google music (beta)
Google has unveiled its long-awaited music and film players in its biggest challenge yet to the dominance of Apple's iTunes.
Two new cloud-based players – which are intially available only in the US – will allow users to stream music and movies on their Android smartphones or tablet computers, without the need for an internet connection.
Music Beta for Google, the technology giant's "digital music locker", was unveiled alongside the film rentals service for Android at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.
The music player allows users to upload up to 20,000 songs from their computer – including tracks bought on iTunes – to the internet, which they can then listen to on the move. Music Beta will be free while it is invitation-only.
Music Beta works in the same as Amazon's Cloud Player, which the online retailer launched at the end of March. However, Cloud Player customers can upload just over 1,000 songs, with those who purchase music from the Amazon store upgraded to a premium service.
Like Cloud Player, Google's music service has launched without concluding deals with major music labels.
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Comments
Cloud services are definitely the future, and needed, but I do wonder about Google's service of having to pay to listen to music that you already own. With Spotify you are at least paying to listen to music that you possibly don't.
however, i'd prefer a free version, with the odd advert or two, and no track count limit like they currently have.