Free, ad-supported Google Play Music stations debut in US a week before Apple Music & Beats 1
With just a week to go before the launch of Apple Music, a new ad-supported free streaming version of Google Play Music, centered around curated radio stations, is now available in the U.S.
The Pandora-like service is now available on the Web, and it will roll out in an update to the official Google Play Music app for iOS, as well as Android, later this week. The new service is powered by the technology behind Songza, which Google acquired last year on the heels of Apple's own Beats purchase.
With the Songza team, each station is crafted for specific listening occasions, from driving, to working out. to hanging out with friends. Curated stations are also available by genre, decade or mood, and users can have an instantly created station if they search for an artist, album or song.
The ad-supported U.S.-based streaming service aims to hook users in to the Google Play Music platform, which also has a subscription component. Those who pay the $9.99-per-month fee will be able to play the new stations without ads, and will also have access to offline music and custom playlists from a library of 30 million songs.
Google Play Music's free component is essentially equivalent to Apple's Beats 1 station and other radio stations set to launch next week. And like Google's offering, Apple Music will require users to pay $9.99 per month, though Apple will offer a free three-month trial when it launches next Tuesday.
There are currently a total of 28 radio stations in the Apple Music app found in iOS 8.4 and iOS 9. The flagship station, Beats 1, will broadcast live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with hosts Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden, and Julie Adenuga.
With or without a subscription, Google Play Music also allows users to store and play up to 50,000 songs from their own collection for free. Apple's iTunes Match, meanwhile, offers 25,000 songs at a price of $24.99 per year.
The Pandora-like service is now available on the Web, and it will roll out in an update to the official Google Play Music app for iOS, as well as Android, later this week. The new service is powered by the technology behind Songza, which Google acquired last year on the heels of Apple's own Beats purchase.
With the Songza team, each station is crafted for specific listening occasions, from driving, to working out. to hanging out with friends. Curated stations are also available by genre, decade or mood, and users can have an instantly created station if they search for an artist, album or song.
The ad-supported U.S.-based streaming service aims to hook users in to the Google Play Music platform, which also has a subscription component. Those who pay the $9.99-per-month fee will be able to play the new stations without ads, and will also have access to offline music and custom playlists from a library of 30 million songs.
Google Play Music's free component is essentially equivalent to Apple's Beats 1 station and other radio stations set to launch next week. And like Google's offering, Apple Music will require users to pay $9.99 per month, though Apple will offer a free three-month trial when it launches next Tuesday.
There are currently a total of 28 radio stations in the Apple Music app found in iOS 8.4 and iOS 9. The flagship station, Beats 1, will broadcast live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with hosts Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden, and Julie Adenuga.
With or without a subscription, Google Play Music also allows users to store and play up to 50,000 songs from their own collection for free. Apple's iTunes Match, meanwhile, offers 25,000 songs at a price of $24.99 per year.
Comments
Who cares? I hate ad supported music, which is why I don't like radio stations. That and the fact they play crap I'm not interested in listening to anyway.
So, it's like what iTunes Radio is now (if you haven't purchased iTunes Match to rid yourself of the ads)? Welcome to the party, Google! Looks like there is always some way any company, whether it be Apple or Google or Microsoft or whatever -- can play catch up.
What's interesting is that if you subscribe to Apple music, the iTunes Match features are included automatically and there is no mention of a limit on the number of songs. The 50,000 uploads just fluff. I can't imagine any one person having even 1000 songs that are not already In iTunes and would require uploading.
I don't even think I have 1000 songs.
And I've been an iPod/iTunes Music Store user since 2005!
It's nice that Google cares about the poor though.
Anything you can do I can do too ????
Is that what Eddy Cue is singing?
LOL. We all know of whom you speak. He'll be here. Mentioning Google in the forums is his Pavlovian bell.
LOL. We all know of whom you speak. He'll be here. Mentioning Google in the forums is his Pavlovian bell.
Kinda like the word "pot" gets Apple II out and about.
LOL. We all know of whom you speak. He'll be here. Mentioning Google in the forums is his Pavlovian bell.
Kinda like the word "pot" gets Apple II out and about.
Along with 'guns' and 'Sharpton'...oops...
I don't know why people hate on ad supported stuff so much. I've used Pandora before and getting ads every once in a while is no big deal.
Great. You don't mind ads. We do.
Is that so difficult to understand?
Sure, you saw those photos of the Drunk Karaoke King in action... Cue is king crooner.
It's a new service, so it wasn't wrong when it was said.
"Blacks" and "middle-class".
He spends his days apart from these social classes up in Elysium.
That was a surprisingly good movie.
2199 of the 14682 songs on my iTunes library had to be uploaded. in some cases, the albums are not on the iTunes store, but in many cases, the match appears to have failed, even though the song is present in the store.
Seven days until Apple Music.
Tap tap on my Apple Watch. Is this thing running slow?
Can't wait.
- the new ad-supported and human curated radio service (apparently from their Songza purchase?)
- a free cloud music drawer for up to 50,000 songs
- ability to transfer/match your iTunes catalog of music
- à la carte album and individual track purchases
- and an all-you-can eat on-demand music streaming subscription that includes off-line playback.
I can't think of anything else they could include. Still the ad-supported tier does surprise me a bit.