Hasta La Gadget!

First of all: that name. Google Play Music All Access. Perhaps Google’s presenters realized, as they were driving to the I/O keynote, that they had forgotten to name the new music-streaming service, and came up with that clunker backstage.

Unique? Magical? It’s easy to dismiss those claims within minutes of signing up.

Jump to the keynote, where Chris Yerga described All Access as “a uniquely Google approach to a subscription service,” and remarked, “Here’s where the magic starts.” Unique? Magical? It’s easy to dismiss those claims within minutes of signing up. Prosaic and useful, yes; unique and magical, no. All Access is nowhere near an innovation. The major ecosystem companies, each of which started with groundbreaking technical development, now seem to fashion their business destinies on buttressing their networks with products innovated elsewhere, plugging holes to sway existing users from drifting out of the system. It’s not a new story, but always a sad one.

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Software, Google

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Sure, Google I/O may not focus on new products, but it might just take a moment to unveil the firm’s take on music streaming. According to The Verge, Mountain View has inked licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment for YouTube and Google Play. With Fortune having reported that a similar deal with Warner Music Group is already in the can, it’s entirely possible that the search titan could reveal its Spotify-like service at the developer event, now that it’s reportedly reached critical mass with major music labels. If things pan out as the Financial Times sees them, the tune streaming would complement Google Music, and likely sport paid and free, ad-supported experiences. Page & Co.’s dev shindig may not have skydivers this year, but on-demand music may be on the program.

Filed under: Internet, Sony, Google

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Source: The Verge

Early iTunes Match adopters will remember the unintentional bowdlerization of their music libraries: they’d listen to their scanned music collection on a second device and lose all the colorful language. As we’re quickly learning, Google Music’s newly added scan and match feature isn’t exempt from that problem, either. Those streaming matched copies of explicit songs through the newer service are getting clean versions, with no obvious way to preserve the filth. We’ve reached out to Google for comment, but in the meantime, here’s a potential solution — choose the “fix incorrect match” option and Google Music will typically upload the raw tracks. Hopefully, the service will match the correct tracks by the next time we want an unfiltered experience for our ears.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Internet, Mobile, Google

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Via: The Verge

Source: Droid-Life

Folks may be more excited about the newest Nexus phones, tablets and their fresh flavor of Jelly Bean, but Mountain View also unveiled a little something for music lovers across the pond today. That’s right, Google Music is coming to Europe beginning November 13th. Unfortunately, not everyone on the continent will gain access, but residents of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain will have Google’s musical cloud servies in just a couple weeks. Not only that, Big G is adding an iTunes Match-style feature to Google Music that’ll scan your songs and add them to your cloud library, no uploading required. The feature will launch in Europe, with US residents enjoying the feature “soon after.”

Filed under: Misc, Portable Audio/Video, Google

Google Music comes to Europe November 13, brings Google Music match, too originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever since introducing the Google Music app in beta last year its developers have been hard at work trimming away the rougher edges and that’s never been more evident than in the new 4.3.606 version now available for download. While Google Play Music’s overall look hasn’t shifted significantly, the changelog and a quick spin using it reveal nearly every screen has had some slight change. As seen above, the recently played screen now features larger album art, while the action bar has been adjusted with different transport controls. In this version, users have the ability to adjust and reorder music in the Now Playing queue, while a refreshed widget shows off album art and allows for thumbs up without opening the app. The settings menu has a direct link to the Nexus Q control app (assuming you can run it, and have one), hit the Play store for the updated version to try it out yourself.

Filed under: Software

Google Play Music app update brings tweaks to Now Playing, Recent, playlists and widget originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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