Google launched Google Music, a direct competitor to Apple iTunes and Amazon Cloud Drive/Player, to purchase, download, share and listen to music on PC or Android devices. Google says their new music service is designed with a clear ambition: to help people access their music collections easily from any device, while providing innovative and personalized ways to discover, listen, share and purchase digital music.
Like Apple’s iCloud, Google Music automatically syncs your entire music library — both purchases and uploads — across all your devices so you don’t have to worry about cables, file transfers or running out of storage space. Google keeps your playlists in tact, whether you’re on your laptop, tablet or phone. You can even select the specific artists, albums and playlists you want to listen to when you’re offline.
You can add up to 20,000 songs to Google Music from your PC, Mac, or Linux computer, free of charge. All you need to do is download a simple desktop application called Music Manager to the computer where you keep your music. Music Manager can upload your iTunes and Windows Media Player library, playlists, playcounts, ratings, and more.
Purchase and share
A new music store also launched today in Android Market, which fully integrates with Google Music. The store offers more than 13 million tracks from artists represented by the big three labels (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI), plus over 1,000 independent labels. However, Warner Music is notably missing.
You can purchase individual songs or entire albums right from your computer or your Android device and they’ll be added instantly to your Google Music library, and accessible anywhere.
In celebration of their launch, Google is offering a variety of music that you won’t find anywhere else, much of it free.
- The Rolling Stones are offering an exclusive, never-before-released live concert album, Brussels Affair (Live, 1973), including a free single, “Dancing with Mr. D” This is the first of six in an unreleased concert series that will be made available exclusively through Google Music over the coming months.
- Coldplay fans will find some original music that’s not available anywhere else: a free, live recording of Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall, a five-track live EP from their recent concert in Madrid and a remix of Paradise by Tiesto.
- Busta Rhymes‘s first single from his upcoming album, Why Stop Now (feat. Chris Brown), is available for free.
- Shakira‘s live EP from her recent concert in Paris and her new studio single, Je L’Aime a Mourir are both being offered up free.
- Pearl Jam are releasing a live album from their 9/11/11 concert in Toronto, free to Google Music users.
- Dave Matthews Band are offering up free albums from two live concerts, including new material from Live On Lakeside.
- Tiesto is offering up a new mix, What Can We Do? (feat. Anastacia), exclusively to Google Music users.
Artist hub
With the Google Music artist hub, any artist who has all the necessary rights can distribute his or her own music on our platform, and use the artist hub interface to build an artist page, upload original tracks, set prices and sell content directly to fans — essentially becoming the manager of their own far-reaching music store. This goes for new artists as well as established independent artists, like Tiesto, who debuts a new single on Google Music today.
Starting today, Google Music is open in the U.S. at market.android.com, and over the next few days, Google will roll out the music store to Android Market on devices running Android 2.2 and above.
Reference: Google Blog
