google music (beta)

edited May 2011 in conversations
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

  • edited 1:48PM
    US only, of course. and upload all your music to listen to? or just keep your music on a portable device? i dunno...
  • edited 1:48PM
    Or subscribe to Spotify and listen to whatever the hell you like where you like. Europe only, of course.
  • edited 1:48PM
    yeah, or that. or just carry on as you are and download what the hell you want for free.
  • edited 1:48PM
    There's something to be said for cloud music, sure I can load my generic 3G music playing device with tunes but what if I have a hankering for some Barbara Streisand on the train? What then?

    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.
  • edited 1:48PM
    I wonder how long it's going to be until someone produces a sturdy torrent style streaming tech/service.
  • edited 1:48PM
    yeah, spotify sounds an ok way of doing things to me.

    however, i'd prefer a free version, with the odd advert or two, and no track count limit like they currently have.
  • edited 1:48PM
    Oh yeah, it's far from perfect but that's the model I think people are going to be happiest with. I hope with Apple's iCloud service there's no fee attached because just a straight cloud access to my music would be super.
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