
Google Play Music on the App Store - mikeevans
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-play-music/id691797987?ls=1&mt=8
======
sahaskatta
I've been trying out a different music service every few months, here's
something interesting I found.

Number of songs:

    
    
      - Xbox Music 30 million.
      - Apple iTunes 26 million.
      - Amazon MP3 25 million.
      - Spotify 20 million.
      - Rdio 20 million.
      - Google Music 18 million.
    

I've most recently been using Google Music since I can upload songs albums
which aren't available in their library (e.g. Beatles). However, Xbox Music is
pretty neat too. It's actually pre-installed on every Windows 8 computer and
you can listen to just about any songs without ads in high quality for free.
(Not sure why Microsoft doesn't advertise this more.)

Other thoughts: Apple is the only one without a cross platform mobile
offering. For I instance, I'd like iTunes radio on Android or Windows Phone.
Spotify has by far the best social experience and Rdio has the best designed
web/mobile interface.

~~~
bentcorner
Regarding Xbox Music, I thought it was too good to be true. Fine print: _Free
streaming limited to 10 hours /month after 6 months_

Understandable, TANSTAAFL. 6 months is still great value, MS should definitely
market this more.

~~~
taopao
I'd exhaust that quota after just a couple work days!

Why are they being so stingy with just- 6 months?

~~~
jimueller
Umm, so the company that is giving away free streaming is stingy? How would
you describe someone who complains about free things, or an unwillingess to
pay for a service?

~~~
taopao
Gold membership isn't free...

------
bookwormAT
The killer feature of Google Music is that uploaded music integrates well with
subscribed music.

If you have an album that is not on Google's "all access" catalog, you can buy
it from somewhere, upload to Google, and then this music is accessible from
everywhere. Just like the music from the subscription catalog. I believe (not
sure) that Google even integrates your uploaded music in generated radio
playlists.

For someone who buys albums on local concerts, this is a killer feature. Many
albums do not appear on any subscription catalogues, or they are not available
in [YOUR REGION], or the labels wait months before they release a new album in
the catalogues.

When I was using Spotify, I had a playlist of my favorite jazz songs minus the
songs not on Spotify, minus the songs not available in Austria. And after two
months, 1/4 of the songs were greyed out and did not play anymore because the
label had decided to remove these songs from my region.

Now I just have a playlist with my favorite songs.

------
tvon
I'm experiencing a horribly broken login process.

* Open login screen

* Switch to password app, copy password

* Switch back to Google Music, login screen loads again

* Enter credentials, 2-step verification screen loads

* Switch to Google Authenticator, get 2-step number

* Switch back to Google Music, user/password login screen loads again.

In short, I cannot authenticate using a single device, I'll have to use a
second device to pull up the 2-auth number.

~~~
smackfu
The auth code is good for 30 seconds, can't you just time it right by getting
the code before opening Google Music?

~~~
tvon
I could, but I have a complex password so I copy/paste it from another app.

I should honestly memorize that password anyway.

------
alooPotato
I;ve been using Google Music on my android device and it is by far the best
music app I've used (vs. Pandora, spotify, last.fm, etc). The killer feature
for me is that it learns what I like and the radio stations it generates are
pretty awesome. This may be helped by the fact that I uploaded my entire mp3
library as well.

~~~
jordanthoms
Yeah, Google music's radio stations are superior to those on Spotify etc - it
seems to pick better music, and you can reorder/delete the playlist etc.

------
sprokolopolis
For those who would like to port their Spotify playlists to Google Music,
check out Portify:
[https://github.com/mauimauer/portify](https://github.com/mauimauer/portify)

It isn't perfect, but it has been very helpful to me.

~~~
filipmares
You sir are a gangster. Thank you.

~~~
sprokolopolis
Let me be clear, that I didn't create Portify. I am just a user.

Also, the last time I checked it wouldn't build with certain versions of
node.js. I got it working with node-v0.8.1.

------
aaronmoodie
Really great to see this finally available, not only for the streaming
service, but because at this point Google seems to be the only one dealing
with music lockers the right way.

I've been using Google Music as a backup of my library for quite some time,
but recently have found using it as my primary player much more convenient
that loading iTunes and dealing with iTunes Match, which IMO, is broken.
(there is a side story her about moving countries, but that's for another
time).

Would love to see a Rdio/Spotify-esque native application as well, but that
might be asking a little too much.

EDIT: The lack of a online/offline music toggle is really disappointing.

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joeblau
FINALLY! Been using this other app which just wrapped the web UI in a view so
background playing would be enabled. This thing looks clean.

------
ultimoo
I find it amusing that since Google already had an established ad-based
'services' market before foraying into the mobile space with Android, they
invest significant effort into making apps for iOS.

Whereas, since Apple has always been in the 'products' market, they don't
(have to) invest any effort into the Android ecosystem. I think the first time
I was ever exposed to adverts was with iTunes Radio.

~~~
einehexe
Google invests significant effort into making iOS apps because they make more
money from them than they do from Android.

~~~
einehexe
Down voting does not change the facts.

~~~
alandarev
Then explain why Google Maps are a no-choice for iOS?

P.S. Did not downvote you.

------
endemic
Annoying thing is that searching for "Google Play Music" (the name of the app)
brings up a bunch of other junk apps first.

~~~
publicfig
I'm sure that will probably change over the next few days.

~~~
Bud
More like a few minutes. It's already the first hit, now, if you just search
for Google Play.

------
moskie
Oddly enough, the thing that prevents me from fully adopting Google Play Music
as my one and only music source is its performance on the desktop.

Perhaps something's wrong with my computer(s), but playing Google Music from a
browser window regularly skips when my browser has to do something intensive
in another tab. It's also easy for me to accidentally close the tab. And it
doesn't interface with my keyboard's media buttons.

Using Google Music via my phone (a Galaxy Nexus) is great, and Play's
featureset (purchasing of music, local storage, radio, uploading, etc.) is the
best of all the options.

But the desktop performance of Spotify (along with a decent featureset and a
good mobile app) is what keeps me a paying customer. If Google Play Music can
solve that problem (or if there's already a way to address it of which that
I'm not aware), then I would switch.

~~~
zhengyi13
My desktop performance on both my 32GB Linux desktop at work, and my 8GB
Windows desktop at home is generally flawless, and I rarely have fewer than 10
tabs open in either place. I do use Chrome exclusively; maybe the performance
in another browser is a different story? I assume Chrome's process-per-tab
design would make this experience a little more robust.

Secondly, did you try w/ both Flash (the default) _and_ the HTML5 player? You
can enable the HTML5 player in the Labs section of Music; that might
significantly alter your web experience.

~~~
moskie
Yea, I've tried both the Flash and HTML5 player, and I don't think I noticed
much difference. And this is all using Chrome as well. Also, I notice the
skipping not just when something intensive is happening in another tab, but
also when another application is doing something heavy. Perhaps it's something
on my machines... but whatever it is, it doesn't happen with Spotify's desktop
app.

------
apendleton
While it's not explicitly mentioned on the page, the Chromecast icon is
visible in the screenshot, so apparently there's parity there with the Android
app, which is nice. Google Music's web version strangely doesn't support
Chromecast, leaving iOS people with no way of using Chromecast at all.

------
publicfig
I can't really see this replacing Spotify for my streaming music services. If
anything is going to do that, it's going to be Rdio. But I really can see this
filling the hole in my phone that is streaming purchased content that isn't
available through the streaming service. The fact that iTunes (or Spotify, or
Rdio) doesn't have this is pretty disappointing. When I download an album off
of Bandcamp, I have to download it to every computer I have iTunes on, and
then sync my phone to listen to it. That's difficult, and it means I have
slightly different libraries on every device I own. This is a decent enough
stopgap until hopefully a better app implements it (preferably Rdio, because
I'd love to move to them if it wasn't for their less than stellar music
selection in comparison to Spotify).

------
skyjedi
A good start. No iPad version or landscape. Still infinitely better than the
stock music app

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "Still infinitely better than the stock music app"

I've always found the iOS Music app superior to pretty much everything else
(including Play). Obviously it doesn't have streaming but as a player the UI
is much better. I find Play quite confusing and it wastes a lot of space (e.g.
the artists screen - I don't need to see a photo of the artist with their
name, it doesn't add any value).

~~~
skyjedi
Music app requires iTunes.

~~~
gress
What does it require iTunes for?

~~~
skyjedi
sorry stock Apple music app

~~~
gress
I am not aware of anything that the stock Apple music app requires iTunes for.

~~~
skyjedi
How else do you get music into the app? Also itunes Radio and buy songs via
itunes on the device is still itunes

~~~
gress
If you define buying music through the app itself as 'iTunes' then this is a
meaningless discussion aimed at bashing the word 'iTunes'.

You can use the app perfectly well without ever going near the desktop iTunes
software, as you say by buying music through the device, or using iTunes
Radio.

If you have other music you want to load, the yes, you need to use the desktop
app for that.

What's your point?

~~~
skyjedi
iTunes sucks, hard. The desktop version in unavoidable if you want an mp3
file.

------
disposition2
I subscribed Google Play Music when they first offered the service and enjoyed
it but I feel Spotify is much more conducive to 3rd party add-ons, I couldn't
find many differences with the subscription based libraries (the ability to
upload to google play is nice...but also free) and Spotify actually has an
API, Desktop Application, actual 3rd party support. In my experience any 3rd
party support (last.fm, etc) in Google Music breaks every release, which was
the main reason why I switched back to Spotify. It may be a little more $ each
month but I found the advantages Spotify has over GPM were worth the cost.

------
dabernathy89
Neat, maybe I can convince my wife to use it. I haven't even touched my iPod
since I started using Play Music (on Android) - although my biggest beef is
that you can't store your offline music on an SD card.

~~~
Kudos
I really wish the Google Experience devices would start shipping with more
storage. I have a 64G iPhone because I don't want to be concerned about how
much storage I'm using (right now it's around the 32GB mark). SD cards are a
total hack and just complicate the UX.

~~~
dabernathy89
Agree about the UX. It'd be great if they could allow you to expand storage
but also abstract away the separation between SD card / internal storage.

------
fumar
Music services I have tried: Google Music, Xbox Music, Spotify, and iTunes.
After using each for over three months. I have stuck with Google Music. Why I
did go with the big G? It was the ability to upload all my music (up to
20,000) songs to the cloud. This plus Google All Music, covers my music need
well! The ability to upload my own music to the cloud strikes a good balance
for me. I hated having Spotify and not finding what I was looking for. Then I
was stuck transferring MP3s to my phone. Now, my library syncs from my iMac to
Google.

------
Yhippa
If Apple ever rolls out a subscription music service this will be removed from
the App Store, right? Or is it that you just can't sign up for Google Play
Music through the iOS app?

~~~
ben1040
>Or is it that you just can't sign up for Google Play Music through the iOS
app?

This. This isn't allowed, unless Google opted to use in-app purchase to set up
the subscription and give Apple a 30% cut.

------
swasheck
... and only 24 weeks after it was promised "within weeks."

------
Larrikin
My biggest problem with Google Play Music was always the size of my library. I
have almost 180 gigs of music. I think I used GPM the first week it was out
and obviously my whole library didn't get uploaded. I wouldn't mind so much if
it simply kept track of what my newest music was and deleted unlistened to
music. If I have to manually manage playlist of what can go on the service
then I might as well just put the music directly on my phone or iPad.

------
jamesaguilar
I won't be switching from Rdio until the web app has a way to pin music to
devices. I think Google Music is definitely a more featureful product and
would use its ability to upload my own music in some cases. But I can't be
bothered to go through all my favorite albums on a little mobile screen and
pin them.

~~~
thrownaway2424
Isn't "pin music to device" what the little orange down-pointing arrow does in
the Play Music app?

~~~
jamesaguilar
It is. But, I need to be able to do it from the web app, I don't want to have
to go through hundreds of albums on my device and do it. I want to do put
$(".pin_button").click() in my Chrome console and be done with it.

~~~
bookwormAT
maybe you could just make one playlist, put all music you have in there, and
pin that list on the device? Then you should have all your music and playlists
available locally.

~~~
jamesaguilar
Good idea. This might meet my JQuery-able requirement.

------
BrianCoop
I tried it out when it first came out...just to see. But I wasn't nearly as
happy with it as I am with Pandora. Maybe when the youtube service comes out
it'll be worth paying if it comes with both, but otherwise I'll stick with
pandora and torch music.

------
craigc
I can figure out how to download stuff so it is available for offline playing,
but I can't figure out how to filter out only content that is available
offline.

This is a feature available in the Android app as an "On Device" filter. Has
anyone figured this out?

~~~
ddedden
You have to hit the "pin" icon on the playlist, I believe.

~~~
craigc
I'm not wondering how to download songs for offline playing. I'm wondering how
to toggle/filter so I can only see the offline content.

After reading through
[https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1250232?hl=en-G...](https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1250232?hl=en-
GB) I do not think the iOS version has this functionality right now.

------
heydanreeves
Okay. Now give me a proper app instead of this stupid downloader in the system
preferences...

------
caiob
__Still __not available in Canada.

------
president
The icon needs some work

------
ins429
been waiting for this!

------
subb
Still not available in Canada.

------
VikingCoder
What's shocking is that this is news.

Apple sucks.

~~~
cheesylard
For the record, the delay has absolutely nothing to do with Apple withholding
the Google Music iOS app. Google didn't decide to start developing it until
early October [1].

[1] [http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/03/google-music-ios-app-
laun...](http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/03/google-music-ios-app-launching-
october/)

~~~
VikingCoder
"nothing to do with Apple withholding the Google Music iOS app"

Correct. It had everything to do with the music labels demanding Flash DRM,
and Apple deciding not to support Flash at all. From your article:

"The company had previously closed the door on iOS users because Flash was
needed to enforce DRM restrictions set by music labels. Now, Google appears to
have overcome that issue and is nearly ready to launch."

~~~
cheesylard
Talk about bad journalism. That is not true. Google's All Access music
streaming has _never_ been blocked by flash DRM restrictions. The raw MP3
streams have been available ever since its inception, as it has been included
in Simon Weber's python google music API implementation [1] for about 5 months
(which is a few weeks after All Access was announced). From that API it has
been implemented in those 3rd-party apps like GMusic and Cloud Play.

So, the only "bad guy" here is Google for not making an iOS app sooner.

[1] [https://github.com/simon-weber/Unofficial-Google-Music-
API](https://github.com/simon-weber/Unofficial-Google-Music-API)

