, like the Nest Hub or Chromecast, currently play those restricted stations, songs, and albums without notification from Spotify. But, they will interrupt the music playback from time to time with ads. And no, there is no skip-limit for Spotify Free on Google display devices.

Spotify Premium

Spotify Premium has the same over 50 Million songs in its library, but this time without ad-interruptions. You can set the audio quality to very high (up to 320 kbit/s) and download songs in the Spotify app to listen without an internet connection.

You can pick between “Premium Individual”, for one person, “Premium Duo” for two people living together for one discounted price, and “Premium Family”, for up to 6 people living together. If you’re currently enrolled at an accredited college or university you can get 50% off a Premium subscription with the Premium Student plan.

Pandora, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio Services

TuneIn and iHeartRadio come preinstalled as radio-like services, Pandora requires account linking. With radio services, we’ll find natural limitations around music playback control and selecting specific music.

How to set up Google Music Services?

To link a music service in the Google Home app and set a default music provider:

1. Open the Google Home app and tap on the “⚙️” Settings button
2. Select “Music” and then the music service you’d like to link
3. Tap on “Link Account” and enter your music service account information
4. Provide Two-factor authentication, if required.
5. Tap on “Allow” to let Google access your music service, its library, and your listening activity.
6. Tap on your favorite service under “Your music services” to set it as the default music service.

You can now use all the music services you’ve linked to, just by adding the service to your request:

• Ok Google, play music on Spotify
• Hey Google, play music on Apple Music
• Ok Google, play a jazz station on Spotify

For your default music service, e.g. “YouTube Music”, you can omit the service in your voice command:

• Ok Google, play a jazz station 

Google Music Commands Jump Table

This is an overview of all the Google music features across selected Google music services. We’ve added Google Play Music for historical reference. The colored boxes indicate whether a feature is supported for a music service. You can tap on the colored boxes to jump directly to the Google Home music commands you’re interested in.

🟥 not supported 🟨 kind of supported 🟩 fully supported tap for more information	(RIP: Google Play Music)	YouTube Music Premium	YouTube Music Free	Apple Music	Spotify Premium	Spotify Free	Pandora	TuneIn	iHeartRadio
Controlling the Volume	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩
Controlling the Playback	🟩	🟨	🟨	🟨	🟨	🟨	🟥	🟥	🟥
Navigating the Music Database
Playing by Title/Album/Artist	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟥	🟥	🟥
Playing by Genre	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟨	🟥	🟥
Playing Music by Mood	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟥	🟥	🟥
Combining Mood and Genres	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟩	🟥	🟥	🟥	🟥	🟥
Playing New Music	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟨	🟨	🟨	🟥	🟥	🟥
Playing Popular Music	🟨	🟩	🟨	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟥	🟥	🟥
Favorites and Like/Dislike	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟥	🟥
Playing by lyrics	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟥	🟥	🟥
Playing by Describing the Album Cover	🟩	🟥	🟥	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟥	🟥	🟥
Playing by Location	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟥	🟥	🟥	🟥	🟥	🟥
Managing your library and playlists	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟨	🟩	🟨	🟥	🟥	🟥
Listening to radio stations	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟥	🟩	🟨	🟩	🟨	🟩
Getting Music Information	🟨	🟨	🟨	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟥	🟥	🟥
Manage and Listen to Podcasts	🟨	🟨	🟨	🟥	🟩	🟨	🟥	🟩	🟨
Controlling Music on another Speaker	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩
Setting a Sleep Timer and Music Alarm	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟩	🟨	🟨	🟨

Note, if you have not set your preferred service as default music service in the Google Home app, make sure to add “… from YouTube Music”, “… on Spotify”, “… on TuneIn”, etc. at the end of your Google Home music commands.

How to control Google’s Music Volume?

Following music commands will change Google’s volume in 10% increments:

• Ok Google, (change/make/turn the) volume up / down
• Hey Google, (make it) softer/louder
• Ok Google, lower/raise (the) volume
• Ok Google, increase/decrease (the) volume
• Hey Google, turn it up/down

If you’d like to set the volume to a specific level:

• Ok Google, (set the) volume (to level) <1-10>
• Ok Google, volume 3 (Note, that’s the snappy, short command)
• Hey Google, (set/turn the volume to) 50 percent

Note, you can check the volume with the command:

• Ok Google, what’s the volume?

And for extremes (level 10 and level 1):

• Ok Google, volume max/minimum

For muting Google Home, we have the following commands:

• Ok Google, mute/unmute

🟩 Controlling the Volume is a Google feature and available for all music services.

How to control Google’s Music Playback?

We can stop and resume playback by saying:

• Ok Google, play/resume/continue (the music)
• Ok Google, stop/pause (the music)

Note, resume, and continue times out (forgets what has been played) after around 20 minutes.

But we can also listen to some music we might like:

• Ok Google, play/shuffle some music

To navigate within an album or playlist, we just need to say:

• Ok Google, next/previous (song/track/tune)
• Hey Google, skip (this song)

To navigate within a song, we can say:

• Ok Google, play (this song) from (the) beginning 
• Ok Google, restart/repeat (this) song
• Ok Google, jump/skip back/forward (x seconds/minute(s))

For shuffling and repeat we can use:

• Ok Google, (turn) repeat/loop on/off
• Hey Google, shuffle 

🟨 YouTube Music Premium, Apple Music, Spotify Premium currently don’t support the repeat/loop mode. Spotify Premium currently doesn’t support shuffle. Note, Google will come back with: “Got it, music will start shuffling” and “All right, this will keep repeating”, but with no effect.
🟨 With YouTube Music Free and Spotify Free, the repeat mode does not work. Skipping songs is limited to six skips per hour for Spotify Free on a Google speaker, but not on a Google display device. Skipping within and restarting a song is not supported on a Google speaker, but works on a Google display device.
🟨 YouTube Music Free treats Google speaker groups as “speaker” devices – even if there are only display devices in the group – and therefore shows all the speaker limitations, regardless of which device type you ask. (Thanks, Bryan!)
🟥 Radio-like services (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc.) are naturally missing most of the music control features.

How to control Google’s Equalizer?

Though there are no Google Home music commands to control the equalizer, it’s worth to mention, that there is an equalizer settings page in the Google Home app. Tap on your Google device, then on the Settings icon on the top right. You can find the Equalizer setting under Sound settings.

In the equalizer settings page, you can control bass and treble in the range of +/- 6 dB in 0.5 steps.

How to navigate Google’s Music Databases?

There are so many ways which lead to your favorite music in the millions of songs, we need to structure this a bit …

How to play Music by Title/Album/Artist?

If we know, what we want to hear, we can say:

• Ok Google, play (the song/track/title) <title> 
• Ok Google, play/shuffle (the album/record) <album> 
• Ok Google, play/shuffle (songs/music by) <artist> 
• Hey Google, play (the song/track/title) <title> by <artist> 
• Ok Google, play (the album/record) <album> by <artist> 

🟨 The ‘free’ services YouTube Music Free and Spotify Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve requested. Unless you use a display device like Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast.
🟨 YouTube Music Free treats Google speaker groups as “speaker” devices – even if there are only display devices in the group – and therefore shows all the speaker limitations, regardless of which device type you ask. (Thanks, Bryan!)
🟥 Radio-like services (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc.) are naturally missing these features. However, you can mostly request or create an “artist radio” station. For TuneIn, you need to specify the radio station name.

How to play Music by Genre?

• Ok Google, play <genre> music

The following genre list comes from YouTube Music: Moods and Genres:

Note, while Google Play Music asked for ‘genres’, we now need to let Google know which ‘artists’ we like in the YouTube Music app.

• African
• Arabic
• Blues
• Bollywood & Indian
• Christmas
• Classical
• Country & American
• Dance & Electronic
• Decades
• Folk & Acoustic
• Hi-Hop
• Indie & Alternative
• Jazz
• K-Pop & Asian
• Kids & Family
• Latin
• Metal
• Pop
• R&B & Soul
• Reggae & Caribean
• Rock
• Schlager
• Soundtracks & Musicals

🟨 With Pandora, it seems to be a hit or miss which genre station is played.
🟥 TuneIn and iHeartRadio only support radio station names or callsigns.

How to play Music by Mood?

YouTube Music has some defined moods, which we can request to play the music that fits what we are up to. These are mapped to (curated) playlists and stations.

• Ok Google, play (some) <mood> music

• Chill
• Commute
• Energy Boosters
• Feel Good
• Focus
• Party
• Romance
• Sleep
• Workout

🟨 The “free” services YouTube Free and Spotify Free will mostly play a station similar to what you’ve requested.
🟥 Radio-like services (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc.) are naturally missing this feature.

How to combine Moods and Genres in Google Music Commands?

We can combine some moods and genres. If there is a matching station, Google will play it:

• Angry Workout -> station Angry Workout on YouTube Music
• Romantic Dinner Party -> station Dinner Music on YouTube Music
• Sad Blues -> station Blues Sad on YouTube
• Classical Music for Sleeping -> station Classical Music for Sleeping on YouTube Music
• Relaxed Country Music -> station Soothing Country Music on YouTube Music

🟨 YouTube Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve requested (vs. curated playlists with paid services).
🟥 Spotify is especially weak in finding combined stations, it will mostly play similar sounding albums.
🟥 Radio-like services (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc.) are naturally missing this feature.

How to play New Music?

To play a station from our “new music” suggestions, we can just say:

• Ok Google, play (brand) new music

If you want to hear some fresh tracks from your favorite artist, you can say:

• Ok Google, play new songs by <artist>
• Ok Google, play new <genre> music

A nice feature, which works with YouTube Music Premium – thanks Joe for sharing it with us – is to request the latest album by artist:

• Ok Google, play <artist>’s new album.

🟨 Apple Music doesn’t support new genre and new artist music. However, you can play your “New Music Mix”.
🟨 YouTube Music Free and Spotify Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve requested unless you use a display device like Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast.
🟨 Spotify Premium hardly finds new music.
🟥 Radio-like services (Pandora, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, etc.) are naturally missing this feature.

How to play Popular Music?

• Hey Google, play the top hits
• Ok Google, play the top <genre> songs
• Hey Google, play the top songs from the 80s

🟨 YouTube Music Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve requested unless you use a display device like Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast.

How to play Similar Music?

A very nice feature that works with YouTube Music and Spotify Premium. (Thanks a lot, Roshan for sharing!)

1. We have already seen that we can play the music of only one artist:
   • Ok Google, play/shuffle (songs/music by) <artist> 
2. BUT we can also play a mixed station for an artist, including the artist’s and similar music from other artists
   • Ok Google, play songs like <artist> Note, Google will reply “playing <artist> radio mix”.

Recommendations from Spotify (Premium) & YouTube Music (Premium)

• Ok Google, play recommended music
• Hey Google, recommend some music
• Ok Google, try something else
• Hey Google, play something different

🟩 With YouTube Music on a Google speaker, Google will try to get a better idea which music you like. He will play some songs and ask you to tell him what you ‘like’ along the way. On a Google display device, Google will display recommended videos.
🟩 With Spotify Premium on a Google speaker, Google will play recommended songs from Spotify. On a Google display device, Spotify will display a list of recommended songs.
🟨 Apple Music cannot recommend music.
🟨 Spotify Free will recommend some music only on a Google Nest Hub or if you request it to “play … on a Chromecast.”

How to play your Favorites and how to like/dislike Songs?

To listen to your favorites on YouTube Music, just say:

• Ok Google, play (my) thumbs-up (playlist)

For Spotify:

• Hey Google, play the songs I like (on Spotify)

To tell Google, what to put into the thumbs-up auto-playlist, just say:

• Ok Google, thumbs up
• Ok Google, I like/love this song

If you want to let Google know, that you don’t like a song, you can say:

• Ok Google, thumbs down
• Ok Google, I don’t like this song

🟨 Apple Music will display your likes/dislikes only for songs in your library. We couldn’t find a voice command to play the songs we like.

How to play Songs by Lyrics?

Some of us, rather remember some lyrics (snippets) than the title of our favorite songs:

• Ok Google, play (the song that goes) <lyrics>

🟨 YouTube Music Free and Spotify Free will mostly play a station with music similar to what you’ve asked for. Unless you use a display device like Google’s Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast.

How to play Songs by describing the Album Cover?

Yes, we can describe an album cover, and Google can (sometimes) find the right record:

• Ok Google, play the album with <cover-description> (on its cover).

Here are some examples:

• Ok Google, play the album with four men crossing a street
• Hey Google, play the album with a prism and rainbow-colored light rays 
• Ok Google, play the album with two stone faces, facing each other
• Hey Google, play the album with a banana
• Ok Google, play the album with neon ice-cream
• Ok Google, play the album with red lips and a red tongue 

🟨 Spotify Free will play on a Google speaker a station with music similar to what you’ve requested unless you use a Google display device like the Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast.
🟥 YouTube Music Free & Premium do not recognize album art.

How to play Music by Location?

Google Nest is always at home, why look into location-based music? Well, locations (from your smartphone) are only one example of the data, that Google can take into account when personalizing music suggestions for you. To enable this feature, you’ll need to turn on location-based recommendations in the YouTube Music app.

Google has a novel approach to figure out your activities. You don’t need to tell Google where you are and what you are up to. Google can take all the information it has collected from you to personalize your Google Assistant and music experience:

This includes:

• Web & App Activity: Your search activity on apps and in browsers to make searches faster and get customized experiences in Search, Maps, Now, and other Google products. This includes Voice and Audio activity, which helps to recognize your voice and improve speech recognition by storing your voice and audio inputs to your account (for example, when you say “Ok Google” to do a voice search).
• Location History: A private map of where you go with your signed-in devices to provide improved map searches, commute routes, and more.
• YouTube History: Your YouTube searches to make your future searches faster and improve your recommendations and your YouTube watch history, to make it easier to find your recently watched videos on YouTube and improve your recommendations.
• Please note, before we also found Device Information here: Your contacts, calendars, apps, and other device data to improve your experience across Google. This section is removed now and we couldn’t find equivalent settings in Google’s privacy and personalization section.

How to control your Music Library and Playlists?

You can control what goes into your music library by saying:

• Ok Google, add this song to my library

And you can control what you’d like to hear from your library:

• Hey Google, play <song/album/artist> from my library 

To listen to your own playlists, you can say:

• Ok Google, play my playlist <playlist>
• Ok Google, listen to my <playlist> playlist
• Ok Google, shuffle my <playlist> playlist

🟨 Apple Music won’t play songs from your library.
🟨 Spotify Free will just play some music, not your playlists.
🟨 YouTube Music Free will play on a Google speaker a station with music similar to what you’ve requested unless you use a Google display device like the Google Nest Hub or request to “play … on” a Chromecast.

How to listen to Google’s Stations?

Listening to radio is as straightforward as saying:

• Ok Google, play <radio station> (radio)

🟥 Apple Music Radio stations won’t play on Google devices.
🟨 Spotify Free does not support creating radio stations based on artists, songs, playlists, or albums.
🟨 TuneIn does not support genres, but over 120,000 live radio stations.

Note: if you want to listen to a different service, add e.g. “… on TuneIn” to your command.

How to get Music Information?

Google has a bit of information when asked about what’s playing:

• Ok Google, who sings this?
• Ok Google, what song/tune/title is this?
• Ok Google, what’s the album?
• Ok Google, what’s <artist’s> latest album?
• Hey Google, what was the top song in <year>

🟨 YouTube Music Free and Premium rarely provide music information on a Google display device (seems it’s missing for videos).

How to listen to Podcasts?

There are two podcast services we can configure in our Google Home app: Google Podcasts (a separate app) and Spotify Podcasts. We can use the following additional commands for podcasts:

• Ok Google, play the <podcast> podcast
• Ok Google, play the first episode of <podcast> 
• Ok Google, play the <number> episode of <podcast>
• Hey Google, play the newest/latest episode of <podcast> 
• Ok Google, skip back/forward 10 seconds/minutes
• Ok Google, previous/next episode
• Hey Google, what podcast is this?

🟨 Spotify Free does not support “play the (number) episode of (podcast).”
🟨 YouTube Music does not support “play the (number) episode of (podcast). You might need to add “… on Google Podcasts” to avoid streaming from another service.

How to control Music Playback on another Speaker?

To play on another Google Home / Chromecast device, just say:

• Ok Google, play <song/album/artist/genre> on <device>
• Ok Google, stop (playing on <device>)

How to create Google Speaker Groups

To play your music throughout your home, on multiple devices, you need to create groups. In the Google Home app tap on your Google device, then on the Settings icon at the top right. Tap on “group” to select a group or create a new one.

• Ok Google, play <song/album/artist/genre> in <group>
• Ok Google, next (<group>)
• Hey Google, stop (<group>)
• Ok Google, play <song/album/artist/genre> “everywhere”

🟩 Controlling playback on another speaker is a Google feature and available for all music services.
🟨 YouTube Music Free treats Google speaker groups as “speaker” devices – even if there are only display devices in the group – and therefore shows all the speaker limitations, regardless of which device type you ask. (Thanks, Bryan!)

Note, with YouTube Music Free a Google Nest Hub in a speaker group sometimes responds: “for display devices in a speaker group you need a premium subscription” and interrupts playback.

How to “Move” Music to another Speaker or Group?

We can move the music from a Google Home, Nest Hub, or Chromecast on which it is currently playing to another device, room, or speaker group:

• Ok Google, move (the music) to <device name>
• Ok Google, move (the music) to <group> 
• Ok Google, move (the music) to <room> Note, your Google device needs to be mapped to the room.

🟩 Moving playback to another speaker is a Google feature and available for all music services.

Note, in the Google Home app you can tap on the cast button to choose where you’d like to move your music or podcast to.
On the Google Nest Hub, you can also find the cast button at the bottom left during playback. Tap on it to select another Google device or group to continue the playback there. Furthermore, you can move any YouTube clips from the Nest Hub to a Chromecast, by saying: Hey Google, play it on <chromecast name>.

How to set a Sleep Timer and Music Alarm?

To set a sleep timer, you have the following voice commands if the music is already playing:

• Ok Google, set a sleep timer for 30 seconds/minutes/hour(s)
• Ok Google, set a sleep timer at 9:30
• Ok Google, stop (playing) in <duration>
• Ok Google, stop (playing) at <time>

If you want to specify the time, when starting the music:

• Ok Google, play music/artist/genre/playlist for <duration> seconds/minutes/hours
• Ok Google, play music/artist/genre/playlist until <time>

To check how much time is left:

• Ok Google, how much time is left on the sleep timer?

To cancel your sleep timer, say:

• Hey Google, cancel the sleep timer

Note: If you have not set the music service you’d like to hear as the default music service, or want to hear some different service, add e.g. “… on TuneIn” to your command.

You can control your music alarms with the following voice commands:

• Ok Google, wake me up to music at 6 am (every weekday)

This will let Google ask you, which music to play. You can also specify the music together with the time/weekday:

• Ok Google, wake me up at 8 am to <song/album/artist/genre/playlist/radio> 
• Ok Google, set an alarm for 6 am,  that plays song/album/artist/playlist/radio, (every weekday)
• Hey Google, cancel/disable the 7 am alarm
• Ok Google, cancel/disable (all) alarm/s

And if we want to stop a timer or alarm, it’s enough to say

• Stop

Yes, we don’t need to say “Hey/Ok Google” for that.

How to create Your Own Google Music Commands with Google Routines?

We have looked into the predefined music commands, but what about creating our own? Google Routines are a powerful feature, which supports this and much more.

If you are completely new to Google Routines, you might enjoy our overview – Google Routines: How to Automate your Life with Google Assistant! Here’s Google, explaining and creating his routines:

A Google Routine (you can find them in your Google Assistant / Assistant Settings or the home screen of your Google Home app) can be activated by

• a required voice command/phrase, which you can define, or
• an optional schedule/time of day, which can be reoccurring

Within a routine, we can combine many different actions

• either by typing in the usual voice command we would say, or
• by selecting from many popular actions, like
  • controlling our smart home devices
  • planning our day with weather, commute, calendar, reminder, and alarm information
  • communicating through broadcasts and text messages
  • adjusting smartphone settings like media volume and silent mode
  • letting Google respond with a custom message
• Last, but not least, we can specify what should be played
  • Music (by playlist, artist, song, or genre from our default music service)
  • News (by news sources we can select)
  • Radio (by radio stations)
  • Podcasts (last played or the latest episode of a specific podcast)
  • Audiobooks (resumes the audiobook where we left off)
  • Sleep sounds (Rain, Ocean, Brook, River, Thunderstorm, Forest, Country, Fireplace or White Noise)

Here’s where you can get creative. You could specify your own voice command for a radio station that is difficult to pronounce or set the right lighting scene with the right music for a romantic dinner. The only limit is your imagination!

How to control your Music in Multiple Languages?

Google Home supports setting a second Google Assistant language. If you do not see the option (under “Google Home / Settings / More Settings / Assistant / Languages” or “Google Assistant / Settings / Assistant / Languages”, you could try setting your smartphone region and language to English US and re-downloading the Google Home / Google Assistant apps from the US stores.

This has the advantage, that you can access all US features/services and actions, and select two from the currently supported languages and varieties: Danish, Dutch, English (Australia, Canada, UK, Indonesia, Ireland, India, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the US), French (France and Canada), German (Germany and Austria), Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Peru, USA) and Swedish.

But I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For!

Sorry! There are so many interesting topics around music and though we –  everyone who takes the time to contribute to this post – have climbed the highest mountains … we might have missed what’s important to you! Please join us, by taking the time to share your Google music experiences, questions, and answers in our discussion section below! You are helping to improve this post for everyone!

Alphabet continuously develops and refines Google’s music commands. They rely on statistical data based on our Google usage. But once you try a command and it does not work for you, you’ll rarely try it again …

To support the development of the music commands we are missing, we need to send feedback to Google! It’s easy, we can do it directly from the Google Home app:

1. Select from the Menu
   • iOS: the three dots top right, then Feedback,
   • Android: Side-Menu, select “Help & Feedback”
2. Select the Device, e.g. Google Home
   • On Android additionally, tap on “Submit Feedback Report” at the bottom
3. Describe the music command that doesn’t work for you, ideally by additionally providing an example
4. Tap the “Send” symbol at the top right

What songs can Google sing?

Our Google Assistant has learned to sing some songs recently. We cannot ask for a specific song, but there are different categories, and Google will come up with different songs and song snippets (where indicated):

• Hey Google, sing the mask song (Note, there are two different melodies)
  • When in public, wear a mask …
• Ok Google, help me wash my hands
  • Now’s the time to wash your hands …
  • Wash, wash, your hands …
• Ok Google, sing a love song
  • I love helping you, and I wish I had the tech …
  • Oh my darlin’, oh my darlin’ …
  • You are my everything, my night and my moon
  • My love for you knows no bounds …
• Hey Google, sing a valentine’s song (Note, Google usually mixes some love songs in here)
  • Across a million webpages …
  • It’s Valentine’s Day and all I want to do …
• Hey Google, sing a lullaby
  • La, la, lullaby …
  • Rockabye baby …
  • Twinkle, twinkle little star …
• Hey Google, sing a birthday song
  • Happy Birthday (Note, there are three different versions)
• Hey Google, sing a Halloween song
  • It’s Halloween time, and I’m here to help …
• Ok Google, sing a song (Note, this general request usually returns short song snippets)
  • Yes, I can sing, I like to help you  …
  • I’m singing, I’m singing a song …
  • Here it is! My big moment …
  • I’m singing you a song because songs are great …
  • La la la la la …
• Hey Google, sing the New Year song
  • Sing a song for the new year …
• Hey Google, sing a Christmas song
  • Jingle Bells …
• Hey Google, can you rap?
  • Ode to search …
• Hey Google, can you beatbox?
  • Beatbox (Note, there are three beatbox versions)

We covered the “Ode to search” and Google’s beatboxing in our Ai-News Episode 2, “The Epic Rap Battle.” And if you’re into more remixes with Google, Alexa and Siri, check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Conclusion

Here we are in 2021 and Google’s YouTube Music surprises us with some unlearned features compared to Google Play Music: no loop mode across all music services, no music information (for YouTube Music videos), no podcast episode access, no more album cover art recognition. 

However, it is surprising that there are many features available to Spotify and Apple Music users: We can like/dislike songs, search by lyrics, and even play a record by describing the album cover.

If you are interested in free music services, like Spotify Free and YouTube Music Free, you might enjoy them more on a Google display device. The five-second third-party video ads on a Google display device appear less annoying than Spotify’s and YouTube’s ads on a Google speaker device, which frequently remind you to subscribe to their premium services. (Update: we’ve recently seen video ads with up to 20 seconds on YouTube Music Free.)

Surprisingly, you’ll also find fewer restrictions for the free music services on a Google Nest Hub: no skip limits, direct access to artists, albums, and songs, playing by lyrics, skipping within songs, restarting songs, and more. Unfortunately, this does not apply to Google speaker groups with YouTube Music Free. Here you’ll need Spotify Free to make use of your Nest Hub in a group with speaker devices, e.g. Google Mini. (Thanks, Bryan!)

Google Routines are still a powerful feature to customize voice commands and integrate music and other media into simple or more complex routines. 

There are features only Google can offer, based on the vast amount of data it collects from us, like our web search, YouTube history, or our location. This puts Google in the position to personalize our music suggestions to the fullest.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this extensive list of Google’s music commands. If yes, please consider helping this living post to grow by sharing it with friends and family.

If you have any questions or want to help others with their questions, please join our thoughts section below! You can subscribe to receive notifications when we’re updating this post.

Happy Google, ahem, YouTube Music!

P.S. You can find more of our Google posts here: Google Assistant.
P.P.S. And here is Google’s official help page: Listen to music on speakers and displays.

Knock-knock … Enjoy our Google Joke Animations and Alexa Song Remixes (featuring Google) on YouTube!