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Google offers four free months of Play Music for July 4th
Google Play Music is a competent streaming service, but it's always sat in the shadow of larger, more aggressive competitors such as Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music. Google has tried everything to make it more popular -- the occasional exclusive, free trials with Chromecast devices -- heck, it's even free with YouTube Red now. To celebrate July 4th in the US, the company has a new deal -- four months of free music streaming, no questions asked. Or rather, almost no questions asked. As MacRumors notes, you'll need to be in the US and a first-time Play Music listener.
Google Play Music finally equips iPads with its tunes
Even if you prefer iOS, Google Play Music is still a solid option for getting your personal library and access to streaming all in one place. That is, until Apple reveals its plans for Beats Music. While we wait for that announcement, though, Mountain View's tune-minded app does double duty nicely, and now it properly outfits the iPad. The new version comes with a fresh coat of Material Design, of course, but you'll still have to contend with Google's rather frustrating method for uploading files. If you haven't already been prompted to update, the latest is now available over at iTunes.
Google's redesigned Play Music app offers stations that suit your mood
You know how there were hints that Google Play Music was about to get a Material Design makeover? As it turns out, that's just a small piece of what's in store. Google has updated its Play Music Android, iOS and web apps with a new Listen Now page that focuses on context-aware music stations from the company's recent acquisition, Songza. Provided you're an All Access subscriber, you'll get to stream curated playlists that fit the time of day and your likely activities -- you may get relaxing playlists to take the edge off your commute home, or uptempo tracks for morning exercise. The page also improves discovery with cards that suggest both new releases and stations based on what you like. Google's redesign should be available today in all 45 Play Music countries, so have at it if you're an avid listener.
Google Play Music on Android lets you find your friends' playlists
You may remember that Google Play Music All Access on Android briefly got public playlist searching back in August, only to lose the option a short while later. Well, it's back -- and this time, it appears to be here to stay. Much like Spotify, the update Play Music app now lets you find others' carefully curated mixes and stream them on the spot. If you need a ready-made party playlist or just want to find out what your friends are listening to, you only have to visit the playlists section and start typing. The feature may take a while to hit your phone, but Android Police has a download if you can't wait to check out others' tastes in tunes.
YouTube 'Music Key' leak reveals Google's streaming plans
We've heard rumors and rumblings about YouTube's music service for awhile now, but it's looking like a chunk of concrete details have just surfaced. For starters, it's apparently being named YouTube Music Key and will offer access not only to full artist catalogs, but concert footage and remixes as well, according to Android Police. The service will supposedly also offer a free 30 day trial and will cost $9.99 per month thereafter to access a promised, platform-specific, 20 million "high-quality" tracks and offline listening. To bring Mountain View's existing music platform into the fold, the search giant is renaming Google Play Music All Access to a slightly less cumbersome Google Play Music Key. What's more, one subscription fee is said to cover both services. With the latter also offering ad-free, audio only listening and offline playback, though, we're wondering how long this possible redundancy could end up lasting. For the full details and a smattering of screen grabs, head to the source.
Google snatches up streaming service Songza
Google has just purchased music streaming service Songza and, while the exact terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, it reportedly involves what financial experts refer to as "a boat load of money." Apple boosted its streaming music presence by picking up Beats. So it only makes sense that Google would have to fire back with an acquisition of its own. Like Beats, Songza relies pretty heavily on actual human curation to build playlists. The newest member of the Mountain View family uses contextual data about you to decide the best playlist for you at any given time. These lists are put together by DJs, musicians and music critics rather than some algorithm that looks at meta data like genre or BPM. These lists can get you pumped for a work out or just get you through a slow work day, but what they're not is a Pandora style infinite radio station.
Google Play Movies and Music All Access hit more countries around the world
Sounds like Google's been busy cutting international licensing deals, because the company's just expanded its Play Movies and Music services to a huge bunch of countries. Between the two, the latter touts the longer list, as the Play Movies & TV Android app has been updated to work in 37 new locations across the globe. These include the Netherlands, Venezuela and Rwanda, as you can see in the roster (that Android Police spotted on Google Play's support page) posted after the break. While residents in all these countries can watch movies they've bought or rented from Google, TV shows are still only limited to people living in the US, the UK, Australia and Japan.
Google Play Music gets a new look for iOS 7 and 'I'm feeling lucky' radio
If you're an iOS user that stuck with Google Play Music past the free All Access promo, a new update brings this refreshed UI for iOS 7 and a few new features. As promised at launch, it now supports "I'm feeling lucky" radio which randomly assembles a playlist based on recent listening habits. Also new are themed auto-playlists built around tracks in your library and those you've given a thumbs-up to. Google's iOS team added genre radio stations for All Access subscribers too, and the ability to search by genre for everyone, bringing this version's features up to par with its Android counterpart. With the amount of countries where the service is now available, that shouldn't leave many people out -- unless they live in Canada, that is.
Google Play Music All Access gets Handy in Germany
Germany's something of a latecomer to Google's Play Music All Access party (that name, we know!). The country that made David Hasselhoff a venerable pop star was conspicuously absent from the Google music service's many European roll outs. Not now, however, as Google's officially made the streaming service available für das deutsche Volk. The same free 30-day trial offer still applies here, but if you stay on past that, expect to fork over €7.99/mo for the unlimited streaming access, offline storage and personalized radio. It is, as they say in German, a super good way to enjoy your music on-the-go.
Google Play Music app officially arrives on Glass
Glass Explorers who weren't adventurous enough to sideload Google Play Music onto their wearable for an early taste of the app have just gotten easy access to it. Mountain View's just listed the tune player on the MyGlass application and in the Glassware section of its companion website. Once the app is set to "On," Glass will automatically download the software and unlock a new "listen to" command. By wielding the magic words users can speak to pull up albums, artists, playlists and songs they've uploaded to the service and those available through Google Play Music All Access. We took the app for a spin and there don't appear to be any notable changes compared to the version we installed by hand. If you were one of the intrepid users who loaded up the app ahead of time, you'll have to uninstall it through the Android Debug Bridge in order to successfully score it via MyGlass. If you're itching to make the most of tune streaming on the hardware, you can grab ahold of stereo earbuds from Google designed just for the device.
Latest Google Glass update has a secret feature: it can play music (update: $85 stereo earbuds incoming)
If you thought the latest Glass update was designed solely to help with your schedule and commute, you'd be mistaken. The sneaky devs in Mountain View quietly added support for Google Play Music in the XE11 upgrade, laying the groundwork for a future feature announcement. After sideloading the app onto Glass, a new "listen to" voice command appears on the the hardware's home screen, a feature that Glass head of Marketing Ed Sanders tells USA Today it is "important to have" for the headset. Right on time, the Glass team has posted a new Explorer Story video featuring music producer Young Guru explaining how Glass can help him discover new sounds to sample, showing off playback and the existing Android Sound Search feature. By uttering the new phrase and speaking the name of an album, artist, playlist or song, the company's guinea pigs can listen to tunes they've uploaded to Google Play Music or those available through All Access, provided they have a subscription. Once a user confirms their choice and the music starts, a card with album art and playback controls (Pause, Play, Previous, Next, Stop, Radio and Volume) is pinned to the wearable's timeline. As you might imagine, the audio quality through the bone conduction speaker isn't spectacular, and while the device's forthcoming earbud may offer some improvement, the foreseeable musical future of Glass Explorers is in mono. Update: Google has informed USA Today and the New York Times that a set of earbud headphones will be available next month for $85, which you can spot in the video after the break. It also appears that the Google Play Music tricks discovered will be officially unveiled later today, and probably won't require any sideloading shenanigans.
Google Play Music All Access hits Mexico, Canada jealous in most friendly way possible
Another week passes, another country gets Google's blessing for its music locker and streaming service. This time out, Google Play Music All Access is hitting our neighbors to the south, Mexico. Just try not to brag about how awesome streaming 20,000 songs from your cloud library is, amigos -- Canada is still getting the, ahem, cold shoulder from Mountain View.
Google Music coming to iOS this month
Our sister site Engadget has a nice scoop this morning -- Google is testing a native iOS Google Music app internally at this time, and they'll launch that app for public consumption later this month. The app will highlight Google's Play Music All Access streaming service. Engadget notes that users in more than 19 countries can sign up for the Standard and All Access music services for offline or streaming access. The iOS app will apparently echo the feature set of the Android app, which offers custom radio and smart recommendation features. The All Access service has a US$9.99 monthly subscription fee associated with it, and there's a 30-day free trial as well as a non-subscription version of the service. The image at the top of this post shows the Android app running on both smartphone and tablet, and is not meant to represent the look of the upcoming iOS app.
Google Play Music All Access makes its way to seven more European countries
If you felt left out by the European debut of Google Play Music All Access in August, hopefully Mountain View's latest announcement brings you into the musical fold. According to Google's support page -- as spotted by Android Police -- the search giant's music locker and streaming service is now available in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland. And given how fast European internet is, it shouldn't take you nearly as long to upload a massive music collection as it did for us stateside, either.
PSA: Google Play Music All Access $8 promotion ends soon
Listen, we're all for waiting until the last possible minute, but that time is now. If you happen to be looking for a deal on Google's fancy new music service, the clock is ticking. Once June 30th rolls around, Google Play Music All Access's $7.99 price tag will bump up to the standard $9.99 a month. That's a full $2 a month more for access to those millions of unlimited songs. You can sign up at the source link below -- that same page can also hook you up with a free 30-day trial, if not paying money is your thing.
Google Play Music All Access hands-on
More Info Google reportedly signs deal with Sony and Universal Google launches All Access music-streaming service Google reportedly in negotiations with music labels to launch streaming service Among the worst kept secrets to be revealed during today's Google I/O keynote was Play Music All Access. Mountain View's desire to create a subscription-based music streaming service was pretty well-documented. Now it's finally here, for $9.99 a month (or $7.99 if you're an early adopter and get in on the free trial before June 30th), with at least a couple major labels on board. Of course, All Access is entering a rather crowded field -- one already dominated by heavy hitters like Spotify. We spent the afternoon getting acquainted with Google's subscription music service to see if it has what it takes to hang with more established properties. Head on past the break to see what we learned. %Gallery-188521%
