Google Music Beta versus the titans of the streaming music space: a chart
It feels like just yesterday we charted the streaming music landscape, but it's already changed in a big way -- Google is muscling in on the likes of Rhapsody, Pandora and particularly Amazon with its Google Music Beta. Being able to take 20,000 of your personal tunes, stream them over the web and cache them locally on your device isn't functionality to sneeze at, so it's time we updated our charts. After the break, see how the big streaming services stack up.
Service: | Google Music Beta | Amazon Cloud Player |
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Price: | Free... for now, by invitation only, in the US. Stores 20,000 songs. | Between $20/year (20 GB) and $1,000/year for 1 TB |
Free sample: | Everything, for now | 5 GB free storage |
Type of streaming: | Cloud | Cloud |
What you pay for: | Nothing, yet | Additional storage capacity |
Mobile reach: | Only Android 2.2+ | Android and iOS web interface |
Unique Features: | Locally cached, pinnable songs | Access to Amazon's MP3 store, fully downloadable tracks |
Service: | Pandora | Slacker | MOG | Rhapsody |
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Price: | $36/year | $4.99/month ($3.99 annual pass) | $9.99/month | $9.99/month (1 device); $14.99 for 3 |
Free sample: | 40 free hours/month | Freemium model | 14 days free | 14 days free |
Type of Streaming: | Radio stations | Radio stations | On-demand, radio stations | On-demand |
What you pay for: | Ad-free, higher bit rate, desktop app | Ad-free, unlimited song skips, lyrics, offline caching | Unlimited song streaming, downloads for offline listening | Unlimited song streaming, downloads |
Mobile reach: | iOS, Android, BlackBerry, WebOS | iOS, Android, BlackBerry, WebOS, WP7 | iOS, Android | iOS, Android, BlackBerry, WP7 |
Unique features: | Thumbs up/down | See which artist is up next in the queue | Personalized radio based off existing queue | Option to stream on 3 mobile devices |
Service: | Rdio | Napster | Zune Pass |
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Price: | $4.99/month on desktop web; $9.99 on mobile | $5/month web-only; $10 mobile and web | $15/month |
Free sample: | 7 days | 7 days | 14 days |
Type of streaming: | On-demand | On-demand | On-demand |
What you pay for: | Unlimited song access, sync mobile to desktop | Unlimited song access | Unlimited access, 10 free downloads per month |
Mobile reach: | iOS, Android, BlackBerry | iOS, Android, BlackBerry | WP7, Zune Marketplace |
Unique Features: | Can be used on Sonos and Roku | Military discount of 30% off subscription services | Option to keep 10 downloads per month |
