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Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

techcrunch.com

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Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#91

Post by jdeibele »

bweitzman wrote: post #83
jdeibele wrote: post #71

Where can you sign up? I tried on the page linked from the blog. I tried from the Google Play app on my old Nexus 5. Maybe I haven't had enough coffee this morning?

in the google music app, not play, go to the hamburger menu -> settings. Should be at the top under the account section, you may need to hit the refresh button under the same the section.

Thanks. The problem was that I had to click on "Free plan" when I was looking for subscribe. It's great that they give 30 days free but that's not what I was looking for.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#92

Post by MichaelGG »

Artistry121 wrote: post #66
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 backg…

Yeah they certainly prioritize "discovery" and their radio-ish stuff (which is intermittently available, even when I haven't moved location). Unfortunately, I hate radio, and am not much for "discovery". I just want to quickly access my current library. The fact that Windows Media Player is significantly better at this than Play Music is sad.

(It's really annoying in a car. I pull over, but I wanna be fast. Google Now is hit or miss if it'll properly play. Sometimes it just searches. Sometimes it plays off of YouTube. Etc. You'd think by now they could get this basic flow down, without harming their neato stuff I don't want.)

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#93

Post by shmerl »

bweitzman wrote: post #84
shmerl wrote: post #29

When will they start selling music in FLAC?

You can upload FLAC to google music. Not sure if it stores in that format though, and I think streaming is max 320

Since they aren't selling files anyway, it doesn't make much of a difference. But my question was two fold. I.e. when they'll start selling DRM-free files, and when they'll support FLAC while doing that :).

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#94

Post by untog »

dfar1 wrote: post #85

$14.99 for 6 people is a great price. But not really for 2 people. I have spotify and I love it, but I've been wanting to switch to google music for a while because I already store my music there. With spotify I can share my premium account with my spouse. You can't use it at the same time, but that rarely ever happens. It's just 2 of us. And when it does happen I can just download what I want to hear and then go on…

$14.99 for 6 people is a great price. But not really for 2 people. I have spotify

It's better than the price for Spotify, at least.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#95

Post by untog »

shmerl wrote: post #79
izzydata wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't google play music a streaming service though? It really doesn't seem like the place for that.

What stops them from offering an option to get files as well? I always prefer to have my music backed up and available on my devices without relying on any cloud services. I view streaming as a convenience, and not as an approach that requires one to forgo having a DRM-free backup.

What stops them from offering an option to get files as well?

Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files. If you cancel your subscription you'll lose whatever you have downloaded. Offering you a file you can easily convert into a different format would break that pretty comprehensively.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#96

Post by shmerl »

untog wrote: post #95
shmerl wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What stops them from offering an option to get files as well? I always prefer to have my music backed up and available on my devices without relying on any cloud services. I view streaming as a convenience, and not as an approach that requires one to forgo having a DRM-free backup.

What stops them from offering an option to get files as well? Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files. If you cancel your subscription you'll lose whatever you have downloaded. Offering you a file you can easily convert into a different format would break that pretty comprehensively.

> Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files.

And why is that exactly?

> Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files.

Not sure what they gain by it. I prefer to buy and keep what I bought. Not really interested in renting digital goods. That's why I'm not using Google Play and similar stores for music. Bandcamp offers DRM-free music in FLAC for example, and there once you buy it - you keep it.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#97

Post by untog »

shmerl wrote: post #96
untog wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What stops them from offering an option to get files as well? Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files. If you cancel your subscription you'll lose whatever you have downloaded. Offering you a file you can easily convert into a different format would break that pretty comprehensively.

> Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files. And why is that exactly? > Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files. Not sure what they gain by it. I prefer to buy and keep what I bought. Not really interested in renting digital goods. That's why I'm not using Google Play and similar stores for music. Bandcamp offers DRM-free music in FLAC for example, and there…

And why is that exactly?

Because it is a streaming service, not a download service.

I prefer to buy and keep what I bought. Not really interested in renting digital goods.

Then don't use a streaming service.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#98

Post by shmerl »

untog wrote: post #97
shmerl wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files. And why is that exactly? > Well, they don't want you to be able to permanently download the files. Not sure what they gain by it. I prefer to buy and keep what I bought. Not really interested in renting digital goods. That's why I'm not using Google Play and similar stores for music. Bandcamp offers DRM-free music in FLAC for example, and there…

And why is that exactly? Because it is a streaming service, not a download service. I prefer to buy and keep what I bought. Not really interested in renting digital goods. Then don't use a streaming service.

> Because it is a streaming service, not a download service.

Why can't they offer both? For instance Bandcamp does. You can stream music if you don't want to download it, but you can as well back up your DRM-free copy which I always do. I only pay for music when such option is available.

> Then don't use a streaming service.

I see no correlation between streaming (convenience) and forbidding one to download what is streamed (DRM). I'm OK with first, but I'm not OK with second.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#99

Post by untog »

shmerl wrote: post #98
untog wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why is that exactly? Because it is a streaming service, not a download service. I prefer to buy and keep what I bought. Not really interested in renting digital goods. Then don't use a streaming service.

> Because it is a streaming service, not a download service. Why can't they offer both? For instance Bandcamp does. You can stream music if you don't want to download it, but you can as well back up your DRM-free copy which I always do. I only pay for music when such option is available. > Then don't use a streaming service. I see no correlation between streaming (convenience) and forbidding one to download what is s…

I see no correlation between streaming (convenience) and forbidding one to download what is streamed (DRM).

But streaming isn't convenience, it's the business model. At no point do you buy any albums, you merely rent them while you listen to them. Otherwise you could subscribe for one month and download every single piece of music you can within 30 days, then cancel. That's pretty obviously not how the system is designed to be used.

Re: Google Begins Rolling Out Google Play Music Family Plan

#100

Post by shmerl »

untog wrote: post #99
shmerl wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because it is a streaming service, not a download service. Why can't they offer both? For instance Bandcamp does. You can stream music if you don't want to download it, but you can as well back up your DRM-free copy which I always do. I only pay for music when such option is available. > Then don't use a streaming service. I see no correlation between streaming (convenience) and forbidding one to download what is s…

I see no correlation between streaming (convenience) and forbidding one to download what is streamed (DRM). But streaming isn't convenience, it's the business model. At no point do you buy any albums, you merely rent them while you listen to them. Otherwise you could subscribe for one month and download every single piece of music you can within 30 days, then cancel. That's pretty obviously not how the system is desi…

> But streaming isn't convenience

For me it's convenience.

> At no point do you buy any albums, you merely rent them while you listen to them.

I don't really understand the concept of renting for digital goods. Since they can be duplicated practically at no cost, there is no practical reason to "take and return" approach (i.e. rent). Keeping your digital copy does not reduce any value for the service.

> Otherwise you could subscribe for one month and download every single piece of music you can within 30 days, then cancel

That can easily be prevented by saying that you can't exceed certain limit of downloads for such service if you only pay per month, and not for each copy. But again, I see no reason why they can't offer an option to pay per copy and let you keep one.

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