Android audiophiles can get a little excited today since Google decided to push out an update to their Play Music application. The biggest addition, something that it was previously lacking, is gaplass playback. No longer will there be an awkward pause between your songs as you go through your party playlist, just smooth uninterrupted tunes.

Google also expanded the types of playlists you can keep on your device as well as “auto-generated Instant Mixes on Recent tab based on your favorite songs.” Improvements for offline playback have been added and make this a very solid update to the Play Music application. It’s live in the Play Store now.

Do you guys use Google Music or another streaming application?

Play Link

Cheers William, Jason, and Craig!

When Google introduced Android 4.2 this week, they made quick mention of a new music discovery service that would soon arrive in the Google Play store. The service, called Music Explorer, is now live and fully functional if you’d like to give it a spin. Actually, we heard from readers who saw it go live last night, but it now seems to be available to most users.

This morning, a very important piece of info that was tucked in all of the other Android madness, is that Google has finally inked a deal with Warner Music Group to allow for distribution of their artist’s work through Google Play. Previously, when searching for many artists that are distributed through Warner (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young, Green Day) users would come up with nothing, but thankfully, those days are soon to be over. Since the signing, Google is now officially working with all of the world’s major labels and has a much superior offering for users than they did upon first unveiling of Google Music.

As for when exactly their library of music will become available to Android users, it is said that it will come slowly but surely and more artists will be added daily. So, if you can’t get enough of that sweet Californication, just hang in there, it’s coming.

Via: NYT | Google Play

If you haven’t made the switch over to Google Music as your provider for music on your Android device, then today’s sale might make you take the leap. Google Music is having a sale to celebrate great Fall albums and there are some pretty big names on the sale list. Lil’ Wayne, Lady Gaga, Radiohead, Tupac and John Lennon are just a few of the artists whose albums you can pick up for just $2.99. If you want to check out the whole sale list, hit the link below.

Google Play

Google Music received an update this evening. Inside you’ll find expandable notifications if running a device with Jelly Bean, which we have pictured above. Remember, it takes two fingers and you can swipe some notifications up and down in Android 4.1. For Music, you basically get bigger album art and a track back control when expanded. They also tossed in better support for Google TV and a bunch of bug fixes. Part of me thinks there are other goodies tucked inside, but it will take some tinkering to find them.

Play Link

Cheers zepfloyd!

Google Play Music received an update just moments ago and it brings quite a few new features to the table. Users now have the ability to reorder and queue up other tracks in a Now Playing playlist, larger album art under the recent section, new UI on the action bar, and lots of other goodies. Here is the full changelog:

v4.3.606 Changelog:

• Now Playing queue that allows for queuing and reordering of currently playing music.
• New UI for navigation with transport controls on the action bar.
• New large album art view on Recent.
• Playlist art is now constructed from album art of songs in the playlist.
• Now Playing widget has album art and support for thumbs up.
• Harder, better, faster, stronger.

Go grab the update and start rocking out.

Play Link

Cheers Scott!

If you are out of deauthorizations in Google Music this morning, check again. We are hearing from a handful of users that Google may have opened it back up for the time being. Previously, users were only allowed to deauthorize 4 devices per year, but at this moment, it appears as if you can jump in and deauthorize as many as you’d like.

Update:  By the way, Google released this statement yesterday after this all went down:

Yesterday we made a change to our device policy for music on Google Play.  Any user can associate up to 10 devices to his or her account.  Once you have connected 10 devices, you may add a new device only by deauthorizing an existing one from your account, and you may do this up to four times per year.

We limit the number of times you can swap out new devices at the request of some of our music partners in an effort to limit abuse. We understand this has caused some issues for users who often deauthorize and reauthorize the same device, and we are currently re-implementing the solution in a way that works for our users and music partners.

We apologize for any inconvenience and will update this page as new changes are made.

Let us know how it goes!

Cheers Will!

It’s tough to tell exactly when this change happened, but Google is now only allowing you to “Deauthorize” 4 devices per year in Google Music. What does it mean to “Deauthorize,” you ask? Since Google Music gives you the opportunity to attach up to 10 devices to your account, there may be a time when you reach that limit and need to remove one so that you can attach another. In order to add new devices once you have reached that limit, Google asks that you “Deauthorize” one.

For most users, this limit of 4 deauthorizations may never be an issue. However, for those that handle dozens of new devices throughout a year (like silly writers) or who flash ROM after ROM, this limit could be bothersome down the road. For ROM addicts, Google Music handles each ROM differently. At times, it will simply re-register your device as the same device, but in some cases, it thinks your new ROM is a new device, thus adding another to your list of the 10 available. Starting to see the problem?

Throughout the rest of 2012, you are going to have to be careful each time you flash a new ROM, to make sure it isn’t taking up another spot on your list. If it does, those 4 that you can “Deauthorize” may be gone before you know it.

To be fair to Google and the music industry, this move probably makes sense. If they allow you to “Deauthorize” at will, you and your friends could essentially share the same music collection forever. Headed to a party, but don’t have Billy Joe’s hot 100 collection? All you have to do is add his Google account to your phone, and authorize his Music account onto your device for the night. You could then download his entire collection if you’d like, making this an even stickier situation.

Not sure how Google can remedy this, but for now, we just recommend that you keep an eye on that list.

Update:  Google has apparently opened this back up for the time being. If you head into your Google Music accounts again, you should be able to deauthorize as many devices as you’d like.

Via:  Google Music

Cheers Shawn and everyone else!