I’ve been playing with Google Music and Google’s Music Store on Android Market for the last day. It’s a mix of cool features and annoying quirks. There are some aspects of the experience I really like and some areas where Google Music puts Apple iTunes on its ass. There are also some aspects of the experience that are stupid and annoying. Let’s break it down!
Buying and Browsing: I love the shopping and browsing experience of the Google Music Store. It’s bright, there are lots of pictures, and the big-time acts have sweet videos. Most of what you want can be found, as Google has signed up three of the four major companies (Warners is still holding out). There’s lots of free music and a “free song of the day” that encourages repeat visits. Buying is a snap if you already have a Google Wallet or (the soon to be dead) Google Checkout account. Compared to iTunes and Amazon’s MP3 store, I prefer the shopping experience of Google Music.
Listening: After you’ve purchased your music, it’s available in seconds on the web-based player or your Android device. The instant gratification will make you want to kiss the cloud (which isn’t actually a tangible thing you can kiss). Listening on my PC was great thanks to my zippy cable Internet connection. Listening on a Samsung Galaxy S II through T-Mobile required a little more waiting because of the slower connection, the sound quality was still good. I did have some quirks with the HTML 5 version of Google Music on my iPad, but that’s something I’m going to talk about more on Padvance.com.
Downloading: If you want to download a few individual songs onto your PC then you can easily do so on the web-based player. If you want to download a large batch of purchased music then you’re better of using the Music Manager app. The app works fine for uploading and downloading music to and from the cloud, but it’s way to slow. The upload speed I can understand, but downloads should be much faster. Hopefully this will get better in the future, but for now the Music Manager app’s sluggishness is disappointing and annoying.
Social: Google Music features heavy Google+ integration. You can post a song or album through “+1” buttons. People that read your post get one free listen and a link to buy the song or album. Compared to the extremely weak Ping features on Apple iTunes, Google Music’s social aspect is deep and robust. I love how it can lead to discovering new music. There are also some potentially great music discssions that can be generated by Google+ and Google Music.
Verdict: I can easily see myself visiting the Google Music Store several times a week, similar to how I visit the Amazon Android App Store daily to see if there are any good freebies. As for purchasing, it’s all about the price and convenience for me. Apple iTunes is the easiest way for me to buy music, but it’s often the most expensive. Amazon is usually cheaper and its software makes it easy to sync with all my devices. The Google Music Store has a ton of freebies and some sweet deals, but the Music Manager could be better. I like Google Music a lot and will definitely give it a look every time I’m thirsty for new sounds, but the experience isn’t good enough (yet) to push Amazon and Apple off my menu.
If you’ve been tinkering with Google Music, I’d love to hear about your experiences. Please let me know what you think of Google Music and the Google Music Store on Android Market when you have a chance.
So far I think it will give my Amazon purchases competition as long as they put whole albums on sale. I still buy most of my music from Apple though. It's easy, and the bandwidth is never an issue.
Naturally, I support your Amazon patronage…especially if you hit the banner on the upper right before you buy. Ha!