Google Play Subscription Music Service Finally Arrives on iPhone

[MRU]

US here.

Also i can't seem to download music that I listen to but didn't upload. Have you had any luck?

Ireland here,

Ok so I had Alfie Boe playing on my MBA - with no problem with Jake Bugg playing on my Note 3 no problem and Brett Dennen on my iPad Mini Retina with no problem and left all device to play through 2 full songs on each and none of them stopped up here.

And yeah, downloading is working here - but its not a pin icon like on my Note 3, its a down arrow on the iOS version.

 

[bozzykid]

Is it uncompressed?

If you upload FLAC files then they are compressed to 320kbps MP3s. I believe when you upload your MP3s, if they are matched to a song in their database, then it is upconverted to 320kbps. When streaming from the app, you will probably only get that quality over wifi though (haven't tested it yet).

 

[BlueGoldAce]

Really?

Weird. I can't download. Google support told me it wasn't available yet.

Those are songs you don't own correct? You are able to download them?

 

[technopimp]

Nice, one day after I canceled having subscribed for 4 months of the promise of it coming "any day now".

 

[MRU]

Really?

Weird. I can't download. Google support told me it wasn't available yet.

Those are songs you don't own correct? You are able to download them?

Yep. Songs just added to the library but don't own. I press the down icon, in downloads them. I turn off wifi to check on my iPad, and play songs without issue so they must be downloaded.

There is even a download section in the settings to delete songs you have downloaded.

 

[goinskiing]

So essentially it's just like iTunes Match, but instead of $25 a year I can pay $10 a month?

Gee, where do I sign up?

It's not quite like that, iTunes match, from what I understand is all of your music that you have, which google already does free up to 20k songs. The $10/month ($8 for me for early adopter) gives you that PLUS the entire Google Music library. Not a bad deal to me.

 

[bbeagle]

Google Play -free - just can stream your own songs (no ads, of course, because it's just your songs you can stream)
iTunes Radio - free - Pandora-like experience

Winner, iTunes Radio.

Google Play All Access - $120/year - Spotify-like experience with unlimited skips and no ads.
iTunes Match - $25/year - Pandora-like experience with no ads, and can stream your own music.

Winner depends on how you listen to the radio.

Are you passive in your listening - do you turn on a station, like 'Rock' and leave it on there for hours - Winner, iTunes Match

Are you completely active in how you listen to music - I want every song of different genres right now, then choose the next song. Winner, Google Play All Access.

 

[Ianb007]

I am sure that there are situations where this makes sense so I will give that point. However, in my case, if I know the song and I want to play it, I select it from my personal collection in the iCloud (currently about 15,000 songs). I use the radio to hear new music which I dont know. In this case pandora like is perfect for me. And he Apple approach is cheaper and gives me the ability to buy anything I like. If you have a small collection of music or none at all, but you know the song you want to hear then Spotify is probably a better option -- I used it once and hated all the #$%! commercials and gave up on it.

An interesting side note -- I had the iPhone 4s 64gig, but thanks to the iCloud I moved down to the iPhone 5s 32gig. If they ever do unlimited photos in iCloud I may be able to go to 16gig

Different stroke for different folks. With Google music the free service allows you to upload and listen to your library AND buy the ones you like and it's free.

 

[MRU]

It's not quite like that, iTunes match, from what I understand is all of your music that you have, which google already does free up to 20k songs. The $10/month ($8 for me for early adopter) gives you that PLUS the entire Google Music library. Not a bad deal to me.

Yep and if you subscribed when it was first launched you are on $7.99

 

[Oletros]

Google Play -free - just can stream your own songs (no ads, of course, because it's just your songs you can stream)
iTunes Radio - free - Pandora-like experience

Winner, iTunes Radio.

Google Play All Access - $120/year - Spotify-like experience with unlimited skips and no ads.
iTunes Match - $25/year - Pandora-like experience with no ads, and can stream your own music.

Winner depends on how you listen to the radio.

Are you passive in your listening - do you turn on a station, like 'Rock' and leave it on there for hours - Winner, iTunes Match

Are you completely active in how you listen to music - I want every song of different genres right now, then choose the next song. Winner, Google Play All Access.

Good explanation of both systems.

 

[Good User Name]

Hmm, still using iOS 6 APIs I see.

Image

Isn't that also the case with the YouTube app?

 

[dannyyankou]

Isn't that also the case with the YouTube app?

Yes, but the YouTube app was released before iOS 7 and Google music was released after iOS 7. So it's a little strange. Doesn't bother me though.

 

[HenryDJP]

Android users have to pay too for any music not uploaded by the user...

You didn't read my post carefully nor have you read the entire article because nothing I wrote has anything to do with what you said.

----------

What does the Android app offer differently to the iOS app pray tell ?


As far as I can tell they offer exactly the same service.

Reading the entire article rather than the headlines will do you a bit of good.

 

[bchery21]

Just because it's a Google app doesn't mean we have to hate it. Geez.

Right? Preach!

 

[Kirb112]

Now just wait a bit for iTunes (/Match/Radio) to arrive on Android.

Hah. Not gonna happen.

yep!

 

[HenryDJP]

You missed the part were it says their 'iTunes Match' is free.

For me I will give this a try, I have a 16GB iPhone and my music is no longer fitting. I have been keeping a separate playlist of music I removed, I can upload that to Google

And you missed this part of the article that I was referring to: I wasn't sticking up for Apple, I just don't care to patronize Google. Allow someone to make a personal choice.

"Several features present in the Android version are missing from the iOS edition, including the "I Feel Lucky" radio station, which creates a playlist based on your listening history, and songs and subscriptions cannot be purchased directly within the app because of Apple's App Store IAP requirements."

 

[MRU]

[/COLOR]

Reading the entire article rather than the headlines will do you a bit of good.

But the only difference seems to be purchasing songs, and you if you do that on the android app it actually opens the Google Play Store app - it doesn't actually do the buying directly in the app - so even on the android app technically you can't buy in the app itself, so it isn't a real difference as such.

 

[Terrin]

Given there's no way to subscribe in the app as Apple prohibits it to try and anti-competitively protect their own offerings... yes?

No, it is because if Apple helps you get a customer, it wants a cut. Seems fair to me.

 

[kas23]

Considering iTunes Match is a complete mess and horribly disfigures your album art and playlists on your iPhone, I may have to try out Google's. The worse that can happen, I delete the app, which is not the same degree of a headache as if I try to disable iTunes Match.

 

[Oletros]

No, it is because if Apple helps you get a customer, it wants a cut. Seems fair to me.

I have a Google All Access and I see a song while playing the radio on the iOS app, how is Apple helping getting a customer for Google?

 

[Timster83]

No, it is because if Apple helps you get a customer, it wants a cut. Seems fair to me.

So do you also think Microsoft should get a cut of everything purchased via the iTunes application for Windows? What about Google getting a cut of Apple's sales for every customer who searched for and clicked on the link to Apple's site, even if not an advert?

The only reason Apple can even try to claim it helps get customers is because it took the arbitrary decision to limit app installations to those purchased via their own store.

And if I am choosing to download an app such as Google Music (or Spotify/Kindle), then surely my intention is to be a customer anyway, without Apple's help?

It's interesting that Apple don't try to take a cut from all sales made via apps such as Ebay, Amazon, etc. I wonder why they make a distinction.

 

[bluboi917]

Scan & Match

I'm sorry but Google's Scan & Match streaming quality is absolutely brutal. I'll stick with my iTunes Match yearly subscription ftw.

 

[Terrin]

It's not quite like that, iTunes match, from what I understand is all of your music that you have, which google already does free up to 20k songs. The $10/month ($8 for me for early adopter) gives you that PLUS the entire Google Music library. Not a bad deal to me.

Not quite, iTunes Match allows you to stream music that you already have on your computer up to 25, 000 songs, but does not include songs you purchased on iTunes in the count. It also does away with advertising on iTunes Radio. Further, in many cases, iTunes Match gives you a higher quality audio file.

If you really are into listening to a lot of music you do not own, which I am not, it seems Spotify would be a better deal.

 

[CEmajr]

I already uploaded my iTunes library to this back when I had an Android device.

I might give this a try since honestly the music app and iTunes Match have become buggy and unreliable since iOS 7. It randomly skips over songs that I've already downloaded to my device for no reason and even sometimes won't play some songs even while on LTE. Plus random freezing and crashing. Not what I've come to expect from Apple. I'll see how Play Music performs on iPhone.

 

[Terrin]

So do you also think Microsoft should get a cut of everything purchased via the iTunes application for Windows? What about Google getting a cut of Apple's sales for every customer who searched for and clicked on the link to Apple's site, even if not an advert?

The only reason Apple can even try to claim it helps get customers is because it took the arbitrary decision to limit app installations to those purchased via their own store.

And if I am choosing to download an app such as Google Music (or Spotify/Kindle), then surely my intention is to be a customer anyway, without Apple's help?

It's interesting that Apple don't try to take a cut from all sales made via apps such as Ebay, Amazon, etc. I wonder why they make a distinction.

I honestly do not see your problem. It is Apple's Store. It hosts the apps for free, even those of competitors. It eats the bandwidth cost for distributing the apps. In return, all it wants is a cut of any subscriptions initiated through an app downloaded on its Store.

Moreover, if you download a Google music app you are not necessarily aware of the app before seeing it on the app store. I find apps all the time on the app store I would not have known about any other way. If you discover the app on Apple's Store, it wants a cut. If you already know about the service as you suggest, you probably are already subscribed and what is the big deal? Apple could be a real prick and not allow free apps.