Google Play Music now stores 50K songs free, Apple's iTunes Match still at 25K songs for $25/year
Google Play Music on Wednesday was updated to store up to 50,000 songs in the cloud for free, more than doubling its previous limit of 20,000 songs, and also blowing past the 25,000-song cap of Apple's subscription iTunes Match service.
Google users who use the free Play Music service -- available with an official app for both iPhone and iPad --?can now store up to 50,000 songs for free to stream or download. Songs must first be uploaded from a computer or Mac before they can be accessed from any device.
In contrast, Apple's iTunes Match costs $24.99 per year, and limits matching and uploading to 25,000 songs. Beyond the 25,000 limit, Apple does not accept any more matches or uploads, though traditional iTunes purchases can be added to a user's cloud-based media library.
Amazon also charges $24.99 per year for its premium Amazon Music matching service, but those who upgrade can match or import up to 250,000 songs --?ten times that of iTunes Match.
Apple does up the value proposition by including ad-free iTunes Radio listening for iTunes Match subscribers. But the remaining 25,000 cap puts it behind chief competitors Amazon and Google for users who might have ultra-large music libraries.
Apple's iTunes Match service is flanked by the aforementioned iTunes Radio, which is a Pandora-style music streaming service that creates personalized Internet radio stations. And the company also acquired Beats Music last year, a Spotify-like on-demand subscription streaming service.
Google users who use the free Play Music service -- available with an official app for both iPhone and iPad --?can now store up to 50,000 songs for free to stream or download. Songs must first be uploaded from a computer or Mac before they can be accessed from any device.
In contrast, Apple's iTunes Match costs $24.99 per year, and limits matching and uploading to 25,000 songs. Beyond the 25,000 limit, Apple does not accept any more matches or uploads, though traditional iTunes purchases can be added to a user's cloud-based media library.
Amazon also charges $24.99 per year for its premium Amazon Music matching service, but those who upgrade can match or import up to 250,000 songs --?ten times that of iTunes Match.
Apple does up the value proposition by including ad-free iTunes Radio listening for iTunes Match subscribers. But the remaining 25,000 cap puts it behind chief competitors Amazon and Google for users who might have ultra-large music libraries.
Apple's iTunes Match service is flanked by the aforementioned iTunes Radio, which is a Pandora-style music streaming service that creates personalized Internet radio stations. And the company also acquired Beats Music last year, a Spotify-like on-demand subscription streaming service.
Comments
That is nuts. How can you refuse?
I don't know much about it but does this Google system seamlessly play on Apple TVs, iPads, iPhones and Macs for the account holder and all the family? Does it allow playlists to be used in slide shows on Apple TV from Photos? If it does all the afore mentioned then Apple will hopefully soon up its offering to compete better. Personally I don't think $25 a year for what I currently get is bad at all.
Google is showing signs of desperation, on another topic I mistakenly start google maps on my phone, I should have known! , and you know what I was greet with a , "a fricking Ad" I closed it in disgust, screw you Google and your really crappy services
Of course Google is going to give everyone free everything on the internet. Thats their business model. The more space and stuff they give you, the more you're giving them. It's in their best interest to provide as much as possible for "free".
I agree that Apple needs to step up their somewhat pitiful offerings, especially since they've been pushing iCloud integration so hard these passed couple of years. Apple is still at the beginning of building out their data centers, but they are moving at a rapid pace and we will probably see them start offering more for less (or free). This happened with their software and it'll move to iCloud as well. I think we'll see an announcement when Apple finally releases Photos for OS X with its heavy use of iCloud integration.
Though, in all respects, i would like to see Apple increasing capacity/limits for things like iTunes Match. What was good at initial announcement is no longer adequate for marketing purposes. I think it would be great if Apple could roll iCloud iTunes Match any other pay services into one package. I am sure the record labels have something to do with that though...
I just wish that the Play count actually reflected the number of plays for all my media. I find it accurate for music, but not movies or tv, which seem to change arbitrarily.
Otherwise, I imagine that only a tiny number of people would ever need 25,000 tracks, let alone 50,000. I think tracks bought from iTunes don't count, so it’s only music from CDs or other sources that are restricted. That said, Apple should probably simply make it unlimited for, say $50 a year, and perhaps up the track limit for the current price.
You are correct, but many of us have collected CD’s over the years and ripped them instead of just buying lots of stuff on iTunes. If they removed the “matched” limitation and the 25k songs only accounted for stuff that needed to be uploaded (which is ridiculously inaccuate, BTW), then 25k would be more than enough for many of us.
Why on earth would anyone need more than 25000 matched songs? Every song, movie or TV show I ever bought on the iTunes Store can be streamed or redownload on any of my devices at no charge.
That's the key part. I ripped a buncha old CDs, and whammo, all on iTunes Match everywhere.