Google's on-demand Play Music comes to Apple's CarPlay

AppleInsider

Subscribers to Google Play Music can now access the on-demand service via Apple's CarPlay, which bridges iPhone apps with in-dash interfaces in compatible vehicles.

Image Credit: snorlax on Reddit

The CarPlay interface is divided into Home, Recents, Music Library and Stations sections. While most of these are self-explanatory, Home offers recommendations, which can be based not just on past listening but factors like place or the time of day.

To get CarPlay, Play Music users must update to the latest iPhone app, then connect to a car via Wi-Fi or a Lightning cable, depending on the vehicle's implementation. It may be necessary to rearrange CarPlay's home screen icons to see Play Music on the front page, but this can be done through the General section of the iOS 10 Settings app.

To date, CarPlay is still supported by relatively few iPhone apps, most of which focus on music, radio and podcasts. This includes Play Music competitors Pandora, Slacker, Spotify, and of course Apple Music.

Indeed, Play Music is the first Google app to appear on the platform. While Google Maps or Waze might seem like natural choices, Apple so far appears to be blocking navigation apps other than its own.

Play Music is a free download from the App Store. Some aspects of the service are free, but plans for full on-demand listening start at $9.99 per month.

ike17055

This is good news ...and more than a little surprising. Years ago, as Apple dawdled on development of a music service, I trialed Google Play Music on my iPad...and loved it. I never switched to Apple Music, because GPM was excellent, and continues to upgrade over time as well. The ipad app is very good. With all the emphasis Apple now puts on its Music service, one would not expect this to be the first Google app enabled for carPlay. But as a driver of an older vehicle, without such fancy platform interfaces, I long ago put an ipad Mini mount on my dash so as to use Google Maps, various music apps, email and text, voice dictation, Notes, and such during transit. So, in effect, my "poor man's CarPlay" put me "ahead" of the curve on having the car platform I wanted.

muntz

Fuck Google

gatorguy

Muntz said:

Fuck Google

Proof of the value of higher education. 

sirlance99

Finally!!! So excited by this

bigpics

Really liking Google Play Music.  Seamless integration between the 8,000 tracks I've uploaded, all the music on demand and all the "stations" (so many stations) - and all just there across all my devices easy peasy - links to videos of some of the songs, plus the sub includes YouTube Red - All the YouTube without all of the pre-roll or interstitial ads ("priceless"), and everything plays in the background without the app having to be the focus.   Haven't tried the YouTube Music app yet though, as not sure what it'll do for me that YT doesn't itself, and I try to avoid having apps I don't need and very seldom ever uninstall an app.  As in maybe never??

Do I miss the Apple Beats station?  Uhhhh.... ...no.   And the only thing I use iTunes Music for anymore is burning CDs prior to upload onto GPM....

(Plus I snagged one of the first three months free trials they offer now and then, so 25% off the first year....  ...being on Car Play is just a little more gravy.)

edited July 2017

cali

WHY?

cali

gatorguy said:

Muntz said:

Fuck Google

Proof of the value of higher education. 

Or skipping the appetizer and going for the main course. A company that has lied, stolen and cheated deserves a "f*ck you". 

sirlance99

cali said:

WHY?

GPM is actually pretty good. Plus, for me, it’s only $7.99 and includes YouTube Red which I really need as I what a ton of informative videos. 

Having GPM on CarPlay was the one thing I’ve wanted. Now it’s here and CarPlay is finally useful. 

sirlance99

Now we just need Google Maps and Waze

soli

cali said:

gatorguy said:

Muntz said:

Fuck Google

Proof of the value of higher education. 

Or skipping the appetizer and going for the main course. A company that has lied, stolen and cheated deserves a "f*ck you". 

This can apply to Apple and at least their former CEO and founder, Steve Jobs. You may want to argue that Google/Alphabet has lied, stolen, and cheated much worse than Apple has, but your comment doesn't allow for gradation.

I'm curious what's wrong with this service being available to those that want to use it? Even within the few posts on this pro-Apple website there are several pro-Apple posters that have made positive comments about the service, so what's so bad about the service being available on CarPlay? Isn't it better that this not just an Android Auto feature? Is Apple Music yet available on Android Auto? From what I can tell it isn't and it's a limitation imposed by Apple, not Alphabet.

Disclaimer: I'm neutral on both of these music services as I've never once used either.

edited July 2017

blunt

That icon really sucks.

simply258

sirlance99 said:

Now we just need Google Maps and Waze

Not going happen at the moment as there is no API for Car Play navigation.

muntz

gatorguy said:

Muntz said:

Fuck Google

Proof of the value of higher education. 

Nailed by a shill.

cloudmobile

cali said:

WHY?

Simple. Because 90% of the market is multi-platform. Most people use both iOS and Android devices (in addition to Windows ones). So you have a lot of people who use Google Play Music on their Windows and Android devices that want to access it on their iPhones and CarPlay. Keep in mind: this was only necessary because Apple launched Apple Music YEARS after Google, Pandora, Spotify etc. launched music streaming services. And if you uploaded your personal music library to Google Play and use a combination of your personal music and Google Play's free tier to avoid subscription rates, porting that to Apple Music is not easy, especially if you want to avoid the premium tier. For goodness sakes, Apple has been supporting Windows users with iTunes for over 15 years. I have no idea why their accommodating Google Play Music on CarPlay and releasing Apple Music on Android was so controversial for so many unreasonable people. The competition is never going to go away - if only because the antitrust regulators are going to make sure of that - so might as well make money off the competition. Microsoft and Google have recognized that from the very beginning. In the future, when the tech industry is less about hardware and more about cloud and internet software and services, Apple is going to have to be multi-platform too if they are going to survive. Either that, or they will have to be reduced to making back end servers and other hardware for Google, Microsoft and the rest to run their cloud servers on, and in the process compete with the likes of Lenovo and what is left of IBM's hardware business in that market.

cloudmobile

cali said:

gatorguy said:

Muntz said:

Fuck Google

Proof of the value of higher education. 

Or skipping the appetizer and going for the main course. A company that has lied, stolen and cheated deserves a "f*ck you". 

Hmm. Do you want a list of patent infringement lawsuits that Apple has lost, or has settled because they knew that they would lose? Also, despite the blustering of Steve Jobs and Apple fans, Google's copying the iPhone's UX/UI was found totally, completely legal by the precedent set in the Microsoft vs. Apple Supreme Court case in 1994. This gets told to recalcitrant Google bashers over Android among Apple fans over and over and over again and they ignore it. Despite the fact that Google is FAR from the first company to use that precedent to copy others' UX/UI since then. (And that Apple has used that very decision to incorporate the competition's UX/UI elements in some of their products also, but no one talks about that ... or when they do, it isn't Apple stealing and copying, but rather Apple's "improving upon it/making it better/getting it right").

ike17055

cali said:

gatorguy said:

Muntz said:

Fuck Google

Proof of the value of higher education. 

Or skipping the appetizer and going for the main course. A company that has lied, stolen and cheated deserves a "f*ck you". 

As opposed to just continuously ripping off its loyal customers...

ike17055

Blunt said:

That icon really sucks.

Blunt said:

That icon really sucks.

Yeah. It does. The old headphones icon was nuce, and made sense.

blunt

The design of that icon is so bad. How can Google aprove to that shit?