Upload your own music library: where it works in 2026

Which services still accept your own music

Only two big services still take uploads: YouTube Music and Apple. Here’s how they compare with the self-hosted route, with prices checked in October 2026.

Option	Cost (October 2026)	Upload limit	What you need
YouTube Music uploads	Free	100,000 songs	A Google account and a computer to upload from
Apple Music with Sync Library	$11.99 a month (Individual)	100,000 songs (iTunes Store purchases don’t count)	Apple Music app on a Mac or Windows PC
iTunes Match	$24.99 a year in the US (Apple’s support page doesn’t list it)	100,000 songs	Apple Music app on a Mac or Windows PC; no Android app
Plex Media Server + Plexamp	Free; Plex Pass $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year for extras	Your own disk space	A computer or NAS left running at home
Navidrome	Free, open source	Your own disk space	A computer, NAS or Raspberry Pi left running

Apple’s 100,000-song cap is in its media services terms. YouTube’s 100,000-song cap is on its upload help page. Apple’s iTunes Match support page doesn’t print a price. Guides updated in 2026 still show the $24.99 launch price on the iTunes Store’s subscribe button, so check it there before you pay.

YouTube Music: the free option for most people

YouTube Music uploads cost nothing, and the free tier covers what most people need. You upload from a computer, either by dragging files onto music.youtube.com or by using the Upload music option under your profile picture. The mobile app can play uploads but can’t add them.

Supported formats are FLAC, M4A, MP3, OGG and WMA, so a lossless rip goes up as is. Google’s help page says uploaded songs play in the background, ad-free and offline even without YouTube Music Premium. That’s the part people miss, because the rest of YouTube Music nags you to subscribe.

There are catches. Casting your uploads, or playing them on smart speakers and Sonos, needs Premium. Uploads don’t feed your recommendations. Nobody else can play them, including people on your family plan, even if you share a playlist that contains them. You also can’t upload to a brand account channel.

It’s also where Google Play Music users’ uploads went when that service closed in 2020 (more on that below).

Apple Music and iTunes Match: best if you own an iPhone

Apple’s route makes sense if your library already lives in the Apple Music app on a Mac or PC. Turn on Sync Library and your own rips and CD imports appear on every device signed in to the same Apple Account.

You have two ways to pay:

Apple Music ($11.99 a month for an individual, $19.99 for a family and $6.99 for students as of October 2026) gives you the full streaming catalog plus Sync Library.
iTunes Match gives you Sync Library without the streaming catalog. Apple announced it in June 2011 at $24.99 a year, which is still the US price shown in recent guides, and it renews yearly. It isn’t available for Android.

In both cases Apple matches your songs against its catalog and uploads only the ones it can’t match. Its terms allow up to 100,000 uploaded songs, and songs bought from the iTunes Store don’t count toward that.

Two warnings from Apple’s own pages are worth reading twice. Apple says iTunes Match isn’t a backup service, so keep your original files on a drive. And Apple’s terms say that when your Apple Music membership ends, you lose access to the songs you uploaded. That’s fine if you still have the originals, but painful if the cloud was the only copy.

Plex or Navidrome: run your own music server

A home media server gives you the most control. Your files never leave your house, there’s no song cap, and nobody can change the rules on you the way Amazon and Google did. The trade-off is that a computer, NAS or Raspberry Pi has to stay switched on.

Plex is the easier start. Plex Media Server is free, and Plex’s plans page says local streaming needs no subscription. Plexamp, its dedicated music app, is now free too, with CarPlay and Android Auto. Plex Pass adds extras like downloads for offline play, Sonic Sage, Guest DJ and Mix Builders.

Plex raised Plex Pass prices on April 29, 2025, to $6.99 a month, $69.99 a year or $249.99 lifetime. On July 1, 2026, the lifetime pass jumped to $749.99, and Plex added a five-year plan at $249.99. Monthly and yearly prices didn’t change. Back in April 2025 it started charging for remote streaming of video. Its FAQ says those remote streaming rules cover movies, TV and other video only, not music played in Plexamp.

Navidrome suits people who like to tinker. It’s free, open-source software that serves your collection through a web player and a range of third-party iOS and Android apps. Its site says it runs well on low-power hardware like a Raspberry Pi.

What happened to Amazon and Google uploads

Both early cloud lockers are gone. That’s the main reason to keep your own copies whichever service you pick.

Amazon was first. It launched its cloud music locker in late March 2011 without new streaming licenses, which upset the major record labels. Google launched its own about six weeks later, also without new licenses. Both later negotiated deals before adding scan-and-match, according to Wikipedia’s comparison of music lockers, which cites the Reuters and Ars Technica coverage from the time.

Amazon’s locker became Amazon Music storage, with 250 free tracks or 250,000 on a paid plan. In December 2017 Amazon said the storage plans were being retired, with no new subscriptions after January 15, 2018, according to iMore’s report on Amazon’s support notice. Google Play Music stopped working in October 2020, on the timeline Google set in August, after it built a tool to move uploads and playlists to YouTube Music.

That leaves Apple as the only one of the 2011 players still running its original locker. Google’s lives on inside YouTube Music. Amazon pulled back from Android apps in a similar way, which we cover in what happened to Amazon’s Free App of the Day. If you’re thinking of keeping an old iPad as a music player, check whether the iPad 2 is still usable first.

Which one to pick

Here’s our pick for each type of listener, based on the published limits and prices above. We haven’t tested these services.

You want free and you use Android or a mix of devices: YouTube Music uploads. It takes FLAC and plays offline for free.
You use an iPhone and already pay for Apple Music: turn on Sync Library. There’s nothing more to buy.
You use an iPhone but don’t want a streaming subscription: iTunes Match, if the yearly fee in the iTunes Store suits you.
Your library is huge, or you want it to outlast any company’s plans: Plex with Plexamp, or Navidrome on a small always-on box.

What to do next

Back up your music files to an external drive before you upload anything. Apple says plainly that iTunes Match isn’t a backup.
Count your tracks. If you have more than 100,000 songs, YouTube Music and Apple will both stop short, so a home server is the only way to keep everything in one place.
For YouTube Music, open music.youtube.com on a computer, click your profile picture and choose Upload music. Start with one album to check the tags and artwork come through.
For Apple, open the Apple Music app on a Mac or PC, subscribe (or start iTunes Match from the iTunes Store page), and turn on Sync Library. Let the first upload finish before you switch it on for your phone.
For Plex, install Plex Media Server on a computer that stays on, add your music folder as a library, then sign in to Plexamp on your phone.

Where can you upload your own music library in 2026?