Google Launches Free Scan and Match Music Service to Compete With Apple and Amazon

[MacRumors]

Google has updated its Google Play music service with an iTunes Match-like song matching service. This means users won't have to spend hours or days uploading gigabytes of music, as they had to previously.

Notably, Google's matching service does not have a subscription fee like Apple and Amazon's do, with users matching up to 20,000 songs. While European Google Play users have been using this service for a while, this launch is new for those in the U.S.

Traveling this season and want to make sure your music goes with you? Add up to 20,000 songs from your music collection to Google Play and stream it to your Android devices and your computer, anywhere you go.

Our new music matching feature gets your songs into your online music library on Google Play much faster. We'll scan your collection and quickly rebuild it in the cloud - all for free. And we'll stream your music back to you at up to 320 kbps.

Amazon upgraded its Cloud Player with a scan and match feature earlier this year, charging $24.99/year for the service. Apple charges the same amount for iTunes Match.

Article Link: Google Launches Free Scan and Match Music Service to Compete With Apple and Amazon

[appleguy123]

It's free!? That's awesome. Hope there's an iOS app for this soon.

[Razeus]

How are you guys always late with the reports. I reported his already...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1510267

[kjs862]

Google: Free + works

Apple: Pay + doesn't work

everyone wins!

[Morshu9001]

Google copying Apple, and Apple copying Google...
Well, this makes them more competitive (good), but you really have to choose one side of the fence. I'm already on the Apple side, so I'm hoping Apple will improve iTunes Match.

[TennisandMusic]

Originally Posted by kjs862

Google: Free + works

Apple: Pay + doesn't work

everyone wins!

While I somewhat agree, Google Music hasn't been "great" really. Some things about it are really nice, but there are plenty of issues. I'd say on the desktop iTunes Match actually works better than Google Music. Perhaps on the mobile side, Google Music works a little better.

[Menel]

Originally Posted by Razeus

How are you guys always late with the reports. I reported his already...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1510267

You won the internets by 3.5hrs.

/golfclap

[TXCherokee]

iTunes Match has worked flawlessly for me. I'd be interested to know what issues others are having.

[nfl46]

I'm seriously considering moving to Android when Key Lime is released. They offer Apple like services a lot cheaper! Tired of paying premium when Google is offering their tablets, phones and services for a lower cost.

Edit: I'm aware maps are free!

[cmChimera]

Originally Posted by TXCherokee

iTunes Match has worked flawlessly for me. I'd be interested to know what issues others are having.

It matches my unedited music with clean versions frequently.

[ppc_michael]

Personally, I'd rather upload my own copies. My library is FLAC, so it gets transcoded to 320kbps by Google Music. I don't mind the upload time. But to each his own.

[TennisandMusic]

Originally Posted by TXCherokee

iTunes Match has worked flawlessly for me. I'd be interested to know what issues others are having.

The bad part is when you try using it on the iPhone. Pretty bad there.

[kjs862]

Originally Posted by TennisandMusic

While I somewhat agree, Google Music hasn't been "great" really. Some things about it are really nice, but there are plenty of issues. I'd say on the desktop iTunes Match actually works better than Google Music. Perhaps on the mobile side, Google Music works a little better.

maybe i was a bit harsh. but i'm beginning to think that apple has some tough times ahead. internet services are in google's dna, not apple's. in fact, apple has a bad track record with internet services. being that the industry is moving to all cloud computing, google will have the advantage. take for example google docs. what a great alternative to ms office. apple has been working on building their own office but failed in my opinion. and they have been hard at work on it for a long time.

i recently had to use docs and was so happy how it worked, i'm considering moving my 50gbs of data from my dropbox to google drive. and then i may even get a google phone so it all 'just works'.

i totally understand how you can view apple vs google is like apple vs ms in the 80's. but in today's apple vs google, today's ms (google) stuff at least works, very well.

another thing that worries me about apple is their increase in collaboration, for example with tom-tom maps, yelp., and now foursquare. for a company that likes to keep a lot of things in-house, they are doing a lot of collaboration. if you look at google's offerings, they did maps, a yelp alternative in house with their own data.

[olowott]

is it me or has google really worked hard this year

[irDigital0l]

This is good.

Now I have even more reasons to try out Android.

[iMikeT]

All you cheapos should pay for the music you acquire. Artists need to eat too you know.

[jreed91]

Once we get the ability to delete songs I thi k they'll be pretty even. Hopefully this forces apple to rethink their pricing.

[mikeheenan]

When one uploads their songs to these services, do you remove them from your hard drive? Can you download your songs once they're uploaded (sometimes you may be out of data range and want a playlist to listen to)?

[camnchar]

How can Google offer this for free?

[AppleScruff1]

Originally Posted by Razeus

How are you guys always late with the reports. I reported his already...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1510267

Careful, they might sue you.

[appleguy123]

Originally Posted by iMikeT

All you cheapos should pay for the music you acquire. Artists need to eat too you know.

[OtherJesus]

So how do Google and Amazon add these out of the blue when Apple had to negotiate with the record companies? Or do we just not hear about G and A?

[jmcrutch]

So, Apple struck a negotiated deal with all the labels so that they would be compensated for the music uploaded, much of which has been pirated by some.

Now, Google is doing the same thing, without charging anyone for it. How are the artists getting paid for the cloud versions? Is Google just footing the bill? Maybe. Probably. All under the guise of sucking you further into their world where they make money off of who you are, what you do, what you write, what you search for, and what you think.

I'll stick with Apple, paying my fee, so that I'm the customer and not the product.

[kjs862]

itunes match is the new mobile me ie paying for something that google does for free (and better)

[BigHonkingDeal]

Originally Posted by nfl46

I'm seriously considering moving to Android when Key Lime is released. They offer Apple like services a lot cheaper! Tired of paying premium when Google is offering their tablets, phones and maps for a lower cost.

I use Google music on my iPhone & iPad..... works great. The free gMusik app even supports Airplay.

I have all my music uploaded to the Google cloud and pay nothing. They have a music upload utility that uploads automatically everything I add to iTunes....