Revamped Google Play Music Streams Content Based on User Location, Activity, and Time of Day

[deany]

Why no lyrics for iOS I would have thought Google delelopers would have put that feature first.
I love Amazon Primes Music X-Ray lyrics and I know some music teachers use Amazon Primes Music for the lyrics to teach students.

 

[Porco]

Sounds horrid to me.

By the way, reading that something is opt-in and still finding it objectionable is quite logical. Walking on hot coals is, I imagine, not pleasant, but no-one is forcing me to do that. But I can still have an opinion about it, that's just how that works.

 

[Elbon]

Can I just buy a few songs and have them on an easy to use player interface please...? PLEEEAASSE....?

I actually think the Music app in iOS 10 does a pretty good job of this.

 

[diipii]

CDs were good, nice and shiny and nobody kept a note of where I lived or how often I did this or that. There were no ads that pestered me as if I was a clueless moron and the quality of the sound was a revelation. I think there were a few who liked to stick a needle on a flat round thing and fool themselves about audio quality. There are a few that have smart phones which seems like a contradiction of terms. I think I wll keep buying CDs or pinching songs for nothing off YT. My ears these days are OK with that and I can make MP3 files and stash hours of good jazz on one CD for use in the van. I have a nice van, dark blue.

 

[Gasu E.]

Ugh, can't anybody pick their own **** anymore? Why does everything need to be "curated"? Technology is awesome, but it doesn't have to replace every basic human functionality...

I disagree. I want my iPhone to $#!+ for me.
[doublepost=1479132036][/doublepost]

CDs were good, nice and shiny and nobody kept a note of where I lived or how often I did this or that. There were no ads that pestered me as if I was a clueless moron and the quality of the sound was a revelation. I think there were a few who liked to stick a needle on a flat round thing and fool themselves about audio quality. There are a few that have smart phones which seems like a contradiction of terms. I think I wll keep buying CDs or pinching songs for nothing off YT. My ears these days are OK with that and I can make MP3 files and stash hours of good jazz on one CD for use in the van. I have a nice van, dark blue.

LOL. Thanks for sharing! But why stop there? What kind of beer do you like?

 

[MacBergin]

Thanks Google but i have a brain and can determine what i want to listen to based on where I am and my mood. Sounds like you are using this just to try and track me more. Nice try Nice try. You will find plenty of sheep for this but not me. Also, I don't need you to auto download music to my phone that you THINK I want. Let me know when your music app will wipe my butt and then maybe i'll sign up. Until then mind your own business I know how to make decisions.

 

[Small White Car]

You will have to come out of your cave at some point.
Just how good do you think any AI system can ever be for you, or anyone, when you keep everything secret from it?

You are using the word "it" to refer to the the AI and the company at the same time.

This is a trick to make us think they are the same thing. This doesn't have to be the case.

http://www.apple.com/privacy/approach-to-privacy/

Siri sends info back to Apple, of course, but it's linked back to your device, not your account. This means you can "escape" from your record by buying a new phone. With Google you couldn't do that since they know who you are and have linked your data to you.

Now, obviously, there are downsides to Apple's method. You can still argue that Google's way is better. There are clearly advantages there.

But what you can't do is say that Google's way is the only possible way. Siri disproves that.

 

[Even Longer]

My Pixel is ready.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I like Play Music UI the way it is.

 

[Mildredop]

We switched to Google Play Music when Spotify stopped working via our Sonos (it was really hit-and-miss as to whether it would work or not).

We've recently switched back to Spotify because of the update to allow it to control Sonos directly and I'm actually missing Google Play Music. The search results were better, there's less "user created" content and having my personal music on Google Play is great.

I think I'll be cancelling Spotify yet again.

And it's still really annoying that, regardless of service, you can listen to music all week long via Sonos, and neither Sonos nor Spotify/Google keeps track of your listening history, so tracks you've listened to are quickly forgotten unless you create endless playlists (which isn't practical).

 

[deany]

Love my GPM with SONOS too.

 

[wigby]

Oh, boy, Sounds like more homogenization of music tastes. Heaven forbid there be listeners that:

• Are more interested in music from outside their own little corner of the globe.
• Do not work the standard M-F 8-5 job -- and therefore have a different idea of "morning" "midday" "bedtime" and even "weekend".
• Like to rest and chill with heavy metal, but work out to smooth jazz.
• Have tastes that are completely contrary to what some marketroid thinks is "the popular music in this metropolitan area".

I've tried the curated playlists, AI playlists, etc of music services, and you know what? A tweaked iTunes DJ (a feature that is no longer in the program's current version) generally gives me a "radio station" that I enjoy more.

Sure AI won't work in some cases but Google is trying to learn more about music tastes in context. Since they haven't applied this approach widespread yet, I'm surprised that automated curation ever worked well for anyone. This won't be a useful feature for at least another year or however long it takes them to gather enough data on all participants. At least give it a chance unless you don't like being anonymously tracked.

 

[H2SO4]

Yeah I want google to spy on everything I do more..! No thanks!

Here we are. I knew it. Paranoia at it’s best. First reply too!!!
How predictable.

The most ridicuous thing about comments like yours is that while for years Apple have bad mouthed Google, they’d used them as a default search engine, provider for maps and to this day still take millions of dollars from them each year for their services.
But hey. It’s easy to hate right?

Here, this might help you;
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tin+foil+hat&t=hr

 

[Glideslope]

Yeah I want google to spy on everything I do more..! No thanks!

No s***. Next up, personal selections based on your Bedroom Schedule.

 

[deany]

Amazon Prime Music Unlimited 40M tracks at £79 UPFRONT or equal to £6.58 is making a compelling case for switchers.
Assuming you are an Amazon Prime subscriber.

 

[hagar]

I take privacy very seriously but this whole "Everything that Google does is evil" is becoming tiresome. At least Google is moving forward while Apple is stranded on the side of the AI highway:

- Siri not aware of my surroundings, context or location
- Siri not able to give route descriptions to the store I visit 3 times a week
- Siri not able to give route description to my next appointment (try it!)
- not syncing Faces in Photos because of privacy concerns
- Photos asking again and again face confirmation for similar photos with the same people
- Apple Music suggesting Britney Spears every week while I indicated numerous times I dislike her
- Apple Music suggesting "that" playlist with top songs from November 2015 over and over again
- ...

 

[McCool71]

99% of people are useless about actively seeking out new music.

Anything that helps get good new music to listeners should be applauded.

Totally agree. Most people just listen to things they already know that they like. Which is a shame in this day and age where we have 40+ million songs at our fingertips for a very modest monthly fee.

There is so much great stuff to be discovered out there beyond what you already know and what is in the charts right now. This and similar solutions (I am a big fan of Spotify's Discover Weekly and Release Radar - both tailor made for each individual user) has so much to offer. It also helps highlighting smaller artists that you would never, ever come across if you were to just browse yourself.

 

[Altis]

You will have to come out of your cave at some point.
Just how good do you think any AI system can ever be for you, or anyone, when you keep everything secret from it?
Exactly like expecting a stranger in the street, who knows nothing about you, being of any use to you.
That's not reality.

Does a boss at work, keep every single thing secret from his or her assistant as they are worried the assistant will be telling everyone else, would not be much use as an assistant then!

Why are you so paranoid?
No one cares where you get your coffee from, or watch some porn. You are not that important, and neither are 99.999% of other people.

Your attitude towards those who value their privacy won't ease their concerns.

Why should they care if Google's AI gets better at the expense of the details of their lives? Or do you think everyone should have to participate because it's better for you personally?

An office assistant that sells their boss's information would certainly be the worst assistant, regardless of how helpful they are.

 

[Piggie]

Your attitude towards those who value their privacy won't ease their concerns.

Why should they care if Google's AI gets better at the expense of the details of their lives? Or do you think everyone should have to participate because it's better for you personally?

An office assistant that sells their boss's information would certainly be the worst assistant, regardless of how helpful they are.

The problem is I feel people think they are special, when in reality all but a very few of us are just normal boring every day people going about or very normal lives.
The government is not going to home in on your porn watching, or hold classified documents about your favorite sandwich, or even if you visit miss whiplash for a spanking session each month.
There are 7.5 billion people on this planet
Over 325 Thousand new people were born, just today.

Look here: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

You think anyone is going to watch all these?

You really think they are focusing all their attention on the likes of us?

You could not even begin to monitor the general population, unless you focus on someone very specific that you have a very strong reason to, and that would mostly be crime/terror type things.

I understand it's easy to conjure up "they are watching ME" in your mind.
But we're insignificant, sure our combined data of buying and watching habits may help companies plan to invest in areas that people en-mass are showing interest in, but not just you.

I'm not saying I wish to be singled out and watched by others, but I have to tell myself, that's not reality.

 

[Altis]

The problem is I feel people think they are special, when in reality all but a very few of us are just normal boring every day people going about or very normal lives.
The government is not going to home in on your porn watching, or hold classified documents about your favorite sandwich, or even if you visit miss whiplash for a spanking session each month.
There are 7.5 billion people on this planet
Over 325 Thousand new people were born, just today.

Look here: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

You think anyone is going to watch all these?

You really think they are focusing all their attention on the likes of us?

You could not even begin to monitor the general population, unless you focus on someone very specific that you have a very strong reason to, and that would mostly be crime/terror type things.

I understand it's easy to conjure up "they are watching ME" in your mind.
But we're insignificant, sure our combined data of buying and watching habits may help companies plan to invest in areas that people en-mass are showing interest in, but not just you.

I'm not saying I wish to be singled out and watched by others, but I have to tell myself, that's not reality.

I don't really think it's about whether or not anyone in particular is being singled out or anything.

It's about companies having very detailed information about people's lives, often without them knowing. Then they can turn and sell that information without you knowing at all.

I personally don't lose any sleep over it but I can certainly understand where some people are coming from. Nobody has to sit and monitor individual people when computers can do all that work and make conclusions based on it.

The implications have the potential to be beyond anything humanity has ever seen.

At the end of the day, some people don't want to give up the information for little or no benefit to them. Personally, I think it's way more trouble than it's worth to be bothered trying to avoid all the privacy infringements, and sometimes there's really no choice... but I could certainly eat those words one day.

 

[Piggie]

I don't really think it's about whether or not anyone in particular is being singled out or anything.

It's about companies having very detailed information about people's lives, often without them knowing. Then they can turn and sell that information without you knowing at all.

I personally don't lose any sleep over it but I can certainly understand where some people are coming from. Nobody has to sit and monitor individual people when computers can do all that work and make conclusions based on it.

The implications have the potential to be beyond anything humanity has ever seen.

At the end of the day, some people don't want to give up the information for little or no benefit to them. Personally, I think it's way more trouble than it's worth to be bothered trying to avoid all the privacy infringements, and sometimes there's really no choice... but I could certainly eat those words one day.

I can accept that, however, is not the reality that, we have far more important data about us, than shopping preferences and the porn we may like! already being taken.

You work, you pay tax's, you have health insurance details, there are CCTV cameras filming you as you go shopping, you get paid, you buy things with a credit card, you have a mobile phone.
You are tracked the hell right now, with vastly more important details, than your web history.

It's just all that is not so apparent that it's already happening.

 

[dk001]

You are using the word "it" to refer to the the AI and the company at the same time.

This is a trick to make us think they are the same thing. This doesn't have to be the case.

http://www.apple.com/privacy/approach-to-privacy/

Siri sends info back to Apple, of course, but it's linked back to your device, not your account. This means you can "escape" from your record by buying a new phone. With Google you couldn't do that since they know who you are and have linked your data to you.

Now, obviously, there are downsides to Apple's method. You can still argue that Google's way is better. There are clearly advantages there.

But what you can't do is say that Google's way is the only possible way. Siri disproves that.

It also means I have to recreate it for each device. I can't update one, I have to update many.
I'll stick with GPM.

 

[Altis]

I can accept that, however, is not the reality that, we have far more important data about us, than shopping preferences and the porn we may like! already being taken.

You work, you pay tax's, you have health insurance details, there are CCTV cameras filming you as you go shopping, you get paid, you buy things with a credit card, you have a mobile phone.
You are tracked the hell right now, with vastly more important details, than your web history.

It's just all that is not so apparent that it's already happening.

Indeed... tracking with GPS/wifi is probably high on the list. Browsing habits have long been tracked, but knowing where you are and have been, and when, is perhaps a bit creepy to some.

In my humble opinion, it only really becomes a problem when people don't know about it, or if they don't know the extent to and manner in which their information is sold and used.

Nothing a few episodes of Black Mirror won't fix.

 

[adamneer]

I swear to Jeebus. Reading comprehension is severely lacking in this thread. Either the quotes above are from people who didn't read the article or seriously didn't understand what they read. It's an OPT-IN option. It's not mandatory, it's not on by default. It takes a conscious decision to choose to use the feature. If someone chooses the feature that means they obviously see it as a value add.

For those of us with common sense, we realize we can continue doing what we've been doing and the feature doesn't affect us at all. I use GPM on a family plan. This feature doesn't appeal to me so I'm not going to opt in. See how easy that is?

I understood perfectly well what the article was describing. Whether this is a default behavior or an opt-in makes no difference to the point I was trying to make, which is simply that as technology continues to advance in decision-making, it will weaken society's ability to do so on its own. Sure, you can opt-in if you want, or not, it doesn't matter. The more prevalent it becomes for people to rely on machine learning, the less people will rely on their own learning.

I think iTunes Genius was great, and quite often worked fantastic. I also frequently use algorithm based playlists on Spotify, and admit that it can be a great way to discover new music. But I don't need a music service to try and guess what kind of mood I'm in, nor do I feel like it's healthy for suggestions to be made to people based upon aggregate data at such a microscopic level. People, if anything, need to rejoice in their uniqueness, rather than relying on these services which drive them towards homogeneity.