In the weeks following the announcement of Google Music All Access, we wrote up a piece detailing a semi-serious issue that could arise should someone use the service alongside their tiered data plan. Since the new music service lacked any sort of data usage or bandwidth controls, one could gobble up massive amounts of data in no time at all without even realizing it. By bringing the issue to light, we hoped for a change to the app from Google that would give users better control over bandwidth usage. An update to solve this problem has arrived today. 

In the newest build of Google Music, a setting to control bandwidth usage over mobile networks has been introduced, along with a reduction in data usage overall. They also made on-device music downloads faster, and improved search quality.

Of course, the update is under a staged rollout, so it’s not available to just everyone at this time. I guess we all need to learn patience.

Changelog:

• Keeping music on device now much faster
• New setting for mobile network bandwidth usage
• Search quality improvements
• Reduced data usage overall

Play Link

Cheers Junior and brkshr!

Google Music Update Introduces New Bandwidth Usage Setting, Reduced Data Usage Overall is a post from: Droid Life

If you signed up for the free trial of Google Music All Access shortly after it was announced at Google I/O, then prepare to either pay a monthly fee going forward or cancel, as your free trial is close to ending. The 30-day free trial for many of us who signed up immediately, expires in a few days, which Google has kindly reminded us of in an email.

Keep in mind that if you become a paid customer before June 30, and since you started the trial before that date, you can lock-in for $7.99 per month. If you don’t start a trial or paid service before June 30, the service will run you $9.99 per month. 

I personally am a huge fan of the service and use it constantly throughout the day both at home and whenever I’m in my car. At $8 per month, I can listen to my own music whenever and wherever, but also grab the newest albums that have been released to Google Play without having to buy them. There are no streaming limits (unless you have a tiny tiered data plan through your carrier), you can pick and choose tracks from Google’s entire catalog of music for playlists, and there is even a radio feature like Pandora or iTunes Radio, but it’s so much more powerful. I’ll definitely become a subscriber.

Anyone else taking the plunge and sticking with All Access after the trial?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Reminder to Early Adopters: Free 30-Day Trial for Google Music All Access is About to Expire, Monthly Fee to Kick in is a post from: Droid Life

Google Music received an update this afternoon that includes the ability to delete tracks, along with sharing of songs and adding to playlists from the Now Playing screen. Oh, they also gave the app the option to remove albums or songs from My Library. That’s pretty much it.

The update is available now, sort of. Google appears to be fully invested in the new rollouts for app updates that was introduced at I/O. So while the Play store may say that the app update is live and available, you’ll have to be patient as you wait for it to become available to you specifically. 

Changes:

• Added option to delete tracks
• Can share song and add to playlist from Now Playing screen
• Remove from My Library now supported

Play Link

Everyone still enjoying the new Google Music?

Google Music Update Gives You the Power to Delete Tracks, Remove Items From My Library is a post from: Droid Life

One of the biggest announcements to come out of Google I/O last week was Google’s new streaming music service called Google Play Music All Access. It’s like Spotify meets Pandora, in that you can check out any album at any time, play them as many times as you’d like, or use them to create special radio stations. It works on both mobile and desktop and is currently available as a free trial, but will jump up to a monthly subscription service once the trial ends. You can sign-up before the end of June and lock in for $7.99 per month, however, the price will go up to $9.99 on July 1. It’s pretty awesome, though, that’s for sure.

But for many of you who are considering a move to All Access from something like Spotify, there is something you should consider should you have had the unfortunate pleasure of moving to a tiered data plan with your wireless carrier (shared data plans included). All Access lacks any sort of control over the quality of the music that is streaming through your device, meaning it can eat up data in minutes. 

Take the screenshot above as a great example. The left shot shows a test that a reader of ours conducted over WiFi using the default settings for both All Access and Spotify. He played the exact same album all the way through, which resulted in Google Play Music using up four times the amount of data as the same album played via Spotify. That’s pretty significant, especially with data caps as low as they are today. The screenshot on the right shows All Access after the same album with default settings, while Spotify has been turned up to its highest quality setting. In this case, you can see that both consumed about the same amount of data.

So here is the problem – Google Music only has one setting for quality adjustment. If you go into the app’s settings, you’ll see an option to force it to “Stream at highest quality only.” But that’s it, there is no way to turn it down a notch to help save you data. Google Music streams music based on your connection speed, so assuming you have a decent phone and live in an area covered by a solid 4G LTE network, (in theory) you will always stream the highest quality (320 kbps). You can’t tell it to not stream at high-quality, or to use a low quality stream instead. It all depends on how your network connection is.

In Spotify, you have options to turn music quality to “Low bandwidth” (96 kbps), “High quality” (160 kbps), and “Extreme quality” (320 kbps). We would love to see Google change Google Music to include additional quality settings, especially when they want you to buy into their new streaming service and in a time when carriers are forcing you into tiered data, but the settings have been this way since it was first introduced.

While we’re huge fans of All Access, be aware that it can gobble up data without you even realizing it.

Cheers Bret and Chris!

Google Music All Access Can Eat Data Like No Other, Be Careful Tiered Data Folks is a post from: Droid Life

Now that you have had four or five days to fully dive into two of Google I/O’s biggest announcements – Hangouts and Play Music All Access – we thought it was time to see who is garnering most of your attention. I’ve fully committed to the new Hangouts and am already figuring out how to convince friends and family to make the permanent switch over. All Access on the other hand is sitting in limbo on my devices, since it is not compatible with the Nexus Q for the time being. See, I use Google Music quite a bit in my office, but only through the Q, so I’m unable to take advantage of my free trial at this point. I’d certainly like to use the hell out of it – just can’t for now. Tim on the other hand, is an All Access machine and couldn’t stop using it the entire time we were at I/O.

So what about you? Are you using both? If so, which is taking up most of your time?

Monday Poll: Enjoying More – New Hangouts or New Google Music All Access? is a post from: Droid Life

Now that Google I/O is wrapping up here in San Francisco and we finally have a chance to take a minute and breathe, we decided to sit down and do an overview of the new Google Play Music app along with its accompanying All Access service. Announced on Wednesday as a subscription-based Pandora and Spotify competitor, All Access is an important piece to the media puzzle for Google. The future of music appears to be in streaming services. 

So in the video below, we try to walk through it all, from starting radio stations to saving music to your library to navigating around this beautifully designed app.

Keep in mind that All Access is currently available as a 30-day free trial, but will jump up to $8 per month after the trial ends. Also, that $8 price is only good as long as you continue your subscription or sign-up before June 30. Once June 30 hits, the service will run $10 per month. If you sign-up for the free trial, you will be automatically billed once the trial ends, so should you not want to get charged, be sure to cancel it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: Overview of New Google Play Music and All Access is a post from: Droid Life

Not only did we not get a new version of the Nexus Q yesterday at Google I/O, but to make matters worse, anyone who has one of the original versions from last year has found that they can no longer use the media center with the newest version of Google Music. Once the new version of music has been installed on your phone, there isn’t an option to switch over to the Q. That’s right, the number one reason to own a Q is now not even an option. 

A Googler named Paul, who has been responding to feedback over the last month at their official product forums concerning playback issues on the Q confirmed that the Q is now essentially nothing more than a paperweight:

Hi everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to report this issue. As you noticed, the latest version of Google Play Music isn’t compatible with the Nexus Q. The Nexus Q devices given to last year’s I/O attendees and provided free of charge to those who ordered are not compatible with the current version of Google Music.

Read into that however you want, but he didn’t exactly say that the Nexus Q is 100% dead, he just said that this version of Music isn’t compatible. That could mean an update will add functionality or that the Nexus Q app simply needs an update. For now, though, this news shouldn’t exactly excite anyone.

For weeks now, the Q has suffered from playback issues that Google admittedly was “aware” of and “working on.” In fact, two days ago, Paul told frustrated Q owners that the streaming issues were still something the Nexus Q team had on their radar. And now, this happens.

I for one am not happy about this as I have a Q and even purchased a set of bookshelf speakers to be used along side it. But forget me, there are people out there who purchased (as in paid good money for) a Nexus Q through say eBay or other outlets and are now left with a product that no longer works. Frustrating, to say the least.

Hopefully, we see something change for the better in the very near future.

Update:  Google Support pages have been updated to display the following message:

Please note that currently, All Access can be accessed through the Google Play Music mobile app or a desktop browser and is not compatible with Nexus Q.

So don’t rule it out yet – there is still a chance that the Nexus Q will live on.

Via:  Google Product Forums

Cheers Dr0me and John!

Nexus Q Officially “Incompatible” With Latest Version of Google Music (Updated) is a post from: Droid Life

The update for Google Music which includes a new UI, their new All Access streaming service, and Listen Now feature is live! Once you update, don’t forget to check out All Access with the 30-day free trial. 

Here is the full changelog:

• Brand new user interface for phone, tablet, and TV
• Support for All Access subscription service in the US
• Key All Access features: Explore section to discover new music, Radio with unlimited skips, Add albums to My Library, Share and subscribe to playlists
• New Listen Now page that makes it easy to find something to play
• Swipe to remove from playlist or queue
• Swipe to switch songs on the now playing screen or now playing bar
• Go to album or artist from any song

Play Link

Google Music Update With All Access and New UI is Live! is a post from: Droid Life

We have heard rumors up until this point, but today during their keynote, Google made their new streaming music service official. Google Play  Music “All Access” gives users the ability to search through Google’s huge amount of songs and the ability to play them instantly. An all new UI allows you to swipe away songs if you don’t want them and the ability to make radio stations instantly based on one song. The price of this new streaming service is $9.99 per month, but everyone gets a 30 free trial. If you are an early adopter and sign up before June 30 however, your price is only $7.99.

The I/O keynote is still going on, come and join us!

Update:  The service is now live! Get to it here. 

Google Announces Google Play Music “All Access” for $9.99 Per Month (Updated: It’s Live) is a post from: Droid Life

According to industry sources who spoke with The Verge and the New York Times, Google will unveil a new streaming music service tomorrow at Google I/O. After inking deals with both Universal and Sony, the service finally has the go-ahead to compete with the likes of Spotify and get the jump on Apple who has been taking its sweet time launching a similar service. 

Sources told NYT that there wouldn’t be a free tier for the service, so that could put us anywhere from a couple of dollars a month to $10 or $15. This new streaming service is said to be more like Spotify with on-demand music rather than the radio-esque approach that Pandora has taken.

Should this service launch tomorrow, expect a Google I/O that may be the biggest one yet. We could see a new unified chat service, Gmail update, Android 4.3, gaming center, and this new music services amongst other things.

Stick with us all day tomorrow – we’ll be covering it all.

Via:  The Verge | NY Times

Cheers Inquizitor!

Report: Google to Launch Streaming Music Service Tomorrow at I/O is a post from: Droid Life

Happen to be one of the people hoping to see a Google Music app redesign sometime in the future? Well, you are not alone. While we wait on Google to breathe some fresh air into their app’s design, there are developers out there that are making their own works of music app art, such as this one called, Now Playing. 

Now Playing is still in beta and doesn’t have access to your Google Music library, but if you do have music on your device already, it’s a great 3rd party player. Its design is minimal and simplistic, with small outlines bordering each artist and song title. What the app does quite well is bring attention to each album cover and even song lyrics. And if you don’t have an album cover for a particular album, don’t worry, it auto downloads them from the web via WiFi.

If you want to try out the Now Playing Beta, you can download it via the link below. To install, simply sideload it as you would any other application.

Download: NowPlaying6.apk

Via: XDA

Cheers Jason!

Now Playing Beta, a Fresh Take on an Android Music Player is a post from: Droid Life

According to music industry officials, Google’s plan of entering the music streaming subscription service is the best thing to happen since sliced bread. With Google’s already large user base with services such as YouTube, Google has a unique way of bringing content to customers. With Mountain View now looking to turn these people into paying subscribers, the industry couldn’t be happier. 

In a recent interview with the UK’s Guardian, Francis Keeling, global head of digital business at Universal Music Group, shed some light on his feelings of Google’s step towards a Spotify-like service.

We talk about for subscription services, the need to have a funnel. Google, with its hundreds of millions of users through search, YouTube with its more than 800 million users, arguably is the biggest funnel we could have. Clearly if we could get consumers into a legal funnel through that route and encourage them to subscription, that would have a very positive impact on the business.

Naturally, there are some not so keen with a search engine company in charge of selling music. With Google’s somewhat slow response to remove pirate sites from search results, Keeling also wants to make sure that Google’s pushing customers toward the right product.

Like all search engines, there is a problem; we’re asking all search engines to prioritize legal services. We know that search engines are a primary route for consumers to be able to find music and hope all search engines will implement those changes.

When we asked you if you would be interested in such a service, our readers made it clear that if Google produced a well thought-out service and the price was right, you would jump right on it.

The service is rumored to launch in Q3 of this year and we could also expect to see a little bit of it at Google I/O possibly.

Via: BGR | The Gaurdian

Google’s Music Streaming Service to “Have Very Positive Impact on the Business” is a post from: Droid Life

Before Google Music launched, Google and the music labels were said to have had a hard time working out the hard details, but they eventually reached an agreement. A recent report said that a few execs in Google working for the Android department have been in talks with music labels for expanding Google Music, wanting a Spotify-like streaming service.

Adding in a subscription based music option to Google Play could be a huge step for Google moving forward in providing content. The rumored plans have been centered around having paid subscriptions to Youtube music channels as well as audo-only tracks too. This would give people the option to either buy music and have rights to that album or song or possibly subscribe to a pay-by-the month program. Details to the actual plan are scarce so we don’t know much, but it sounds like something Google would want to get into.

The only question that remains, would you use it?

Via: WSJ

Google Might Be Looking to Beat Apple to The Streaming Music Game is a post from: Droid Life

If you are a Google Play Music user, which we think you should be, go grab the newest update that was just released to Google Play. It brings a few new features such as instant mixes (which we love) going beyond 25 songs when you reach the end, new default album art (yes!), and fixes for the freezing issues on the Galaxy S3. 

Funny story time. I was literally going to write a quick rant post today about how the widget didn’t have a previous track button. Instead, it had a thumbs up button. Seriously, who needs to thumb up a song on a widget? Give me some actual usage out of that space. Thanks for reading my mind, Google! I knew this day would come.

v4.5.910I 

• Instant mixes continue playing beyond 25 songs.
• Added ability to shuffle an album, artist or playlist.
• New default album art.
• Previous button added to widget.
• Pinning progress now shown on album and playlist pages.
• Fix for the Galaxy S3 freezing issue.

Play Link

Cheers everyone who sent this in!

Google Play Music Updated, Brings New Default Album Art and More is a post from: Droid Life

Since the launch of Google Now, Google has been moving towards a certain design language with Android and it’s been well received by many people. The core Google apps have been slowly moving away from the Honeycomb look and more towards the Jelly Bean ”Holo“ feel. One app that still feels lacking, however, is Google Music, the dark backgrounds and highlights just don’t mesh with Jelly Bean well. 

One designer put together a great looking mock-up for what the new app could be. Rajesh Handa uploaded an album of screenshots to his Google+ page showing what Google could do with the app as far as swiping and color schemes go, and it looks great. Everything about this app screams Android 4.2 and Google might do well to take some cues from this.

What do you think about this suggested redesign? Head over to Handa’s Google+ page to see the rest of his design mock-up.

Via: Google+

Designer Puts Together What a Redesigned Google Music Could Look Like is a post from: Droid Life