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> Before it there was no real competition to Spotify. What about Google Music (or is it Google Play Music or just Play Music or just Play under a music categor

> Before it there was no real competition to Spotify. What about Google Music (or is it Google Play Music or just Play Music or just Play under a music category? ugh)? They were earlier and have been really good especially lately. Their initial iOS app was awful but I heard it has improved. There is also Groove music (which I guess is now XBox music?) but the Apps are awful for it. I got a Groove music subscription for the heavily discounted black friday sale and stopped using it after a few weeks simply because the apps are all absolutely horrific.

guelo 10y ago
The best streaming deal by far is Youtube Red which includes a Play Music subscription as well as ad-free youtube and youtube backgrounding on mobile.
dingo_bat 10y ago
Play music has no desktop client so it's not even worth considering. I think apple music and Spotify are both very nice. The android apps of both are particularly good and both have acceptable desktop clients.
- jewel 10y ago
  I'm using it in chromium in app mode, with the Streamkeys extension for global hotkey and media key support. Notifications seem to work, but I've got them disabled. They could release an electron app, but I believe it'd be an identical experience. I'm on a desktop so I don't care about offline support, perhaps that's the feature that removes the web version from consideration for some people.
  - dingo_bat 10y ago
    > They could release an electron app, but I believe it'd be an identical experience. That's why they should release a proper native app.
- LynxInLA 10y ago
  That's true, their desktop client is just a Chrome wrapper. I still use it and like it more than Spotify. Other than Discover weekly, I've enjoyed Google Play's recommendations more, and the ability to upload 20,000 of your own songs to stream anywhere is a huge bonus.
  - dingo_bat 10y ago
    I don't have 20k songs so that feature is useless to me. And the music library on Spotify and iTunes is far, far superior.
- KallDrexx 10y ago
  Why do you need a desktop client? I used Play Music for over a year just using the web client. That has worked better for me than Spotify's desktop client, which while is nice is extremely buggy.
  - the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
    > Why do you need a desktop client? I used Play Music for over a year just using the web client. Offline usage and media keys.
    - BinaryIdiot 10y ago
      Fair enough on the offline access (though the only time I'm offline and want to listen to music I am using my phone so I've never had a use case to keep the music on my computer) but Chrome supports the media key access and you can grab extensions on any browser to use them so those work the same.
      - dingo_bat 10y ago
        Why would I work for something that should be readily available as a basic feature? In my opinion this is a perfect example of the contrast between apple and Google. Google simply does not care about user experience. They will make a functional service and that's it. Apple will create a good user experience. The service exists to enhance that experience.
        BinaryIdiot 10y ago
        Oh I agree but it's also a limitation of the web itself. Fortunately it's easy to get media key support (I honestly wanted it for things other than google music support so that was a little bit of a happy accident). But yeah Google never focuses on the UX (case in point: they haven't updated the calendar, contacts or tasks in at least 8 years now which is INSANE; some of the bugs from years ago are STILL THERE). But I digress.
  - dingo_bat 10y ago
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > Play music has no desktop client so it's not even worth considering. It has no first-party native desktop client, but...so, what, really? Its streaming content from the internet anyway, so I can't really see what the problem is with using a web client as the first-party desktop client. (OTOH, there is at least one third-party non-web desktop client for it.)
  - Tiktaalik 10y ago
    If you have many windows and tabs open it's super annoying to track down the one with the music player on it. Much easier to Apple-Tab to an app.
    - parthdesai 10y ago
      Eh just open play music in a new browser window and only use it for music?
      - dingo_bat 10y ago
        Eh just release a proper native client if you want to compete? I don't understand why people would prefer a Web client over native. Tell me one advantage. For the user.
        kaishiro 10y ago
        Simple. I don't need to install another app.
        dingo_bat 10y ago
        Installing is a one time, one click thing. Think of it as opening another web app, except you have to do it only once :)
        kaishiro 10y ago
        And this gets me absolutely nothing extra over the web app.
- ferbivore 10y ago
  The web client is pretty good, at least if you're using Chrome. It also works fine with Tomahawk if you really must have a desktop app.
  - dingo_bat 10y ago
    Pretty good doesn't cut it when others have excellent native apps.
the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
> What about Google Music Only really exists on mobile. Spotify exists everywhere (hardware, all mobile platforms, all gaming consoles, etc.). Google does not give a shit about their software past the barebones experience. Nobody in my family picks up Google software unless I or my brother push them to. It's just too confusing and badly supported in general.
- spankalee 10y ago
  > Only really exists on mobile. Huh? I use it on desktop every day. https://play.google.com/music/listen https://play.google.com/music/listen
  - the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
    Well, and a web app I should have added.
- rndstr 10y ago
  You can stream to Chromecast, what else do you need? A different app for each of the dozen platforms out there? Google Music All Access is one of the few streaming services that got it right.
on_and_off 10y ago
Play Music is an hidden gem IMO (disclaimer : I work for one of their competitors) . It is a shame that Google does not push it. The Orange should go away and the android app needs more maintenance / QA but otherwise that's an extremely solid product IMO. Other than that : youtube, rdio, deezer, soundcloud, pandora, there are a lot of products in the same place.
- bogomipz 10y ago
  Interesting, can you elaborate on why you think its a gem? I don't hear a lot of people talking about it. Maybe I should give it a look?
  - on_and_off 10y ago
    As somebody working in that market, honestly most music services look the same to me and if you are fully satisfied with whatever music service you use, you probably don't really need to switch. That being said Play Music is pretty great for me because : -It lets me upload my own mp3s without needing anything else than the folder where it needs to look for them. You can even ask the app to always monitor a specific folder for new music files. It tries to match these files with its catalogs and if they match they will be automatically added to your library instead of being uploaded. When you upload an unknown file, you can alter its tags and cover if you in Play Music and you can regroup them in Albums anyway you want. As somebody with a huge existing music files collection, many of which are not available on any service, this is a killer feature for me. I understand that it is not going to appeal to everybody though. - The Android and desktop apps have been constantly great for quite some time. The only complaints I could form is that this orange is not really great and that on Android they should probably get rid of the Transitions. The design idea is great but the platform does not support them really well. I have seen some kinks in the app recently but they might have been caused by the Android N beta build I was using at the time. - Most of the big music services have the same base features : albums, curated playlists, automatic radios, family plans ... Play Music has these as well for quite some time. The suggestion algorithm has been pretty good for me but that's probably very subjective. Play Music also has nice contextual suggestions based on their Songza acquisition (for example right now : it is sunday afternoon, it proposes running, pokemon, BBQ, beach, ... musics ) . - So overall it is a great service, IMO absolutely on par with Spotify or Apple Music. The price is the same as any other music service .. but you also get 10% off on all of your Play Store apps & musics purchases and if you are in the USA, it also gives you Youtube Red (= no ads on youtube). The value proposition seems pretty insane to me compared to the other music services.

guelo 10y ago

The best streaming deal by far is Youtube Red which includes a Play Music subscription as well as ad-free youtube and youtube backgrounding on mobile.

dingo_bat 10y ago

Play music has no desktop client so it's not even worth considering. I think apple music and Spotify are both very nice. The android apps of both are particularly good and both have acceptable desktop clients.

jewel 10y ago
I'm using it in chromium in app mode, with the Streamkeys extension for global hotkey and media key support. Notifications seem to work, but I've got them disabled. They could release an electron app, but I believe it'd be an identical experience. I'm on a desktop so I don't care about offline support, perhaps that's the feature that removes the web version from consideration for some people.
- dingo_bat 10y ago
  > They could release an electron app, but I believe it'd be an identical experience. That's why they should release a proper native app.
LynxInLA 10y ago
That's true, their desktop client is just a Chrome wrapper. I still use it and like it more than Spotify. Other than Discover weekly, I've enjoyed Google Play's recommendations more, and the ability to upload 20,000 of your own songs to stream anywhere is a huge bonus.
- dingo_bat 10y ago
  I don't have 20k songs so that feature is useless to me. And the music library on Spotify and iTunes is far, far superior.
KallDrexx 10y ago
Why do you need a desktop client? I used Play Music for over a year just using the web client. That has worked better for me than Spotify's desktop client, which while is nice is extremely buggy.
- the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
  > Why do you need a desktop client? I used Play Music for over a year just using the web client. Offline usage and media keys.
  - BinaryIdiot 10y ago
    Fair enough on the offline access (though the only time I'm offline and want to listen to music I am using my phone so I've never had a use case to keep the music on my computer) but Chrome supports the media key access and you can grab extensions on any browser to use them so those work the same.
    - dingo_bat 10y ago
      Why would I work for something that should be readily available as a basic feature? In my opinion this is a perfect example of the contrast between apple and Google. Google simply does not care about user experience. They will make a functional service and that's it. Apple will create a good user experience. The service exists to enhance that experience.
      - BinaryIdiot 10y ago
        Oh I agree but it's also a limitation of the web itself. Fortunately it's easy to get media key support (I honestly wanted it for things other than google music support so that was a little bit of a happy accident). But yeah Google never focuses on the UX (case in point: they haven't updated the calendar, contacts or tasks in at least 8 years now which is INSANE; some of the bugs from years ago are STILL THERE). But I digress.
- dingo_bat 10y ago
dragonwriter 10y ago
> Play music has no desktop client so it's not even worth considering. It has no first-party native desktop client, but...so, what, really? Its streaming content from the internet anyway, so I can't really see what the problem is with using a web client as the first-party desktop client. (OTOH, there is at least one third-party non-web desktop client for it.)
- Tiktaalik 10y ago
  If you have many windows and tabs open it's super annoying to track down the one with the music player on it. Much easier to Apple-Tab to an app.
  - parthdesai 10y ago
    Eh just open play music in a new browser window and only use it for music?
    - dingo_bat 10y ago
      Eh just release a proper native client if you want to compete? I don't understand why people would prefer a Web client over native. Tell me one advantage. For the user.
      - kaishiro 10y ago
        Simple. I don't need to install another app.
        dingo_bat 10y ago
        Installing is a one time, one click thing. Think of it as opening another web app, except you have to do it only once :)
        kaishiro 10y ago
        And this gets me absolutely nothing extra over the web app.
ferbivore 10y ago
The web client is pretty good, at least if you're using Chrome. It also works fine with Tomahawk if you really must have a desktop app.
- dingo_bat 10y ago
  Pretty good doesn't cut it when others have excellent native apps.

the_mitsuhiko 10y ago

> What about Google Music Only really exists on mobile. Spotify exists everywhere (hardware, all mobile platforms, all gaming consoles, etc.). Google does not give a shit about their software past the barebones experience. Nobody in my family picks up Google software unless I or my brother push them to. It's just too confusing and badly supported in general.

spankalee 10y ago
> Only really exists on mobile. Huh? I use it on desktop every day. https://play.google.com/music/listen https://play.google.com/music/listen
- the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
  Well, and a web app I should have added.
rndstr 10y ago
You can stream to Chromecast, what else do you need? A different app for each of the dozen platforms out there? Google Music All Access is one of the few streaming services that got it right.

on_and_off 10y ago

Play Music is an hidden gem IMO (disclaimer : I work for one of their competitors) . It is a shame that Google does not push it. The Orange should go away and the android app needs more maintenance / QA but otherwise that's an extremely solid product IMO. Other than that : youtube, rdio, deezer, soundcloud, pandora, there are a lot of products in the same place.

bogomipz 10y ago
Interesting, can you elaborate on why you think its a gem? I don't hear a lot of people talking about it. Maybe I should give it a look?
- on_and_off 10y ago
  As somebody working in that market, honestly most music services look the same to me and if you are fully satisfied with whatever music service you use, you probably don't really need to switch. That being said Play Music is pretty great for me because : -It lets me upload my own mp3s without needing anything else than the folder where it needs to look for them. You can even ask the app to always monitor a specific folder for new music files. It tries to match these files with its catalogs and if they match they will be automatically added to your library instead of being uploaded. When you upload an unknown file, you can alter its tags and cover if you in Play Music and you can regroup them in Albums anyway you want. As somebody with a huge existing music files collection, many of which are not available on any service, this is a killer feature for me. I understand that it is not going to appeal to everybody though. - The Android and desktop apps have been constantly great for quite some time. The only complaints I could form is that this orange is not really great and that on Android they should probably get rid of the Transitions. The design idea is great but the platform does not support them really well. I have seen some kinks in the app recently but they might have been caused by the Android N beta build I was using at the time. - Most of the big music services have the same base features : albums, curated playlists, automatic radios, family plans ... Play Music has these as well for quite some time. The suggestion algorithm has been pretty good for me but that's probably very subjective. Play Music also has nice contextual suggestions based on their Songza acquisition (for example right now : it is sunday afternoon, it proposes running, pokemon, BBQ, beach, ... musics ) . - So overall it is a great service, IMO absolutely on par with Spotify or Apple Music. The price is the same as any other music service .. but you also get 10% off on all of your Play Store apps & musics purchases and if you are in the USA, it also gives you Youtube Red (= no ads on youtube). The value proposition seems pretty insane to me compared to the other music services.