Google Play Subscription Music Service Finally Arrives on iPhone

[MrXiro]

This is a great app. My entire music library is now on itunes match and google. Google sound quality is better when streaming and give you the option to choose low, normal or high quality when streaming. Since I have unlimited data, I set it to high and sound is great!

I've been waiting for this app ever since they launched Google Music like 2 years ago!

Tried it out... now I have complete access to my ENTIRE music library on my itunes (I have my Google Music set to Sync all my iTunes files, including bootlegs and any radio show downloads I have!)

This is GREAT, despite being a little ugly. The web based app was crap.

 

[The Phazer]

I honestly do not see your problem. It is Apple's Store. It hosts the apps for free, even those of competitors.

It doesn't, it charges $100 dollars to host the apps, and if Apple don't think that's enough let customers side load from other stores and we'll say no more about it.

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.

I want a cut of any subscriptions though the app store too. The thing is, I don't have any right to them. And nor does Apple.

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.

********. Navigation in the App Store has been catastrophically bad since iOS5. If I buy an App is because I was already aware of it. The App Store gets in the way of this.

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.

I would much rather Apple didn't distribute free apps, as long as they let someone else do it.

If Apple's supposed ecosystem advantage is so good, let them compete on even terms with it - let apps be distributed elsewhere, and charge developers for prominence on the app store. They'll more than pay it if your supposed advantage is worthwhile out of their own free will.

Meanwhile what we've ended up with is a situation that just makes the iPhone - y'know the hardware that Apple makes it's money from that it's customers pay for - a worse product, because Apple's numbskull behaviour encourages bad UI because companies do the only sane thing and don't include purchase links in the app.

 

[bitfidelity]

No iPad version. I love it.

 

[Poisonivy326]

You must have missed the part where Apple flat out said they have no interest in tracking their users private information, which is exactly Google's entire business model.

Oh my god. For the last time. NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO CLICK ON GOOGLE'S TARGETED ADS. Your credit card is not going to be flooded with unwanted charges because you happen to have a gmail account. Google is NO DIFFERENT than, say, iTunes, which remembers my purchases, and every time I open the app, highlights recent music releases that are similar to my past purchases. It's NO DIFFERENT than Amazon that "suggests" similar videos that I downloaded previously from Instant Video. It's NO DIFFERENT than Facebook which also has targeted ads on the side that are based on my profile, my "likes," etc. etc.

Seriously, let's all repeat this again. WHETHER GOOGLE MAKES MONEY FROM YOU IN ENTIRELY UP TO YOU.

 

[Jayomat]

Already love it on Android, haven't looked yet, but I hope it's an universal app so I can throw it on my iPad

 

[Tiger8]

iTunes Match is $25/year. With that you get all your music for free in the cloud and iTunes Radio becomes add free and is very much a pandora approach. At $10/month for Google, i would say you have done something wrong in your calculations. By my account, to take full advantage of Google you need to pay $120/per year, where with iTunes match you get it for 80% less.

By my account, I would have to say you have not done your research, as evident by many responses clarifying the difference to you.

 

[mtneer]

I currently have iTunes Match, Spotify and Google All Access. I am planning to cut one from the team. Currently it looks like Spotify is on the chopping block. Their radio function just hangs forever and does not work even after restarting the app. This happens even while their on-demand section works perfectly. Traffic congestion?

 

[somethingelsefl]

Huh? It doesn't touch your iTunes Library.

I'm talking about on its own side. After it imports my data, it messed up its OWN playlists, duplicated songs, deleted others. I tried to migrate over to their sync service entirely, but I couldn't because every time I made a change on one of my Android devices it would mess up the lists on the my other two Android devices.

That's what I was referring to.

 

[ricky86]

How can they still keep the same interface on Android?

 

[somethingelsefl]

Privacy concerns? You guys must be drinking the Apple koolaid if you think Apple is impervious to NSA access.

Haven't you guys seen the recent Apple release on how many times they have given data about YOU the users to the NSA?

First of all, read the conditions of each company's upload/sync service. Google even says that they uploading the songs for free, but that they reserve the right to tailor advertising to you based on your uploads. Apple's service does not.

Secondly, doesn't the fact that Apple published their NSA interactions publicly make them seem a little more trustworthy with privacy than a company that has stated in the past that they cannot fully publish privacy data due to the open-nature of their platform?

I own Android and Apple products. I like them for different reasons. But I can tell you this much anecdotally: one of Android devices leaked my personal information via a remotely installed application. NONE of my Apple devices have encountered such a problem.

 

[quietstormSD]

I'll take one, thank you very much

 

[Oletros]

Secondly, doesn't the fact that Apple published their NSA interactions publicly make them seem a little more trustworthy with privacy than a company that has stated in the past that they cannot fully publish privacy data due to the open-nature of their platform?

Can you point where Apple has published their NSA interactions publicly?

Just an exercise for you, look for the Transparency reports from both companies and when they started to publish them.

ne of Android devices leaked my personal information via a remotely installed application. NONE of my Apple devices have encountered such a problem.

Remotely installed application? Are you saying that application was installed without your intervention? It is not possible.

 

[leehal]

Thumbs up from me for the Google service.

I can't join the iTunes version as I have over 25,000 songs in my library, Google lets me choose which songs I want to upload. I didn't want to have to delete songs from my iTunes library just to joint the Apple version.

I have ditched Spotify premium and the Google version seems to be working well, no problems downloading to my device, keeps crashing when I try to create playlists but I am sure this will be fixed soon.

Looking forward to an official iPad version of the player.

 

[wxman2003]

Are you using the free version or pay monthly?

I'm using the free version. One thing that really sticks out is the sound quality and volume. On itunes, the volume at 85% is equal to about 40% on google. So google is a lot louder. Not saying volume equates to sound quality, but there is a huge difference between volume settings, especially when streaming. One example is with the Pink Floyd album The Wall. It doesnt flow smoothly from one song to the next if you use itunes match and stream from the cloud, while on google, it is flawless. If I turn itunes match off and download the album onto my iphone, it sounds great. I wish itunes match allowed you to choose the quality of the stream like google does. Its quite obvious after streaming on google that Apple has chosen a lower level sound quality for streaming. That's pretty pathetic considering the free google streaming sounds better than itunes match at $25 a year.

 

[JackieInCo]

I installed it on my 4S and iPad Mini. Works good but it warned me that I had to deauthorize some of my devices due to a limit of 10. I have a Nexus 7, Nexus 4, iPad, 4S and two Macs. That's not 10. Turns out the Nexus 4 and 7 were listed a few times each even though I only have one of each. Deleted the extras and I was able to listen on my Mini.

I do have iTunes Match and I'll probably use that more than anything because it keeps track of play counts and last played, both of which I use in playlists.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I've used both Google Play Music (on an Android device) and iTunes Match (on my iPhone). Without a doubt Apple's offering is less buggy, more fluid, and it uploads/streams MUCH faster. Plus, device storage management is much better with iTunes Match.

Privacy concerns aside, even though a portion of Google's offering is free, it comes at too high a cost...it would duplicate, delete, mix and re-arrange my music all the time. It's a mess.

My experience is exactly the opposite. iTunes Match + iOS 7 music app = mess.
I'm not alone. The forums are full of complaints of the music app and iTM. For me, cloud transfer with Apple has been very slow.

I am now using the FREE Google Music manager and this new app on my iPhone 5 and it works PERFECT.

 

[JackieInCo]

My experience is exactly the opposite. iTunes Match + iOS 7 music app = mess.
I'm not alone. The forums are full of complaints of the music app and iTM. For me, cloud transfer with Apple has been very slow.

I am now using the FREE Google Music manager and this new app on my iPhone 5 and it works PERFECT.

Every track that I've uploaded to Google Music has pixelated artwork. The same artwork in iTunes Match is perfect. Must be something Google is doing. I see others have complained about this too.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Every track that I've uploaded to Google Music has pixelated artwork. The same artwork in iTunes Match is perfect. Must be something Google is doing. I see others have complained about this too.

I've got about 9,000 songs uploaded. The majority, by far, has sharp, crystal clear artwork. Some of my more obscure, 80's albums do have less sharp artwork.

Possibly something that will change as artwork is updated.

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For me, the biggest feature/improvement over iTunes is that I can add music to my music folder (non-DRM from any source) and it is automatically added to my library and uploaded to the cloud. No more "add folder to library". No more having to remember to add to iTunes. iTunes isn't my default music player...it was just a mechanism to get my music to iTunes Match.

After a while, I would find my iTunes doesn't contain an accurate representation of my library and it was impossible to figure out what was missing.

Now, that is no longer a problem. That feature alone is worth it to me.

 

[SpectatorHere]

As others have mentioned the uploaded library feature is NOT quite as reliable as Match. On occasion things show up and disappear...random weird stuff you didn't upload appears in your library, etc. However, it 99% works, and this has the awesome benefit of being FREE. Your whole library, backed up in the cloud, accessible from any Internet capable device.

I love this, because iTunes and iOS have burned me too many times.

Begin rant.

Just recently I lost my entire iTunes library off my main computer. Don't know where it went..just gone. Luckily, it's still on a synced device.

If this was the first backup/sync issued I'd had, it would be one thing, but losing music, photos, backups appears to be amazingly common amongst people I know and going by forum postings.

iTunes and many other big time software like iCloud is NOT always friendly or obvious. People don't know what iCloud backs up as opposed to a local back up, or whether previous backups are overwritten on a sync, or even if you need to sync at all anymore, and then what about wifi sync? How does a company focused on user interface and simplicity continue to screw up this badly with one of their premiere software platforms???

And if you make a mistake and need to retrieve files from a phone or backup, does Apple offer a free product to at least help you out in a bind? Nope, you have to buy some shady forensics software with paypal....

End Rant.

So, yes, access to Google Play Music is a good thing. Also makes it easier to leave Apple's walled garden if you ever decide to migrate away...or even just add a competitors product to your family of devices and want to share (it is your music after all)>

 

[dannyyankou]

It's not an universal app (yet?) so it'll look like a centered iPhone app using retina assets (at least on the iPad Mini).

So it's just like an android app then

 

[oldhifi]

$$10 bucks..you can get free music all day

 

[JackieInCo]

It's not an universal app (yet?) so it'll look like a centered iPhone app using retina assets (at least on the iPad Mini).

It's usable for sure Mini and Nexus 7 side by side:

 

[JackieInCo]

Here's the player, Mini and Nexus 7 side by side:

 

[Zepaw]

Darn, I was hoping it would be iPad a well. I enjoying using this app on my Note 3 and would have liked to share the music with my iPad without putting it on the device. It's useful enough to add the iPhone version at least.

 

[JackieInCo]

Darn, I was hoping it would be iPad a well. I enjoying using this app on my Note 3 and would have liked to share the music with my iPad without putting it on the device.

YOu can still use it on the iPad. Look above, I posted a picture of it running on my Mini.