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

[TennisandMusic]

Originally Posted by Karma*Police

Personally, I think their products are superior and justifies a premium price. The challenge for Apple is staying one step ahead to keep justifying those premiums.

With Google's business model being to follow the leader, the question is, are you willing to wait years for Google to deliver "Apple-like" products like the iPhone and iPad or services like iTunes Match? For example, Android users are still waiting for an Apple TV like experience with the recently introduced AirPlay clone in JB, years after Apple introduced it.

Again, Google IS the leader in a lot of areas. Where is Google following vs. leading? Android is arguably better overall, and in-arguably more capable than iOS. Much better maps. Far superior e-mail, contacts, calendar, etc. Where do you think Google is simply "following"? I think it's pretty clear they have a vision of where they are going, whereas no one knows at all what to expect from Apple at this point.

[BigHonkingDeal]

Originally Posted by Nunyabinez

I tried to use Google's service, but it doesn't recognize Apple's formats. Most of my library is in Apple Lossless so I'd have to convert it all to MP3 to use Google. Maybe most of you are using MP3 instead of AAC, so it wouldn't be a problem, but it's a non-starter for me.

ACC format was the main reason I stopped buying music from Apple. To this day I have 50+ songs I can only play in iTunes without paying Apple additional money to upgrade. I buy all my music at Amazon and it's usually cheaper.

Like to have the option to play my stuff with whatever I want.... Don't buy iBooks either.

I guess my ears are fine with MP3 music

[jmcrutch]

Originally Posted by Nunyabinez

I'm not sure I understood what you wrote. My experience is that when something isn't matched it will do the following:

1. If the bit rate is 320 or below, it will copy the file as is in the bit rate it is in.
2. If the bit rate is above 320 it will resample it at 256 on your machine and then transfer it as a 256K AAC file.

Maybe that's what you said, but all my Apple Lossless files that aren't matched are turned into 256k AAC, which is good because it still very often doesn't match one or more songs in an album.

All of my ALAC songs are stored in iCloud as ALAC. If I need to download one from iCloud, it comes down as ALAC. Maybe I'm doing something "wrong" ??

[phpmaven]

Originally Posted by BigHonkingDeal

ACC format was the main reason I stopped buying music from Apple. To this day I have 50+ songs I can only play in iTunes without paying Apple additional money to upgrade. I buy all my music at Amazon and it's usually cheaper.

Like to have the option to play my stuff with whatever I want.... Don't buy iBooks either.

I guess my ears are fine with MP3 music

You can easily create MP3 versions of those tracks from within iTunes.

[LagunaSol]

Originally Posted by camnchar

How can Google offer this for free?

Because it gets them something they can exploit in the future. You.

[Nunyabinez]

Originally Posted by BigHonkingDeal

ACC format was the main reason I stopped buying music from Apple. To this day I have 50+ songs I can only play in iTunes without paying Apple additional money to upgrade. I buy all my music at Amazon and it's usually cheaper.

Like to have the option to play my stuff with whatever I want.... Don't buy iBooks either.

I guess my ears are fine with MP3 music

I don't think AAC is necessarily superior, I'm just solidly in the Apple ecosystem. I would actually prefer FLAC over Apple Lossless since it is more compatible. I like match because the only machine that actually has the lossless is my base machine that is hooked up to a sound system that makes having lossless worth while. On all my other machines I stream in 256K AAC because the sound system and/or environment would make lossless severe overkill.

[samcraig]

Originally Posted by jmcrutch

Remember that if you are signed into ANY Google service on a computer, cell phone or tablet, then Google will keep specific records of every search you perform. When you are not signed in, they keep them for a limited time, then delete them. But when you are signed in, such as with GMail, GoogleDocs, GoogleMusic (whatever its called), YouTube, etc, then Google's policy is to track your searches and keep them on there servers under your account FOREVER.

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To clarify, Google keeps every search performed through Google ever, and always. But as far as associating that search with you, it's only permanently associated if the search is performed while you are "signed in" to Google. Listening to music stored in Google's cloud would definitely qualify as being signed in.

This is not ok with me. Just my $.02.

Only - you can opt out. You can be signed into your Gapps and have it not track you. Maybe you're basing your opinion/statement on the past - not on the present way Google works.

Originally Posted by LagunaSol

Because it gets them something they can exploit in the future. You.

Tell me again how iAds work again?

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by appleguy123

Image

Not relevant. Rappers aren't artists

[dalbir4444]

Originally Posted by Morshu9001

Not relevant. Rappers aren't artists

I hope you aren't serious.

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by BigHonkingDeal

ACC format was the main reason I stopped buying music from Apple. To this day I have 50+ songs I can only play in iTunes without paying Apple additional money to upgrade. I buy all my music at Amazon and it's usually cheaper.

Like to have the option to play my stuff with whatever I want.... Don't buy iBooks either.

I guess my ears are fine with MP3 music

AAC is not proprietary. What are you using that can't play AAC, Windows Media Player? I've never hear of anything modern that can't play AAC, but I doubt Windows Media Player can just because it sucks.

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Originally Posted by dalbir4444

I hope you aren't serious.

You hope wrong.

[Nunyabinez]

Originally Posted by jmcrutch

All of my ALAC songs are stored in iCloud as ALAC. If I need to download one from iCloud, it comes down as ALAC. Maybe I'm doing something "wrong" ??

I think you are not seeing what is actually there. As long as the original files are there on the Mac that you uploaded it from it will report them as ALAC. But if you go to another machine and log on to match you will see that they are 256K AAC.

You could also do this by deleting the local files (after copying them for safe keeping) and then downloading from the cloud.

[samcraig]

I use Google Music. I love it on the app side. The web portal leaves a lot to be desired and needs work. It's gotten better - but it's not slick at all.

Uploading my music library was time consuming. But this new service sounds like what took me a long time would now be a lot shorter. Bummer for me -great for new users (and for when I upload more songs)

For those asking - you can re-download anything you've uploaded.

[jmcrutch]

Google most definitely does many things better than anyone else. GMail is still, to this day, IMO, the easiest and most user-friendly email client. Why? Because it makes use of Googles #1 search algorithm.

But they were late to the party when it comes to smart-phones. And how did they play ball in that arena? They made a product and gave it away, all the while knowing that doing so would be a great way to compete, without actually competing. And why did they give it away? Because it benefits their core business of search.

Why do you think they are giving away Google Play cloud? Because it will benefit their search business.

Wait until Google decides to get into whatever business you yourself are engaged in? And they start giving the same product you sell for money away for free.

I just don't like the drug-dealer business model. Services and Products that have value should command remuneration.

[Saladinos]

The labels agreed to iTunes Match because it offered a unique subscription revenue stream:

The amount TuneCore artists get paid for the iTunes Match service is based on a unique revenue share model. Each time your music is accessed via iTunes Match, iTunes pays you a pro-rated share of the total subscription revenue generated by the iTunes Match service that includes both recording and publishing revenue. Keep in mind that the payout rate will fluctuate each month depending on how much subscription revenue was generated and how often your music was re-downloaded and/or streamed.

http://help.tunecore.com/app/answers...~/itunes-match

That's great for the labels because it lets them get additional money for music you've already bought (Match doesn't exempt anybody from music piracy). You'd have thought they wouldn't give something like this to Google without a similar subscription revenue agreement.

The only thing that makes sense for Google is ads. What if Google Music contains intermittent (Spotify-like) ads, and that revenue is shared between labels?

As for the whole Google(free) vs Apple(paid) debate, I just think it's a shame that Google can just go along basically copying each and every business and feature that Apple provides. Yes, they've managed to reduce the up-front price, and surely that's a win for consumers because we get stuff for ostensibly nothing, but on the other hand it's just getting ridiculous how much copying we let Google get away with because it gives us that copied stuff for free.

Google can copy every little thing Apple does and nobody pays any attention beyond the usual "hah, Google does it for free! Evil money-hungry Apple! Boo! hiss! Boo!". At the same time we hold Apple up to insurmountable expectations of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking.

Really, it makes no sense for Google to be getting in to the music game. They're in it because Apple's in it, and Apple's successful so maybe there's something to it. I doubt very much that they're selling more songs now through Google than they were before with a 3rd party service like Amazon MP3.

[haruhiko]

Originally Posted by kjs862

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.

iTunes Match has been working flawlessly for me. Maybe it's for me only. But one thing about Google is that, how can their music library to be as big as Apple's? If it's just the upload part, what's so special about it? It's the matching and "upgrading" of my old MP3s where I find the value of iTunes Match.

[dalbir4444]

Originally Posted by Morshu9001

AAC is not proprietary. What are you using that can't play AAC, Windows Media Player?

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You hope wrong.

IMO you're wrong. Unless you have something which could change my mind.

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by dalbir4444

IMO you're wrong. Unless you have something which could change my mind.

If you like rap music, fine, but the rappers themselves hardly make any of it.

[dalbir4444]

Originally Posted by Morshu9001

If you like rap music, fine, but the rappers themselves hardly make any of it.

Well I don't consider Lil Wayne to be an artist. But I'm talking about the genre itself.

[japanime]

Originally Posted by TennisandMusic

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

My experience was just the opposite. I had no trouble getting iTunes Match to work on my iPhone and iPad, but I could never get it to work properly on my MacBook.

It seems like lots of folks have problems with iTunes Match, yet the problems aren't consistent. That's not good for anyone.

[Sincci]

Originally Posted by neuropsychguy

They don't worry about profit margins like Apple does.

Yup, it seems that Google can create awesome projects without actually getting paid for them (and even for their main competitor, again for free), yet they seem to be doing quite well financial wise due to their profits from ads. Maybe something that Apple could take a lesson someday.

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by haruhiko

iTunes Match has been working flawlessly for me. Maybe it's for me only. But one thing about Google is that, how can their music library to be as big as Apple's? If it's just the upload part, what's so special about it? It's the matching and "upgrading" of my old MP3s where I find the value of iTunes Match.

Yes, iTunes Match seems like a better choice (ESPECIALLY since it works with iTunes!), but it's not free. Whatever, I don't really need this kind of service.

[BigHonkingDeal]

Originally Posted by phpmaven

You can easily create MP3 versions of those tracks from within iTunes.

Just checked.... They are m4p files. Can you give me a hint how to convert them to MP3?

Thanks!

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by dalbir4444

Well I don't consider Lil Wayne to be an artist. But I'm talking about the genre itself.

I don't like the genre, but I consider rap art. It's just that the artists don't get very much credit, let alone fame or fortune.

[machestnut]

This is great..Google is free and it works. I bought Apple Itunes Match last year when it first came out. I didn't renew it and now I had to recreate all my playlist because they were connected to the cloud and I can't add new songs to my existing playlists. Thanks Apple

[samcraig]

Google is into music because it makes perfect sense. They've created their own ecosystem. And these days - that includes all types of media. At the end of the day - the device is a single purchase. The ecosystem is what can keep a customer for life.