Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#61

Post by MichaelGG » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:00 PM UTC

Yet the UI for Google Play Music is atrocious. People I give it to that aren't familiar take forever. Myself, despite using it all the time (earphones, casting, car BT) find it frustrating. Hit back a few times no woops too many, OK now I can swipe out the menu and select my library and deal with the ridiculous amounts of scrolling. Sigh.

The hilarious thing is their Wikipedia scraping. Every time I select an artist I'm treated to some lame-style photo, and half the screen gets to tell me "Nirvana was a grunge band from Aberdeen with Kurt.....". Gee thanks Google, that was worth complicating the UI.

Playlist management is also worse than Windows Media Player. Like, how do you get that wrong?

This deal is sweet and I'd buy today, but Google is psycho when it comes to regions. Since it randomly thinks I'm in France or Hungary when in Denver, plus I travel between Canada and Guatemala, my guess is that features will randomly stop working or switch language. Otherwise, cool.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#62

Post by refriedbeans3 » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:01 PM UTC

baldfat wrote: post #55

Google Play Music, YouTube Red and YouTube Music is my favorite service. I have tried Spotify and Amazon and others. Google has two killer features. 1) I can upload my own music (20,000 songs) for free and stream for free. I have eclectic taste and some of my music isn't in the 35 million songs available. 2) The YouTube (Red (no ads), Music and Gaming) really are great on mobile.

What made you decide to purchase YouTube Red? How much YouTube content do you watch?

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#63

Post by mayneack » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:07 PM UTC

Do we know what the deal is with uploading music? Can I upload music for just me or does my family have to share the 20k song limit? I'm not even sure which version of this I would prefer. I know between us we have more than 20k songs we'd upload, but we also could probably get by with being more selective about uploads because I've certainly uploaded some dupes.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#64

Post by kuschku » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:08 PM UTC

gergles wrote: post #60

kuschku wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why was this comment flagged? It contains factual criticism and provides even sources for why a statement given in the article is wrong. That’s most definitely "contributing to discussion".

They don't offer this plan in the US, which is the only place this GPM subscription is available, so it isn't relevant to the discussion, and the tone is unnecessarily hostile to boot.

Oh, GPM is US-Only? That’s seriously annoying.

I agree with you about the tone, though.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#65

Post by yabatopia » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:10 PM UTC

mitkok wrote: post #31

Spotify does not have family plan ? Such a bullshit - http://i.imgur.com/BGhi6uk.png . This is what I call paid article. Good job, TechMunch.

Thanks to the customer unfriendly terms and conditions, a family plan is not always an option, even if a family subscription is available in your country. In my case, I have cell phone plan with a Spotify Premium subscription included, and because of that, I can't get or upgrade to a family plan.

So it may be true that Spotify has a family plan, it's not available to all their subscribers. The situation is a bit similar to Google Hosted Domains customers who can't get a Google Play Music Family Plan: unnecessary complicated terms and conditions and exclusions.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#66

Post by Artistry121 » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:12 PM UTC

MichaelGG wrote: post #61

Yet the UI for Google Play Music is atrocious. People I give it to that aren't familiar take forever. Myself, despite using it all the time (earphones, casting, car BT) find it frustrating. Hit back a few times no woops too many, OK now I can swipe out the menu and select my library and deal with the ridiculous amounts of scrolling. Sigh. The hilarious thing is their Wikipedia scraping. Every time I select an artist…

Google Music has 3 features that make music playing / discovery light years better than my experience with Apple Music and better than Spotify (I'm a paying Apple Music customer now): 1. Songza playlists - the playlists for mood and activity are far more detailed for categories outside of pop and hip-hop. 2. Easily start a radio station from any song or artist. 3. Catalog. With Youtube Red included nearly every background beat, live show, demo, etc. recorded is now available to listen to with excellent search capabilities. Hopefully eventually mixing and matching GPM and Youtube playlists will happen - but its not a huge problem.

Apple Music has better artist descriptions and artwork - and I like that they and Spotify display the full album cover when playing on mobile. Apple's focus on hip-hop and pop though really hurts discovery and UX for those without those focuses.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#67

Post by Artistry121 » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:14 PM UTC

baldfat wrote: post #55

Google Play Music, YouTube Red and YouTube Music is my favorite service. I have tried Spotify and Amazon and others. Google has two killer features. 1) I can upload my own music (20,000 songs) for free and stream for free. I have eclectic taste and some of my music isn't in the 35 million songs available. 2) The YouTube (Red (no ads), Music and Gaming) really are great on mobile.

3) The vast amount of content available for offline/background play on Youtube. Almost anything ever recorded is available - including live shows, unofficial remixes and background beats.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#68

Post by eertami » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:16 PM UTC

refriedbeans3 wrote: post #62

baldfat wrote: post #55

Google Play Music, YouTube Red and YouTube Music is my favorite service. I have tried Spotify and Amazon and others. Google has two killer features. 1) I can upload my own music (20,000 songs) for free and stream for free. I have eclectic taste and some of my music isn't in the 35 million songs available. 2) The YouTube (Red (no ads), Music and Gaming) really are great on mobile.

What made you decide to purchase YouTube Red? How much YouTube content do you watch?

Youtube Red is included in Google Music.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#69

Post by mythz » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:17 PM UTC

refriedbeans3 wrote: post #62

baldfat wrote: post #55

Google Play Music, YouTube Red and YouTube Music is my favorite service. I have tried Spotify and Amazon and others. Google has two killer features. 1) I can upload my own music (20,000 songs) for free and stream for free. I have eclectic taste and some of my music isn't in the 35 million songs available. 2) The YouTube (Red (no ads), Music and Gaming) really are great on mobile.

What made you decide to purchase YouTube Red? How much YouTube content do you watch?

You get a YouTube Red subscription free with Google Play Music. YouTube Red changed how I listen to music, now I just leave YouTube playlists playing in the background - whereas before with ads it was unbearable.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#70

Post by vox_mollis » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:21 PM UTC

baldfat wrote: post #55

Google Play Music, YouTube Red and YouTube Music is my favorite service. I have tried Spotify and Amazon and others. Google has two killer features. 1) I can upload my own music (20,000 songs) for free and stream for free. I have eclectic taste and some of my music isn't in the 35 million songs available. 2) The YouTube (Red (no ads), Music and Gaming) really are great on mobile.

I've found YouTube Red to be buggy, in that although the ads are dramatically reduced, they still happen from time to time, particularly when streaming via the chromecast.