Google Music gains free scan & match in US to compete with Apple's iTunes Match

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Previously limited to Europe, the scan and match feature in Google Play's music service arrived in the U.S. at no cost on Tuesday, matching a key feature of Apple's iTunes Match.

Google Play


Google announced Tuesday that its new matching feature will scan a music collection and quickly rebuild it in the cloud for free. Previously, users were required to upload their own music, a process that could take days for a collection with many gigabytes of audio.

Google Music allows users to match up to 20,000 songs from their music collection, and those tracks can be streamed back at up to 320 kbps at no cost. Google Play has a limit of 300 megabytes per individual song, and there is no option to purchase more storage to go beyond 20,000 tracks.

In comparison, Apple's iTunes Match will scan a user's music library and match it up with tracks available on the iTunes Store for $24.99 per year. iTunes Match has a 25,000 song limit ??5,000 tracks more than Google's free service.

When iTunes Match was announced by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, he ribbed competing offerings from Google and Amazon, which at the time could take "weeks" to upload extensive music collections.

But Amazon's Cloud Player added iTunes Match-like scan and match functionality this July. Amazon allows users to import up to 250 songs for free in its Cloud Player, while a Cloud Player Premium subscription costs $24.99 per year and allows users to import up to 250,000 songs ? 10 times that of Apple's iTunes Match.

While Amazon has an official Cloud Player application available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, Google has not yet released an official Google Music client for iOS. There are, however, some third-party options available in the App Store.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 62


    "Google did it first."

  • Reply 2 of 62
    With all the money Apple makes, no other music service should be able to even compete. Grease some palms, Tim.
  • Reply 3 of 62
    Google scanning my hard drive? Seems innocent and safe enough.

    /s
  • Reply 4 of 62
    iTunes Match is terrible. At one point after creating one new playlist on my iPhone, iTunes Match then decided to create 30,000+ duplicates of that playlist, freezing every single device I had.

    And the majority of the time after fixing that, it froze my devices.

    Worked well on Apple TV though!
  • Reply 5 of 62
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    Yeah Google did it first alright. The funny part is mobileme allowed such streaming quietly in the background. It was a manual upload to the server and never advertised. Google took this idea and promoted it as a feature. Apple didn't want to draw attention like Google did from the record companies but were negotiating behind the scenes. Many times when Google gets the jump on Apple it comes from leaks plastered all over the media, then their competitors come out with half baked versions of what Apple was rumored to be about to release. Apple's solution usually turns out to be much better because it was not a rushed decision, but you still have people claiming the other did it first.
  • Reply 6 of 62
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by leewalker10 View Post



    iTunes Match is terrible. At one point after creating one new playlist on my iPhone, iTunes Match then decided to create 30,000+ duplicates of that playlist, freezing every single device I had.

    And the majority of the time after fixing that, it froze my devices.

    Worked well on Apple TV though!


    The only two people I know personally that had an issue with iTunes match were jail breakers who had who knows what on their devices.

  • Reply 7 of 62

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by allenbf View Post



    Google scanning my hard drive? Seems innocent and safe enough.

    /s


    Holy shit that's scary!

  • Reply 8 of 62
    It's a low-margin activity for Apple, so the direct impact will be minimal.

    However, it will, over time have an indirect negative impact since Google is slowly ratcheting up the attractiveness of Android's ecosystem to try to match Apple's. Apps, photos, videos, docs, now music...... (Apple could start to respond to this move by essentially upping storage for its users, and offering it or free, but unfortunately will not do so).

    Shameless, relentless, disintermediating, copyist juggernaut.
  • Reply 9 of 62
    The main difference is Google won't upgrade your low-quality songs into high quality songs. They will for streaming but not for download.
  • Reply 10 of 62
    C'mon, Apple, please bring out your best. I've used Safari very little since Chrome came out for iOS. The Gmail app is really sophisticated and makes the Mail app in iOS look as aged as a POP3 client. I miss the ease of managing podcasts with native apps. I appreciate Cards, Notes, Voice Memos but I really don't use those. My most-used native apps are Photos and Calendar but there are some attractive competitors.

    The competitors, cough, Google, has put out some really clunky apps in the past but boy are they looking good after a few years of iterations. Despite the examples of maps problems I'm still a real fan of the display in the new native map app so will likely continue using that. I trust Google Maps since I've used that much more (of course, since it's been around longer) but as a very light user anyway, I will likely continue using the built-in app.
  • Reply 11 of 62
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member


    I think there's an error with the headline. Should read "Google Music gains free scan & match in US to blatantly copy Apple's iTunes Match"

  • Reply 12 of 62
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Just like the character (Beloch?) in Indiana Jones:
    "There's nothing you can do that I can not take away from you".

    Google to Apple:
    "There's nothing you can do that we won't stoop to copying"
  • Reply 13 of 62

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by leewalker10 View Post



    iTunes Match is terrible. At one point after creating one new playlist on my iPhone, iTunes Match then decided to create 30,000+ duplicates of that playlist, freezing every single device I had.



    And the majority of the time after fixing that, it froze my devices.



    Worked well on Apple TV though!


     


    Great first post ????

  • Reply 14 of 62
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    If it was a blatant copy it'd cost $24.99, but it's free.
    jkichline wrote: »
    I think there's an error with the headline. Should read "Google Music gains free scan & match in US to blatantly copy Apple's iTunes Match"
  • Reply 15 of 62
    tbelltbell Posts: 3,146member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ddawson100 View Post



    C'mon, Apple, please bring out your best. I've used Safari very little since Chrome came out for iOS. The Gmail app is really sophisticated and makes the Mail app in iOS look as aged as a POP3 client. I miss the ease of managing podcasts with native apps. I appreciate Cards, Notes, Voice Memos but I really don't use those. My most-used native apps are Photos and Calendar but there are some attractive competitors.

    The competitors, cough, Google, has put out some really clunky apps in the past but boy are they looking good after a few years of iterations. Despite the examples of maps problems I'm still a real fan of the display in the new native map app so will likely continue using that. I trust Google Maps since I've used that much more (of course, since it's been around longer) but as a very light user anyway, I will likely continue using the built-in app.


     


     


    I will give you the Gmail App (not that I use Gmail anymore), but Safari is better in my opinion. I do wish Apple would put the tabs on top. I use the reader function and off line reading a lot. Moreover, according to Little Snitch Chrome tried to call home every five minutes. 

  • Reply 16 of 62
    tbelltbell Posts: 3,146member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post



    If it was a blatant copy it'd cost $24.99, but it's free.


     


     


    That makes it worst because it is a classic example of anti-competitive behavior. 

  • Reply 17 of 62
    Samsung just came out with S-Tunes Affiliation Z-spec IV%u2122 - Doesn't quite roll of the tongue like iTunes Match though...
  • Reply 18 of 62
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    ireland wrote: »
    If it was a blatant copy it'd cost $24.99, but it's free.

    I don't think that is a logical conclusion. Being blatant doesn't mean a 1:1 mirror of every aspect of something. Chinese KIRFs are blatant copies that are much cheaper than the iPhone and often still look and act differently, but they are still blatant.

    tbell wrote: »
    That makes it worst because it is a classic example of anti-competitive behavior. 

    They have a clear way of obtaining revenue from their "free" service so I don't think there is any anti-competiveness that can be attributed to them. It's simply a different business model than Apple.
  • Reply 19 of 62
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member


    "Dear Android-Fan-in-the-future,


     


    In response to your query as to why Apple spends so much time litigating yet Google does not:


     


    THIS


     


    ...is why.


     


    Kind Regards,


    GTR"

  • Reply 20 of 62
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member


    Ironically, just a few seconds after sending this email into the future, I received a reply email from an Android fan advising me that, in their time, Google has changed it's motto:


     


    "Google: Don't be Original".

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