Google Launches 'Google Cast' for Audio Streaming as AirPlay Alternative With a Twist

[MacRumors]

Google today announced Google Cast for audio, a new music streaming technology in the vein of Chromecast that lets users stream sound from their smartphone, tablet, or Chrome-based web browser to Google Cast-ready speakers.

The service uses pre-existing apps like Pandora, iHeartRadio, and Google Play Music, amongst a sizable list of others, to play a user's songs on a selection of speakers from companies like Sony and LG. With the long list of supported apps and sites, Google Cast supports a wide variety of input devices from iPhone, iPad, Android Phones and tablets, to any Mac or PC with a Chrome browser.

While Google Cast at first glance appears similar to Apple's AirPlay in that it is a standard available to speaker manufacturers to ensure support for wireless audio streaming, Google Cast speakers stream content from the cloud rather than directly from the control device. As a result, Google promises users will receive the best sound quality and can multitask on their devices without disturbing the streams.

The company promises the first Google Cast-ready speakers from Sony, LG, and HEOS by Denon will be made available this spring. Alongside the promise of a wider array of brands supporting the service with their own speakers throughout 2015, Google states that these devices will accompany "a growing Google Cast ecosystem," which plans to include Android-based TVs, gaming consoles, and even set-top boxes.

Article Link: Google Launches 'Google Cast' for Audio Streaming as AirPlay Alternative With a Twist

 

[69Mustang]

That's pretty sweet. I definitely like the handoff to free up the device for other activities.

 

[aaroman]

Such spin...

That's amazing. No, not the tech, the spin. So somehow streaming music from some other site on the continent is supposed to be better than streaming it from a local computer connected at gigabit speeds? Rii-ii-ight...
I'll continue to use AirPlay with the Remote App on my iPhone or iPad controlling my iTunes library locally, and NOT have to worry about asking GoOgle permission to stream music from their servers. Oh, and I'll stream it to all my AirPlay devices plus my computers speakers synchronously, filling my house with music.
And when I want, I'll also be able to stream straight from my device to my speakers without having to route it over the Internet. Sorry, GoOgle, you can't put ads in my music stream or track my listening habits.
Yet another lame me-too product from the folks who brought you Android.

 

[69Mustang]

That's amazing. No, not the tech, the spin. So somehow streaming music from some other site on the continent is supposed to be better than streaming it from a local computer connected at gigabit speeds? Rii-ii-ight...
I'll continue to use AirPlay with the Remote App on my iPhone or iPad controlling my iTunes library locally, and NOT have to worry about asking GoOgle permission to stream music from their servers. Oh, and I'll stream it to all my AirPlay devices plus my computers speakers synchronously, filling my house with music.
And when I want, I'll also be able to stream straight from my device to my speakers without having to route it over the Internet. Sorry, GoOgle, you can't put ads in my music stream or track my listening habits.
Yet another lame me-too product from the folks who brought you Android.

If you're all in with Apple, why would this interest you? Everyone doesn't fit into that niche. For those who work and play in multiple ecosystems, this is pretty slick. Pretty slick to me anyway. Not speaking for anyone else.

 

[avanpelt]

This sounds more like Sonos than AirPlay. I have yet to try Sonos but I've heard great things about it for the most part -- especially where the quality of their hardware is concerned. Sure, their hardware is not cheap; but I have a feeling it's one of those things that you get what you pay for.

 

[Lord Hamsa]

... the "twist" being the extra bandwidth used so that Google gets a copy of everything you stream so that the data can be mined and sold to advertisers.

 

[Codyak]

So this requires that the app integrate this feature? Doesn't AirPlay work with any and all audio on iPhones with no further support from developers?

 

[avanpelt]

So this requires that the app integrate this feature? Doesn't AirPlay work with any and all audio on iPhones with no further support from developers?

Sounds like that is the case. It's much like the Sonos platform where their system ties into about 20 different music and radio services or with Apple's Podcast and Music apps on your iOS devices.

Probably the one thing that's kept me from really being interested in Sonos is the lack of third-party podcast app compatibility. I listen to podcasts in Downcast on both my Mac and my iOS devices. Because Downcast isn't one of the participating apps/services in the Sonos universe, there's no way (as far as I can tell) that I can push a podcast wirelessly to a Sonos speaker from Downcast. I could get podcast streaming to Sonos if I used Apple's built-in Podcasts app; but I've tried it in the past and was not impressed.

For music or radio station listening, though, Sonos is nice because you can tell it what you want to listen to from their list of compatible services using your Mac or your iOS device and then the speaker goes out to that service and plays the stream directly -- thereby saving your device's battery life and keeping the music playing even if a call comes in.

 

[rhoydotp]

That's amazing. No, not the tech, the spin. So somehow streaming music from some other site on the continent is supposed to be better than streaming it from a local computer connected at gigabit speeds? Rii-ii-ight...

Yes, I agree with you ... although, technically, streaming music doesn't need to use all your gigabit speed available unless you are streaming maybe an uncompressed 7.1 music (which hardly exists for regular personal listening). I am interested to know the technical reasoning on why they said that the quality is better before I pass judgement.

 

[critter13]

similar to Airplay from iCloud

the spin is similar to the feature on appleTV where the airplay content(iTunes) will actually play from iCloud rather than the users iOS device.

This feature was added in the ATV 6.0 software

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

This sounds more like Sonos than AirPlay. I have yet to try Sonos but I've heard great things about it for the most part -- especially where the quality of their hardware is concerned. Sure, their hardware is not cheap; but I have a feeling it's one of those things that you get what you pay for.

I went 'all in' with Sonos last year. Multiple TV bars w/ surround and multiple peripheral speakers. Spent a TON of money. All Sonos gear is gone and I am back to Sony w/ Airplay, Marantz, and AppleTV.

 

[njmitchel0]

I went 'all in' with Sonos last year. Multiple TV bars w/ surround and multiple peripheral speakers. Spent a TON of money. All Sonos gear is gone and I am back to Sony w/ Airplay, Marantz, and AppleTV.

what made you ditch Sonos?....I'm curious.

 

[gotluck]

That's amazing. No, not the tech, the spin. So somehow streaming music from some other site on the continent is supposed to be better than streaming it from a local computer connected at gigabit speeds? Rii-ii-ight...
I'll continue to use AirPlay with the Remote App on my iPhone or iPad controlling my iTunes library locally, and NOT have to worry about asking GoOgle permission to stream music from their servers. Oh, and I'll stream it to all my AirPlay devices plus my computers speakers synchronously, filling my house with music.
And when I want, I'll also be able to stream straight from my device to my speakers without having to route it over the Internet. Sorry, GoOgle, you can't put ads in my music stream or track my listening habits.
Yet another lame me-too product from the folks who brought you Android.

this isnt for "all apple" people..

some people like multiple platforms

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

what made you ditch Sonos?....I'm curious.

Sound quality.
Lack of DTS.
Limited to 5.1 DD Surround sound.
No high-deff codec.
An App being a requirement.
Limited to 2.0 support from my 4K media streamer through my 4K TV even though I get 5.1DD from Netflix/Blu-Ray.

It was just a pain, especially if you have guests. Makes a lot more sense to go 'all in' on AirPlay which lets people also throw up photos/videos on TVs.

Really no points in buying a ton a bridges to add to the system for audio.

AirPlay offers an all around better solution that includes photos/video.

 

[Apple_Robert]

AirPlay is working well for me. I see no need to go Google-eyed over this.

 

[SockRolid]

That's amazing. No, not the tech, the spin. So somehow streaming music from some other site on the continent is supposed to be better than streaming it from a local computer connected at gigabit speeds? Rii-ii-ight...
I'll continue to use AirPlay with the Remote App on my iPhone or iPad controlling my iTunes library locally, and NOT have to worry about asking GoOgle permission to stream music from their servers. Oh, and I'll stream it to all my AirPlay devices plus my computers speakers synchronously, filling my house with music.
And when I want, I'll also be able to stream straight from my device to my speakers without having to route it over the Internet. Sorry, GoOgle, you can't put ads in my music stream or track my listening habits.
Yet another lame me-too product from the folks who brought you Android.

Yet another attempt to track the **** out of users who don't know any better.

 

[Jessica Lares]

And when they completely ditch the service, all the hardware will be redundant.

 

[the-msa]

If i was in music streaming, i would obviously get this over an apple tv, being multi platform.

Likewise I'm gonna buy a chrome cast soon, as we have an iPad and a nexus 5 that we would like to stream to the tv

 

[steve knight]

So this is sort of like how the sonos app works. it runs many streaming services through it's own app. but the big advantage is the sonos does the streaming so your device is not using all the power to do it.

 

[Jimmy James]

I primarily use AirPlay for local content. If I was an Android user I'd be disappointed.

 

[jettredmont]

That's amazing. No, not the tech, the spin. So somehow streaming music from some other site on the continent is supposed to be better than streaming it from a local computer connected at gigabit speeds? Rii-ii-ight...
I'll continue to use AirPlay with the Remote App on my iPhone or iPad controlling my iTunes library locally, and NOT have to worry about asking GoOgle permission to stream music from their servers. Oh, and I'll stream it to all my AirPlay devices plus my computers speakers synchronously, filling my house with music.
And when I want, I'll also be able to stream straight from my device to my speakers without having to route it over the Internet. Sorry, GoOgle, you can't put ads in my music stream or track my listening habits.
Yet another lame me-too product from the folks who brought you Android.

I agree completely, although I think there is one use-case where Google might have a leg to stand on.

If you are predominantly streaming music from the cloud anyway, streaming that music to your device and then over to your speakers is wasteful and might theoretically degrade the quality (I don't believe the Airplay compression is lossless, so we have a re-compression penalty along with the processing time penalties involved). That's more like where the Chromecast makes more sense as well - rather than piping all that data through the device and then over to the display/stereo, have the device tell the stereo to stream it.

That said, I have all my music local, and more often have external bandwidth problems (too many people streaming too many video streams at the same time) than I have issues piping Airplay audio through my phone (seriously; is that ever really a problem for people? I start music then go on using my phone as normal, and as often as not forget I've been playing music off my phone until I leave the room and it turns off). I can't see this being a selling point for me.

 

[Aetles]

That's amazing. No, not the tech, the spin. So somehow streaming music from some other site on the continent is supposed to be better than streaming it from a local computer connected at gigabit speeds? Rii-ii-ight...

As a Spotify user I'm already streaming all my music. Yeah, I know, it's nice over here in the future.

A handoff to the speaker would be a much better solution in that case, instead of wasting battery life on my phone or processor cycles on my computer.

(Yes, this is exactly what Spotify Connect already does in supported speakers.)

 

[jamescobalt]

Is it compatible with Reader & Wave & Buzz & Offers & IGoogle &...

This reminds me of NetRadio minus syncing. I have a NetRadio receiver to stream music to my speakers from... get this... the cloud. NetRadio was the biggest music streaming service for quite a while, so it made sense to buy hardware that would let me connect it right to my huge living room speakers. I mean, a well established company like NetRadio isn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon, right?

...Oh.

 

[err404]

I use my Sonos with an Airport Express to provide AirPlay capabilities. I find that I use both the AirPlay and native App regularly. It is nice to have background music fill the house and not depend on my iOS device.
On my iMac I also run AirFoil/AirServer combination to allow for my Sonos, Apple TV and iMac to all join in for a few extra speakers through out the house.
Sonos makes for a great multi-room speaker setup, but there are some downsides. The biggest being that the sound quality is only OK, even on the most expensive models. I also would not recommend it for a home theater setup. A dedicated setup costing about the same will sound better and have more support for audio modes (for reference I use a discontinued SLS Q-Line Gold Home Theater in a Box that I got for $350, that provides sound on an whole different level from Sonos).

 

[justkiding]

Sound quality.
Lack of DTS.
Limited to 5.1 DD Surround sound.
No high-deff codec.
An App being a requirement.
Limited to 2.0 support from my 4K media streamer through my 4K TV even though I get 5.1DD from Netflix/Blu-Ray.

It was just a pain, especially if you have guests. Makes a lot more sense to go 'all in' on AirPlay which lets people also throw up photos/videos on TVs.

Really no points in buying a ton a bridges to add to the system for audio.

AirPlay offers an all around better solution that includes photos/video.

Hi, i was considering Sonos given that the 'all in' setup that the offer but was put off by their price. Would you mind to share your setup that used to replace SONOS. Thanks