Google Play Music adds free streaming

[wicked]

Google Play Music just launched a free, ad-supported version that will allow users to access its catalog through curated playlists. Users will also be able to create stations based off a specific artist, song, or album. It's available online today at music.google.com in the U.S. with Android and iOS compatibility coming later this week.

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[thunderbolt_nick]

Awwww yeah! Already enjoying the curation from when I was on the free trial. I'm enjoying this move. Time for some chip tunes!

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I was just reading about this elsewhere. Will be interesting to watch. As someone locked in to the introductory price of the paid service, this doesn't really affect me, but glad to see them competing.

 

[johnomaz]

I was just reading about this elsewhere. Will be interesting to watch. As someone locked in to the introductory price of the paid service, this doesn't really affect me, but glad to see them competing.

I too am locked into the $8/month price but am also a cheap person. Would ads really bug me that much. I wonder if the content is limited in any way or are ads the only difference. I've loved the service since day one. Get in the car, musics up automatically and never a commercial break. But, would a 30 second ad bother me much....hmmmmm.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I too am locked into the $8/month price but am also a cheap person. Would ads really bug me that much. I wonder if the content is limited in any way or are ads the only difference. I've loved the service since day one. Get in the car, musics up automatically and never a commercial break. But, would a 30 second ad bother me much....hmmmmm.

According to the Verge, you get the whole 30 million (or whatever) song catalog, but you only get radio stations, curated by real human people.

Also...

As you might expect, the free service loses out on several features that premium subscribers get — and also handcuffs you with some restrictions. Free users are limited to six skips per hour, a number that's become the industry standard in recent years. You can pause tracks, but there's no ability to rewind, scrub through songs, or even see what's coming up next. People who pay for Google Play Music have full control over playlists and can manipulate, edit, rename, and save them for offline playback. "You can make it your own," said Roman. Free listeners get none of those things; a playlist is much more like a radio station and you don't get to customize it. One nice perk is that even free tier users can listen to streams at up to 320kbps so long as you've got the data connection to support it.

Source: Google launches free music streaming ahead of Apple Music debut The Verge

 

[Dark Lazer]

I too am locked into the $8/month price but am also a cheap person. Would ads really bug me that much. I wonder if the content is limited in any way or are ads the only difference. I've loved the service since day one. Get in the car, musics up automatically and never a commercial break. But, would a 30 second ad bother me much....hmmmmm.

It is different. Think Pandora. I logged in under a different gmail account and basically you search for an artist and it gives you playlists that you can select and listen to (not individual songs). You can skip them or give them a thumbs up/thumbs down. You can skip 6 times before it won't let you skip.

I love the freedom of picking any song I want, fast forwarding, etc and having full access, so I will stick with unlimited $8 a month.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

It is different. Think Pandora. I logged in under a different gmail account and basically you search for an artist and it gives you playlists that you can select and listen to (not individual songs). You can skip them or give them a thumbs up/thumbs down. You can skip 6 times before it won't let you skip.

I love the freedom of picking any song I want, fast forwarding, etc and having full access, so I will stick with unlimited $8 a month.

Beat ya too it. Thanks for the first-hand account of it though. Better than nothing, but I'm with you. I'm listening to full albums that were released today on my work PC and have another (a bit too heavy for the office) queued up that I listened to in the truck to and from work this morning and at lunch.

I, too, enjoy picking a specific song by a specific artist and getting a playlist that gels nicely with it. I've also discovered some amazing bands with "I'm feeling lucky radio" that I never would've picked myself, but I listened for hours one day while doing yard work and only felt the need to skip a couple songs. Worth it to me for sure.

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

Not a fan of the ads. I'll stick with Amazon Prime music.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

If you scroll down here Google Play Music you'll see a side-by-side comparison of the free vs. paid plans directly from Google.

 

[akhenax]

Not a fan of the ads. I'll stick with Amazon Prime music.

Trying Amazon Prime music during my free trial. Hated it so much that I paid for Google Play Music.

There really is someone for everyone.

 

[johnomaz]

If you scroll down here Google Play Music you'll see a side-by-side comparison of the free vs. paid plans directly from Google.

See, this is my issue. You don't get access to the entire library that Google has to offer. I quit using Pandora because of that. Sure you can choose different songs with the Free Google Music, but I want to listen to whatever I want as long as Google offers it. I'll keep paying the $8 a month as I have since it was launched.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

See, this is my issue. You don't get access to the entire library that Google has to offer. I quit using Pandora because of that. Sure you can choose different songs with the Free Google Music, but I want to listen to whatever I want as long as Google offers it. I'll keep paying the $8 a month as I have since it was launched.

Same here. When I first tried using Pandora, I would select a band/song and create a station and then almost never hear that band, let alone that song. Paying my $8 to create a station off any song they offer and hear that song first, followed by a bunch that mesh well with it is where it's at for me.

 

[Sajo]

I tried out the new Stations feature yesterday while mowing my yard. It's very similar to the Amazon Prime "Stations' option...search by entering an artist, song, etc. and it started playing similar songs. Spent about an hour on the mower and never heard one commercial. There were on screen ads that appeared sometimes, but I just avoided clicking on those. I think I only hit the skip track option twice in an hour, played a lot of music that I liked. Seems like a pretty good service for free, in my opinion. Between this and Amazon Prime stations I now have two options to listen to randomly selected music and hear new music, or music I have not heard in a long time. Pretty cool!