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Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan
- semenko 11y agoYet another service not available to Google Apps users. :/ "You can only set up a family group with a personal Google Account, not a Google for Work or Google for Education account"
- SeanAnderson 11y agoIt's a family plan...? Why would you expect to be able to use a Google for Work or Google for Education account?
- sowbug 11y agoMany such accounts are used by individuals for personal purposes. It's the only non-hokey way to use Gmail with a vanity domain. By now, many of us have app and content purchases tied to those accounts, and migrating from Gmail/Drive/Photos isn't practical, so we're stuck getting new Google features later or never.
- mjs7231 11y agoIs forwarding mail to your personal gmail account from the domain registrar, postfix, or whatever else you use considered hokey? It works really nice in all instances I've done that. It even replys from the same address mail was sent to once you verify you own the email address.
- buro9 11y agoThat only solves one thing, email. How about the email address that appears when you want calendar invites, or hangouts, or drive sharing. The only good way to use a custom domain with Google is to pay. Clearly a lot of us are happy doing so. I know I pay around £200 per year to Google for my one account, the storage and media subscriptions (music, magazines, etc)... But for this I get incomplete features (Now) and locked out of some services (Play Family).
- caf 11y agoForwarding to gmail often ends up with the forwarding mail server getting blocked from gmail, because you end up forwarding spam you've been sent as well.
- Erwin 11y agoIn my Google Apps control panel I can declare a "gateway" where mail will come from which avoids this: https://support.google.com/a/answer/60730?hl=en https://support.google.com/a/answer/60730?hl=en
- err4nt 11y agoI agree, expecting to use an industrial arrangement for family purposes seems…strange to say the least. Anecdotally - I was a longtime Rdio user, from beta until they recently closed. I did the trial of Google Play Music and it's not only the best good product I've ever used, but I have already gifted 6 months to my sister. Christmas is coming up, and I'm tempted to gift it again to other people. If you enjoy music and haven't checked out Google Play Music, I'd encourage you to give it a shot. So far it's everything I've wanted plus more!
- semenko 11y agoBack when Apps for Work was "Google Apps for Your Domain", non-business/vanity use was part of the marketing. I use (paid) Google Apps for personal & family stuff - and this seems like a pretty arbitrary restriction on Play Music.
- lsaferite 11y agoJust because it was rebranded as 'For Work' and 'For Education' doesn't mean all the previous 'For Domains' users should suddenly stop using their accounts.
- tho9Ohx1eo 11y agoThey're lazy. I use Google Apps for personal, family members. Google asked a few times if I'm sure I'm not a business. I said I'm not. In the end, without asking anymore they stopped billing VAT because I'm a business. Well... OK.
- kuschku 11y agoYou might want to report that. Knowingly profiting from crimes is still illegal, so you might be liable, too.
- icebraining 11y agoI doubt it's a crime to not charge VAT.
- kuschku 11y agoTax fraud/evasion is very definitely a crime. VAT is just another tax. If you can’t prove that you told Google that you are a private person using a business account, you might end up having to repay and end up with a fine.
- msoad 11y agoMakes sense actually. Google Apps is for work users so you don't want to share it with your family I guess. I'm using Google Apps actually but I don't expect Google allow me to share my account with my family.
- jakebasile 11y agoGoogle Apps is the only way to get an email via Google at my own domain. They used to officially support this as a method to get a consumer account with a custom domain, but not anymore as they market it only for businesses. And even if, as you say, it is "for work", why does Google force that decision upon me, the owner/operator/admin/sole employee of my one man organization? Why can't it just be a check box that says "I really just want a custom domain. Please let me use the cool things you make"? It's infuriating. I have no problem paying $5/month just for a custom domain on a standard Gmail account, but it's not possible. This is the only other option, and if I had known how much frustration it would cause I'd never have used my Apps account as my primary for the past years as I now have numerous purchases, domains, email archives, photos, and so on attached to it.
- chcheese 11y ago+1. if in addition, you are non-US, even more services are out of reach. I love my Google Apps services with custom domain (especially gmail), but despite paying, you really are a second class citizen at Google.
- icebraining 11y agoAnd even if, as you say, it is "for work", why does Google force that decision upon me, the owner/operator/admin/sole employee of my one man organization? Why can't it just be a check box that says "I really just want a custom domain. Please let me use the cool things you make"? Probably because it's not just a matter of marking it enabled. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if they used two separated branches of the codebase, only merging features from regular services into Apps after they are more stable.
- codebook 11y agoI agree. This reason made me to create new gmail account in order to use Project Fi. I really don't understand why Google releases product for gmail user only. They advertised google apps for work as custom domain at first.
- Dwolb 11y agoDoes anyone have insight into Google's strategy on all these subscription services? Is it to legitimize previous tech endeavors to make sure they're sustainable in the long term? Does Google forecast subscription services will make up a sizable portion of revenue in the future? Is the experience better at Google than anywhere else due to the vast amount of data and new technology being created everyday? I'm not sure I totally get it yet because the revenue Google stands to capture in these markets feels incremental compared to their main advertising and marketing businesses.
- jeffjose 11y agoWith ad revenues drying up (Adblock, general lack to interest to ads) Google is forced to look at other avenues to make money and selling stuff to people is a great way for that.
- hahainternet 11y ago> With ad revenues drying up Haven't their revenues been going up despite the CPC going down?
- Dwolb 11y agoFor sure that can be the case. But what does this mean then for the entire suite of Google services? Their entire strategy up until these new paid-for services predicated on giving people free services (Gmail, Docs, search) under the assumption they could pay for the development and support with ads. It seems like they're shifting to a model seen by open source software creators - free to use, but any extra features or support will cost extra.
- dpweb 11y ago1B YouTube users times 10% subscribe times $10/mo. Note, 1B users today in 2015. Still growing at 40% according to their stats page. Pretty decent math.
- Dwolb 11y agoI think it's a decent argument to say there is substantial revenue to be gained. But by claiming Google will hit 100M users paying $10 per month seems lofty unless there's something really unique about an ad free Youtube experience. Netflix has under 40M subscribers paying ~$8 per month right now.
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- buro9 11y agoSigh. Yet another service not available to Google Hosted domains. I run my own domain, happily pay for it, for 1TB of storage for Photos, for Google Play Music, for apps, for films. But yet constantly excluded from some services and features, and never knowing whether some features will even come to my account. Seemingly all because I wanted to keep the same email I've had since 1997. They could easily add this capability, default disabled, to the domain management page. Edit: Has anyone tried it the other way around? What if I associate my credit card to my wife's regular gmail account and get the family plan there, could we add accounts that belong to Google Hosted domains to a family created via gmail? Or is the definition of family purely gmail users?
- jakebasile 11y agoIt's gotten so that any time I see something new from Google, the first thing I do is check if I can even use it. Often I am disappointed. I still can't use Fi, and Google Now is almost useless because it refuses to use my email to customize itself.
- buro9 11y agoGoogle Now is so crippled for me that yesterday I considered downloading Cortona.
- c5karl 11y agoIt is possible to get full Google Now functionality in a Google Apps domain. Go to the Google Apps Admin Console (https://admin.google.com/AdminHome https://admin.google.com/AdminHome). Navigate to Apps > Additional Google Services You'll see a gray bar at the top of the screen ("Filter: Top featured services"). Click the "X" on the top right to disable that filter. Scroll down to "Web History" and select "On for everyone." Each user may then need to also enable Web History for his or her own account (https://www.google.com/settings/accounthistory/search https://www.google.com/settings/accounthistory/search). No, it shouldn't be that hard, but, yes, that will work.
- kbatten 11y agoWhy can't you just create another email for these services? The actual email address is irrelevant for something like Google Play Music.
- chipperyman573 11y ago$15/mo for six users is actually a really great deal - That works out to $2.50/person/mo. I honestly wasn't expecting anything this great.
- millstone 11y agoIt's the same deal Apple Music offers, so it should not be so surprising.
- abalos 11y agoIt's definitely not the same deal. This gets you Youtube Red as well.
- tomjen3 11y agoWhich is why I do get the excitement. Are their selection much bigger?
- Someone1234 11y agoRoughly about the same. Ad-free YouTube music fills in any gaps. The only thing really lacking is niche music like Immediate Music's back catalogue (since they aren't working with a major record label).
- shmerl 11y agoWhen will they start selling music in FLAC?
- izzydata 11y agoWhen our ears evolve to support such formats.
- shmerl 11y agoYou don't need FLAC for listening. It's needed for storing master copies and encoding to other codecs when you need to. Same feature that audio CDs always offered, and which was gutted by services which only provide some lossy codec as an option.
- izzydata 11y agoIsn't google play music a streaming service though? It really doesn't seem like the place for that.
- shmerl 11y agoWhat stops them from offering an option to get files as well? I always prefer to have my music backed up and available on my devices without relying on any cloud services. I view streaming as a convenience, and not as an approach that requires one to forgo having a DRM-free backup.
- untog 11y agoWhat stops them from offering an option to get files as well? Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files. If you cancel your subscription you'll lose whatever you have downloaded. Offering you a file you can easily convert into a different format would break that pretty comprehensively.
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- mitkok 11y agoSpotify does not have family plan ? Such a bullshit - http://i.imgur.com/BGhi6uk.png http://i.imgur.com/BGhi6uk.png. This is what I call paid article. Good job, TechMunch.
- kuschku 11y agoWhy was this comment flagged? It contains factual criticism and provides even sources for why a statement given in the article is wrong. That’s most definitely "contributing to discussion".
- gergles 11y agoThey don't offer this plan in the US, which is the only place this GPM subscription is available, so it isn't relevant to the discussion, and the tone is unnecessarily hostile to boot.
- kuschku 11y agoOh, GPM is US-Only? That’s seriously annoying. I agree with you about the tone, though.
- yabatopia 11y agoThanks to the customer unfriendly terms and conditions, a family plan is not always an option, even if a family subscription is available in your country. In my case, I have cell phone plan with a Spotify Premium subscription included, and because of that, I can't get or upgrade to a family plan. So it may be true that Spotify has a family plan, it's not available to all their subscribers. The situation is a bit similar to Google Hosted Domains customers who can't get a Google Play Music Family Plan: unnecessary complicated terms and conditions and exclusions.
- kingosticks 11y agoAnd finally a 'deal' that existing premium members can take advantage of. Since I'm forking over £10 a month anyway I might as well pretend to have a family too. Although I do enjoy signing up to the 3-month 99p deals and moving over my playlists each time.
- hohenheim 11y agoI got a similar offer from Spotify this week!
- johnthomas14 11y agothat's a good move!
- IshKebab 11y agoUS only.
- baldfat 11y agoGoogle Play Music, YouTube Red and YouTube Music is my favorite service. I have tried Spotify and Amazon and others. Google has two killer features. 1) I can upload my own music (20,000 songs) for free and stream for free. I have eclectic taste and some of my music isn't in the 35 million songs available. 2) The YouTube (Red (no ads), Music and Gaming) really are great on mobile.
- m52go 11y ago100% my experience too. Saving YouTube videos to watch offline later is also super handy.
- kuboa 11y ago> I can upload my own music (20,000 songs) for free That has been upped to 50,000 songs early this year, FYI. As an Enka and J-Pop listener, it's the defining feature for me too.
- refriedbeans3 11y agoWhat made you decide to purchase YouTube Red? How much YouTube content do you watch?
- Artistry121 11y ago3) The vast amount of content available for offline/background play on Youtube. Almost anything ever recorded is available - including live shows, unofficial remixes and background beats.
- MichaelGG 11y agoYet the UI for Google Play Music is atrocious. People I give it to that aren't familiar take forever. Myself, despite using it all the time (earphones, casting, car BT) find it frustrating. Hit back a few times no woops too many, OK now I can swipe out the menu and select my library and deal with the ridiculous amounts of scrolling. Sigh. The hilarious thing is their Wikipedia scraping. Every time I select an artist I'm treated to some lame-style photo, and half the screen gets to tell me "Nirvana was a grunge band from Aberdeen with Kurt.....". Gee thanks Google, that was worth complicating the UI. Playlist management is also worse than Windows Media Player. Like, how do you get that wrong? This deal is sweet and I'd buy today, but Google is psycho when it comes to regions. Since it randomly thinks I'm in France or Hungary when in Denver, plus I travel between Canada and Guatemala, my guess is that features will randomly stop working or switch language. Otherwise, cool.
- Artistry121 11y agoGoogle Music has 3 features that make music playing / discovery light years better than my experience with Apple Music and better than Spotify (I'm a paying Apple Music customer now): 1. Songza playlists - the playlists for mood and activity are far more detailed for categories outside of pop and hip-hop. 2. Easily start a radio station from any song or artist. 3. Catalog. With Youtube Red included nearly every background beat, live show, demo, etc. recorded is now available to listen to with excellent search capabilities. Hopefully eventually mixing and matching GPM and Youtube playlists will happen - but its not a huge problem. Apple Music has better artist descriptions and artwork - and I like that they and Spotify display the full album cover when playing on mobile. Apple's focus on hip-hop and pop though really hurts discovery and UX for those without those focuses.
- astral303 11y agoApple Music has been amazing for electronic music discovery for me. Far better than Spotify. The Apple Music Electronic editors' playlists are exciting and interesting to listen to ("Boards of Canada: the Deep Cuts" is one brilliant playlist). The way that these are positioned to be easily discovered vs Spotify is also better. I need to give Google Music a try. Spotify has been really frustrating me with its inability to remember last-played position consistently. Working with large playlists on the go sucks. But with Apple Music, I felt less of a need to create playlists. I created most playlists on Spotify because I had to.
- mayneack 11y agoDo we know what the deal is with uploading music? Can I upload music for just me or does my family have to share the 20k song limit? I'm not even sure which version of this I would prefer. I know between us we have more than 20k songs we'd upload, but we also could probably get by with being more selective about uploads because I've certainly uploaded some dupes.
- jdeibele 11y agoWhere can you sign up? I tried on the page linked from the blog. I tried from the Google Play app on my old Nexus 5. Maybe I haven't had enough coffee this morning?
- bweitzman 11y agoin the google music app, not play, go to the hamburger menu -> settings. Should be at the top under the account section, you may need to hit the refresh button under the same the section.
- jdeibele 11y agoThanks. The problem was that I had to click on "Free plan" when I was looking for subscribe. It's great that they give 30 days free but that's not what I was looking for.
- dfar1 11y ago$14.99 for 6 people is a great price. But not really for 2 people. I have spotify and I love it, but I've been wanting to switch to google music for a while because I already store my music there. With spotify I can share my premium account with my spouse. You can't use it at the same time, but that rarely ever happens. It's just 2 of us. And when it does happen I can just download what I want to hear and then go on offline mode. I also like the spotify app. It's easy to use. The problem with google music (or google in general) is that they can't just be happy with an UI, and so their UI changes constantly which make it for a poor user experience. Plus, I can't just give my spouse my account because that means I am giving all of my google services accounts.
- untog 11y ago$14.99 for 6 people is a great price. But not really for 2 people. I have spotify It's better than the price for Spotify, at least.