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Put All of Your Music in the Cloud with Google Music
It was not too long ago that Google announced their cloud based music player, Music beta by Google. After using Amazon’s Cloud Player for a while, I was excited to see what Google had to offer. I am after all, an Android user and I border on Google fanboydom. While I think the coup de gras of Music beta is tight Android integration, I decided to take a close look at the web app as a music player, much like I did for Amazon Cloud Player. Here’s what I found.
I will be drawing a lot of comparisons between Music beta and Cloud Player, since Amazon was the first major service to market and I have been using it for a while to stream music. The real question is whether or not Google’s service is good enough to make me switch.
What is Music beta by Google?
Music beta by Google
Music beta is Google’s answer to music in the cloud. Much like Amazon’s service, you can upload music to stream online or sync with your Android device. There is one huge difference between Amazon’s and Google’s though: space.
Amazon give you 5GB of space for free. That is equivalent to 1,000 to 2,000 songs depending on length and format. Google, on the other hand, does not assign an amount of space in GB to your music library, they simply give you enough space for 20,000 songs.
You read that right folks. 20,000 songs.
I don’t know about you, but I only have 7,500 songs in my library and I definitely don’t listen to them all. However, just like when GMail came out in 2004 offering 2GB of space where most email clients offered less than 100MB, Google is offering a lot more space than the competition.
It’s rumored that on June 6th, Apple is announcing their cloud music app, so we’ll see what they have to offer.
Uploading MusicUploading music to Music beta is super easy. Download the Music Manager app for your computer, and select where you want the music to be uploaded from.
Uploading Music
As you can see, you can choose (on a Mac at least) from iTunes, your specific Music folder, or other folders where you may keep your music. Once you select your source, you can go to the Advanced tab to decide how often you want your music uploaded and how fast.
Upload Preferences
One issue I have with the music uploader is (at least with my ISP) it crushes bandwidth. I’ve noticed considerable slower download times while using Google’s Music Manager. This can probably be quelled by changing the “Bandwidth available for uploading.”
The great thing about setting Music Manager to upload automatically is playlist syncing, a feature that is missing from Amazon’s uploader. I change my playlists pretty often, and the fact that with Music beta I don’t have to worry about re-syncing is clutch.
Using Music betaThe User Experience (UX) isn’t all that different from Cloud Player’s. Music beta kind of looks like a mix between that and the online Android Market. I found using the web app to be very enjoyable.
On the left hand side, you’ll see your music organized into five different categories: New and recent, Songs, Artists, Albums, and Genres. This is pretty standard. It is worth noting that when using Music beta, it’s worth while to check the New and recent view even if you haven’t uploaded anything in a while, because when you sign up, Google asks you what your music preferences are, and will throw you free songs from the genres you choose.
Google has given me a lot of free music
The above screenshot showcases a feature from the next set of links on the left hand side in Music beta: Auto Playlists. Similar to iTunes’ Smart Playlists, Auto Playlists are automatically populated with songs that meet a certain criteria. Right now you have three: Thumbs Up, which is a list of songs you give a favorable rating to, Recently add, and Free songs. There doesn’t seem to be a way to create your own. This is something I hope they add in the future.
Instant Mixes, next on the list, is Google answer to iTunes Genius. Select a song, press the plus button next to “Instant Mixes,” and you have a list of songs similar to the one you selected. While I did see one “study” (read: one guy messing around with Music beta and iTunes) stating the Genius is considerably better, I don’t see anything that would indicate that. I was actually very impressed with Google’s Instant Mixes, considering how young the service is.
One thing I really like about Music beta is the way it displays multiple albums by Artist, and multiple artists by Genre. It will “stack” all of the album art one on top of another, so you can view multiple albums or artists at the same time.
Artist View
Listening to MusicYou didn’t think I’d leave out the most important part, did you? I really like Music beta’s “Now Playing” bar. I think it’s a lot cleaner and sleeker than Cloud Player’s. It also gracefully shrinks as your browser window shrinks, which is a nice touch!
Now Playing Bar
Music beta wouldn’t be much of a Google app without a list of great keyboard shortcuts, which are ubiquitous throughout all of Google’s web apps. While they aren’t advertised on the site (generally shortcuts aren’t), I did go looking for a list and came up with this:
Keyboard Shortcuts
This is a really nice touch, makes the UX a lot better, and is something that’s missing from Amazon Cloud Player.
You can actually get keyboard shortcuts for Cloud Player using the Chrome extension KeyMazony.
Settings
Music beta Settings
Music beta has a very simple Settings panel where you can do four things: Join the email list, Report a problem, Withdraw from the service, and Manage your devices.
I think the “Manage My Devices” is a nice touch reminiscent of Netflix, because Google knows you’ll be using their service over several devices- at least one computer, and possibly several mobile devices. You can deauthorize any device from here. Adding a device as as simple as downloading the app to that device and signing in with your Google Account.
ConclusionSo it seems my fanboydom came out a bit in this glowing review; however, Music beta isn’t perfect. I’d really like to see the ability to create your own Auto Playlists and do things like switch between different views (song list, album art, etc) like you can do in iTunes. I also like that when you purchase music on Amazon, it gets added to Cloud Player automatically (not that you can buy music on Google right now). The last thing I’d like to see (and it’s a big one) is the ability to download music to a computer, not just a mobile device. After searching the site and the help section, I couldn’t find a way to do it. That being said, with the amount of space Google gives you, a sleek interface, auto-syncing, and the fact that they literally are giving away music gives Music beta by Google a huge edge over the competition.
Put All of Your Music in the Cloud with Google Music
It was not too long ago that Google announced their cloud based music player, Music beta by Google. After using Amazon’s Cloud Player for a while, I was excited to see what Google had to offer. I am after all, an Android user and I border on Google fanboydom. While I think the coup de gras of Music beta is tight Android integration, I decided to take a close look at the web app as a music player, much like I did for Amazon Cloud Player. Here’s what I found.
I will be drawing a lot of comparisons between Music beta and Cloud Player, since Amazon was the first major service to market and I have been using it for a while to stream music. The real question is whether or not Google’s service is good enough to make me switch.
What is Music beta by Google?Music beta by Google
Music beta is Google’s answer to music in the cloud. Much like Amazon’s service, you can upload music to stream online or sync with your Android device. There is one huge difference between Amazon’s and Google’s though: space.
Amazon give you 5GB of space for free. That is equivalent to 1,000 to 2,000 songs depending on length and format. Google, on the other hand, does not assign an amount of space in GB to your music library, they simply give you enough space for 20,000 songs.
You read that right folks. 20,000 songs.
I don’t know about you, but I only have 7,500 songs in my library and I definitely don’t listen to them all. However, just like when GMail came out in 2004 offering 2GB of space where most email clients offered less than 100MB, Google is offering a lot more space than the competition.
It’s rumored that on June 6th, Apple is announcing their cloud music app, so we’ll see what they have to offer.
Uploading MusicUploading music to Music beta is super easy. Download the Music Manager app for your computer, and select where you want the music to be uploaded from.
Uploading Music
As you can see, you can choose (on a Mac at least) from iTunes, your specific Music folder, or other folders where you may keep your music. Once you select your source, you can go to the Advanced tab to decide how often you want your music uploaded and how fast.
Upload Preferences
One issue I have with the music uploader is (at least with my ISP) it crushes bandwidth. I’ve noticed considerable slower download times while using Google’s Music Manager. This can probably be quelled by changing the “Bandwidth available for uploading.”
The great thing about setting Music Manager to upload automatically is playlist syncing, a feature that is missing from Amazon’s uploader. I change my playlists pretty often, and the fact that with Music beta I don’t have to worry about re-syncing is clutch.
Using Music betaThe User Experience (UX) isn’t all that different from Cloud Player’s. Music beta kind of looks like a mix between that and the online Android Market. I found using the web app to be very enjoyable.
On the left hand side, you’ll see your music organized into five different categories: New and recent, Songs, Artists, Albums, and Genres. This is pretty standard. It is worth noting that when using Music beta, it’s worth while to check the New and recent view even if you haven’t uploaded anything in a while, because when you sign up, Google asks you what your music preferences are, and will throw you free songs from the genres you choose.
Google has given me a lot of free music
The above screenshot showcases a feature from the next set of links on the left hand side in Music beta: Auto Playlists. Similar to iTunes’ Smart Playlists, Auto Playlists are automatically populated with songs that meet a certain criteria. Right now you have three: Thumbs Up, which is a list of songs you give a favorable rating to, Recently add, and Free songs. There doesn’t seem to be a way to create your own. This is something I hope they add in the future.
Instant Mixes, next on the list, is Google answer to iTunes Genius. Select a song, press the plus button next to “Instant Mixes,” and you have a list of songs similar to the one you selected. While I did see one “study” (read: one guy messing around with Music beta and iTunes) stating the Genius is considerably better, I don’t see anything that would indicate that. I was actually very impressed with Google’s Instant Mixes, considering how young the service is.
One thing I really like about Music beta is the way it displays multiple albums by Artist, and multiple artists by Genre. It will “stack” all of the album art one on top of another, so you can view multiple albums or artists at the same time.
Artist View
Listening to MusicYou didn’t think I’d leave out the most important part, did you? I really like Music beta’s “Now Playing” bar. I think it’s a lot cleaner and sleeker than Cloud Player’s. It also gracefully shrinks as your browser window shrinks, which is a nice touch!
Now Playing Bar
Music beta wouldn’t be much of a Google app without a list of great keyboard shortcuts, which are ubiquitous throughout all of Google’s web apps. While they aren’t advertised on the site (generally shortcuts aren’t), I did go looking for a list and came up with this:
Keyboard Shortcuts
This is a really nice touch, makes the UX a lot better, and is something that’s missing from Amazon Cloud Player.
You can actually get keyboard shortcuts for Cloud Player using the Chrome extension KeyMazony.
SettingsMusic beta Settings
Music beta has a very simple Settings panel where you can do four things: Join the email list, Report a problem, Withdraw from the service, and Manage your devices.
I think the “Manage My Devices” is a nice touch reminiscent of Netflix, because Google knows you’ll be using their service over several devices- at least one computer, and possibly several mobile devices. You can deauthorize any device from here. Adding a device as as simple as downloading the app to that device and signing in with your Google Account.
ConclusionSo it seems my fanboydom came out a bit in this glowing review; however, Music beta isn’t perfect. I’d really like to see the ability to create your own Auto Playlists and do things like switch between different views (song list, album art, etc) like you can do in iTunes. I also like that when you purchase music on Amazon, it gets added to Cloud Player automatically (not that you can buy music on Google right now). The last thing I’d like to see (and it’s a big one) is the ability to download music to a computer, not just a mobile device. After searching the site and the help section, I couldn’t find a way to do it. That being said, with the amount of space Google gives you, a sleek interface, auto-syncing, and the fact that they literally are giving away music gives Music beta by Google a huge edge over the competition.
Por qué atraer clientes… Si puedes ahuyentarlos!
En las últimas semanas venimos asistiendo a una más de las tantas gilipolleces salidas del tiesto a las que ya nos tiene acostumbrado este Gobierno nuestro tan defensor de las libertades individuales y adalid del respeto por los ciudadanos.
Debido probablemente a su infalible estrategia económica que sacará a España de la actual crisis (algún día saldrá, eso seguro), y dado que las arcas del Estado rebosan de euros que ya no saben a quién regalar, pues van y ponen el ojo en el siguiente dato:
Google sólo paga impuestos por el 5,1% de sus ventas (ElMundo.es , 10/02/2010)
[...] Ello supone que tributará únicamente por 11 de los 227 millones facturados por la publicidad asociada a sus búsquedas. Cuando un español hace click en un anuncio de Google, su información se procesa en un servidor situado a miles de kilómetros y los beneficios que genera por esa actividad se van a EEUU , vía Irlanda y otros países europeos con sistemas fiscales ventajosos. España sólo se queda con el 5,1% de esos ingresos, según cálculos realizados por este diario. [...]
¡Qué escándalo! ¡Esto es el acabose! Y claro, levantada la perdiz (y sin otra preocupación en la que centrar sus esfuerzos), la bola de nieva comienza a rodar…
El Gobierno debe poner coto al abuso de Google ( ElMundo.es , 10/02/2010)
Y como al parecer a estos de Google les sobra el dinero, deberían pagar un "canon" o algo por pasearse a sus anchas por España (vamos hombre, si los que estamos aquí pasamos religiosamente por caja, no lo van a hacer esos "yankis" cargaditos de dólares):
La intención de Alierta de cobrar a Google por sus redes genera debate en la Red (ElMundo.es , 11/02/2010)
Miguel Sebastián apoya que Telefónica cobre un peaje a Google (ElMundo.es , 15/02/2010)
Vodafone denuncia falta de competencia en buscadores y en redes (ElMundo.es , 16/02/2010)
Google intenta calmar a las ‘telecos’: ‘La industria depende de vuestro éxito’ (ElMundo.es , 17/02/2010)
Pero claro, todo esto viene seguramente de:
Google dispara su beneficio un 54% al calor de la recuperación económica ( ElMundo.es , 28/01/2010)
Algo estarán haciendo bien estos chicos de Google (de los que podríamos aprender mucho). Pero el hecho es que una vez lanzada la primera piedra, el tema se ha ido desviando hacia las agraviadas operadoras de telecomunicaciones, perdiendo de vista el punto de partida. Esto es, Google paga muchos menos impuestos de los que "debiera".
Y curiosamente el hecho es que no se trata del único caso de compañía multinacional que lo hace. Al parecer, es práctica habitual que muchas corporaciones trasladen sus sedes a Irlanda debido a que el impuesto de sociedades es del 12.5% en aquel país (a diferencia de España, que disfrutamos de un cómodo 30% ), por lo que la rentabilidad es considerable:
Impuesto de sociedades irlandés más bajo que la media global
Así que, puestos a decir tonterías y a plantear soluciones absurdas, quizá deberíamos de dejar de perseguir al ratón y poner el queso aquí para que venga por sí mismo :
¿Por qué no rebajamos el impuesto de sociedades de España a un 10% , convirtiéndonos sistemáticamente en el destino ideal de todas esas multinacionales "forradas" que estarían encantadas de declarar (y pagar) todos los ingresos que obtengan en el resto de Europa?
De paso, y de acuerdo con este planteamiento surrealista, quizá hasta lograríamos aumentar el número de nuevas empresas y emprendedores (de los que tan sobrados vamos). Porque al fin y al cabo, la reducción del paro pasa por la creación de empleo , y ésta (mal que les pese a algunos extremistas) requiere de empresas que den trabajo a los trabajadores.
Probablemente alguien me dirá que esto es imposible, en tanto que esto generaría a corto plazo un déficit enorme de ingresos para el Estado (y parece que ya andamos "apretaditos"), pero alguien más ducho en esta materia quizá podría hacer algún cálculo a medio-largo plazo y ver qué sale. El hecho es que Irlanda está atrayendo de esta forma la inversión extranjera a su país.
A lo mejor es que preferimos gastarnos las perras en perseguir con la escopeta judicialmente a todo aquel que asome la cabeza por este país en lugar de invitarle amablemente a que entre y comparta sus beneficios.
Lo dicho,
¿Por qué atraer clientes… si podemos ahuyentarlos?
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