Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s app does all those things. In addition, because it comes as an update to the existing Google Play Music app, it preserved the music I took the trouble of uploading to my Google Music storage space prior to the revamp.
When Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) first launched its music store in November 2011, it merely sold songs or albums a la carte. But it offered users free online storage for up to 20,000 songs, including ones they had bought at other stores such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iTunes.
Starting last December, Google’s uploader software added the ability to scan your hard drive for songs and match them with songs Google already has on its servers. That way, you have to upload only the songs Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) didn’t recognize. With that, your personal library of owned songs still exists, but the sense of ownership has blurred.
With All Access, you still see your library of owned songs in a place called My Library on the Google Play Music app. A lot of that music is stored online, or in the cloud, and requires an Internet connection to listen to. But you can “pin” a song to download a copy for offline listening, something that Google Play Music and other cloud lockers had offered already.
You can toggle the view in My Library to see everything you can access in the cloud, or just the stuff you can access on the device without a cellular or Wi-Fi connection. If you start running out of space, you basically “unpin” the song to free up the memory, even though your ownership still exists in the cloud.
All Access also allows you to “pin” songs you don’t own. Copies will get downloaded for offline play. Or you can mark songs as favorites by adding them to My Library in the cloud. But because those favorites are stored in the same place as songs you actually own, your sense of ownership will suffer a hit. You might not know which is which until the All Access songs disappear should you ever stop paying the monthly fee.
You can share songs from the app to the Google Plus social network, but there’s no Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) integration as is the case with Spotify and Rhapsody. It also doesn’t integrate with Twitter’s new (hash)music service, the way Rdio and Spotify do quite well.
Google’s new music service covers the fundamentals of unlimited on-demand music with Google-like solid execution. And with the radio function running on Google’s vaunted ability to tweak algorithms, it adds a healthy dose of serendipity to the mix, turning up songs and artists I wouldn’t have discovered on my own.
That puts it at least on an equal footing with streaming services that have come before it and will persuade some subscribers of those services to switch. Although you need an Android phone to use All Access fully, I don’t believe that in itself will get Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) fans to drop their iPhones. But it’s one more nice thing Android has going for it.
The article Review: Google Music Plan Solid, Serendipitous originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Associated Press.
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