Google GOOGL +0.61% Play Music is a music streaming and storage service that lets you listen on the web, smartphones or tablets. Previously, you were allowed to store up to 20,000 of your favorite songs on Google Play Music for free. Now Google Play Music has upgraded the storage space to 50,000 songs at no cost. The extra space is a free upgrade for users, meaning that there are no catches and it is applied automatically.
There is an “All Access” subscription available on Google Play Music that costs $9.99 per month, which lets users access on-demand streaming of any song and play custom radio stations. Individual tracks can be purchased from Google Play Music for about $0.99 per song. Google Play Music has more than 22 million tracks available for streaming or purchase and is available in 58 countries. And the Google Play Music mobile app offers offline listening.
If you do not have a Google Play Music account, you can create one at play.google.com/music using your Google login. When you visit that website, you will see a message from Google that says “Encore! Encore! Now you can upload up to 50,000 of your favorite songs and listen to them on your phone or on the web.” After that, you can add upload your music collection. You can stream or download music through your Android, iPhone, iPad and Adobe Flash-supported web browsers. Google Play Music offers personalized recommendations based on what you listen to and creates contextual playlists known as “Instant Mix.” I use Google Play Music to store my MP3s from my PC and listen to them during my commute to and from work.
Google acquired music streaming service Songza in July 2014 and integrated its technology into a Google Play Music feature called “Listen Now” four months ago. Based on the time, your mood or the activity you are doing, Google Play Music will recommend certain playlists.
Google Play Music competes against Apple AAPL -1.49% iTunes Match, Spotify Premium and Amazon Music. iTunes Match — which lets you store up to 25,000 songs — plays back the songs you have in 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality even if the original copy is lower quality and offers ad-free music on iTunes Radio for a cost of $24.99 per year. Amazon Music lets you store 250,000 songs for $24.99 per year or 250 songs for free. Spotify Premium offers ad-free music, playlist shuffling and creation, on-demand streaming of any song, offline listening and high-quality audio for $9.99 per month.
In terms of features that are available for free, Google Play Music appears to be ranked at the top because 50,000 songs is the best offer I have seen so far. Each song that you upload to Google Play Music can be as large as 300MB, according to Liliputing.com. Multiplying 300MB with 50,000 songs means that Google Play Music is offering 15TB of free storage.
Do you use Google Play Music? What are your thoughts about the free upgrade? Let us know in the comments below!
