You can now buy a music subscription from Google. Here’s everything you need to know about Google’s crack at rocketing to the top of the charts. Get ready for Google Play Access.
Google Play launches in the US today. It costs $US10 per month. Everybody gets a 30-day free trial, and if you sign up soon, it will only cost you $US8 per month.
Google claims that All Access is better for discovery than others. From what we can see so far it’s an on-demand meets radio service with the personalisation options you would expect. It works on phones, tablets and web browsers.
The innovation comes from the degree to which it’s easy to switch between the hands-on and hands-off experiences.
Google has long been missing a streaming music answer to services like Spotify and Pandora. Google Music is a wonderful cloud-based storage locker for your tunes, but in the end, it it’s a just a store where you can buy tracks and albums. The trouble, of course is that Google is a massive company and so negotiations with the major record labels are more complicated than they are for startups.
Spotify and Pandora in particular have amassed a lot of users. Google has the muscle, but the little guys have the head start. We’ll have to wait and see which service comes out on top.
Of course, Google Music All Access is only available in the US right now, but other territories should be coming soon.