3 ms·

Yet 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,

Yet 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 ago
Google 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 ago
  Apple 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.
- MichaelGG 11y ago
  Yeah they certainly prioritize "discovery" and their radio-ish stuff (which is intermittently available, even when I haven't moved location). Unfortunately, I hate radio, and am not much for "discovery". I just want to quickly access my current library. The fact that Windows Media Player is significantly better at this than Play Music is sad. (It's really annoying in a car. I pull over, but I wanna be fast. Google Now is hit or miss if it'll properly play. Sometimes it just searches. Sometimes it plays off of YouTube. Etc. You'd think by now they could get this basic flow down, without harming their neato stuff I don't want.)

Artistry121 11y ago

Google 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 ago
Apple 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.
MichaelGG 11y ago
Yeah they certainly prioritize "discovery" and their radio-ish stuff (which is intermittently available, even when I haven't moved location). Unfortunately, I hate radio, and am not much for "discovery". I just want to quickly access my current library. The fact that Windows Media Player is significantly better at this than Play Music is sad. (It's really annoying in a car. I pull over, but I wanna be fast. Google Now is hit or miss if it'll properly play. Sometimes it just searches. Sometimes it plays off of YouTube. Etc. You'd think by now they could get this basic flow down, without harming their neato stuff I don't want.)