Tag Archives: GoogleMusic

Spotify’s challenge is to prove it’s a real business, not a fantasy

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Three months after quietly filing to become a public company, Spotify finally made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday. It was a big day for the Swedish music-streaming giant, to say the least, and it ended up exceeding expectations from...

Drake’s new album only an Apple Music exclusive for a week

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We had an inkling that Drake's next album, Views From the 6, would hit streaming services other than Apple Music but didn't exactly know when. The truth is you'll only have to wait a week after its initial release before you can hear it on other plat...

Google Play Music family plan gives six people tunes for $15 a month

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Family pricing has been all the rage when it comes to music-streaming services. After the likes of Rdio, Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music announced reduced rates for you and your family, Google has a family plan of its own for Play Music. Mountain Vi...

Editorial: Google confuses magic with middling as it steps into music streaming

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DNP Editorial Google confuses magic with middling as it steps into music streaming

First of all: that name. Google Play Music All Access. Perhaps Google's presenters realized, as they were driving to the I/O keynote, that they had forgotten to name the new music-streaming service, and came up with that clunker backstage.

Unique? Magical? It's easy to dismiss those claims within minutes of signing up.

Jump to the keynote, where Chris Yerga described All Access as "a uniquely Google approach to a subscription service," and remarked, "Here's where the magic starts." Unique? Magical? It's easy to dismiss those claims within minutes of signing up. Prosaic and useful, yes; unique and magical, no. All Access is nowhere near an innovation. The major ecosystem companies, each of which started with groundbreaking technical development, now seem to fashion their business destinies on buttressing their networks with products innovated elsewhere, plugging holes to sway existing users from drifting out of the system. It's not a new story, but always a sad one.

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Google Play Music All Access: Android / US-only rollout is just the start

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Google Music All Access Android USonly rollout is just the start

Nearly two years ago to the day, Google introduced Music Beta at I/O 2011. But in reality, it was little more than a gigantic cloud to store 20,000 of your favorite tracks. Despite a plethora of rumors that the search giant would beat Spotify to the punch by launching a subscription-based music service in the United States, we got a digital locker that has done little to distract most listeners from giving Rdio, Pandora, iTunes and other like services at least a piece of their heart. Fast forward to today, and Google's finally joining the bandwagon... in majorly limited fashion.

Google Music All Access is presently only available for mobile as an Android app, and only to users in the US. Moreover, it costs $9.99 -- the exact same sum as practically every one of its rivals. Rivals that have multi-year headstarts in terms of mind and market share. (Yes, it's $7.99 per month if you sign up prior to June 30th.) Google has landed deals with the same "major labels" as everyone else, but even product manager Paul Joyce affirmed to us here at I/O that All Access doesn't have access to any exclusives. In a post-keynote meeting with Joyce, he noted that this is only the start for the product. Naturally, Google's going to do its finest work on its own platform, but it's certainly odd to see iOS users left out in the cold given Google's acknowledgement of its importance just minutes earlier.

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Source: Google Play

Google reportedly signs deal with Sony and Universal ahead of launching music streaming service

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Google reportedly signs deal with Sony and Universal ahead of launching music streaming service

Sure, Google I/O may not focus on new products, but it might just take a moment to unveil the firm's take on music streaming. According to The Verge, Mountain View has inked licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment for YouTube and Google Play. With Fortune having reported that a similar deal with Warner Music Group is already in the can, it's entirely possible that the search titan could reveal its Spotify-like service at the developer event, now that it's reportedly reached critical mass with major music labels. If things pan out as the Financial Times sees them, the tune streaming would complement Google Music, and likely sport paid and free, ad-supported experiences. Page & Co.'s dev shindig may not have skydivers this year, but on-demand music may be on the program.

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Source: The Verge

Google reportedly in negotiations with music labels to launch streaming service

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Google reportedly in negotiations with music labels to launch streaming service

Surprise, surprise: Apple isn't the only company that's rumored to be developing a music streaming service. According to Financial Times, Google is working to augment its current download store with a streaming service that could take on the likes of Spotify, Slacker and Nokia Music. The outlet's sources suggest that Google is currently in the negotiation stage with record labels, and that its service would likely feature both paid and free, ad-supported components. Naturally, while this news remains in the realm of rumors for both Apple and Google, it seems that the race is now on for which company is both willing and able to supplement its music store with a streaming service. Anyone care to place bets on which company is first to the starting line?

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Via: CNET

Source: Financial Times

Google Music matching explicit songs with clean ones, but contains a stopgap fix

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Google Music graffiti Android

Early iTunes Match adopters will remember the unintentional bowdlerization of their music libraries: they'd listen to their scanned music collection on a second device and lose all the colorful language. As we're quickly learning, Google Music's newly added scan and match feature isn't exempt from that problem, either. Those streaming matched copies of explicit songs through the newer service are getting clean versions, with no obvious way to preserve the filth. We've reached out to Google for comment, but in the meantime, here's a potential solution -- choose the "fix incorrect match" option and Google Music will typically upload the raw tracks. Hopefully, the service will match the correct tracks by the next time we want an unfiltered experience for our ears.

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Via: The Verge

Source: Droid-Life

Google Music gains scan and match feature in the US

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Google Music gains scan and match feature in the US

It wasn't very long ago that Google Music landed in Europe -- to the delight of local music lovers, we're sure. On its trip across the pond, the service gained a unique new feature called scan and match, wherein Google scans your local music library and makes the songs it matches instantly available in the cloud -- no upload required. Until now the feature, which is similar to iTunes Match, was only available in Europe, but it's coming to the US starting today. From now on, any US Google Play users who upload their music collection will benefit from this new feature. Over time, the company will also upgrade users with existing cloud libraries. It's a free service and it's automatic -- you're unlikely to notice that it's even happening. The upside is that entire collections will be uploaded faster. We're not aware of any downsides yet -- matched songs will be available for streaming at 320Kbps like regular Google Play purchases, while re-downloaded music will be available at or close to the bitrate of the original file.

Update: Google confirmed that any VBR files matched by the service will be re-downloaded as CBR files with a bitrate that's slightly higher than the average bitrate of the original song. This is obviously a drawback if you're currently relying on the service to backup your music collection.

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Source: Google Play (Google+)

Google breaks ground with pan-European music deal, shows that streaming knows no borders

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Antoine album cover

We now know how Google could offer its European music services to multiple countries so quickly. The search firm took advantage of a new hub approach to licensing at Armonia, an alliance between publishers in France, Italy and Spain, to get rights to about 5.5 million works from 35 countries inside and outside of Europe. The pact should have financial terms similar to those for Amazon and Apple, but it's more notable as a rare (if not pioneering) European digital music agreement that reaches much of the continent in one shot -- those competitors' earlier deals required slower, country-by-country negotiations that ultimately sparked regulatory problems. While we're not bracing ourselves for full catalog access in the Czech Republic in the near future, the Armonia license could be a watershed moment for not just Google Music, but any digital music shop that wants to get a fresh start in the Old World.

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: FT (sign-in required)