These activity based stations/playlists are all available on Songza... Which, by the way, is free and ad-free. Not sure what I'm missing, here.
Google bought Songza last year
Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
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Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
#42My main issue with Google Play Music is that they don't have a desktop app. I wouldn't even care if their desktop app was a wrapper around their HTML player. I just want keyboard music controls from my desktop and the ability to Cmd+Tab to the music app instead of hunting down the browser tab. Without a desktop app, using Google Play Music is disruptive to my workflow.
The best solution that I've found is Bearded Spice (http://beardedspice.com/) which works with most web music players.
Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
#43Been an iHeartRadio fan for a few months now. Love the fact that they normal only play an ad when you first load it and thats it (and usually its an AllState ad with Dean Winters who was AWESOME in Oz).
Never really gave Google Play Music a shot since, quite honestly, no one every talks about it. I've tried Pandora and Spotify and they weren't all that great. Well Pandora was only good because if you install AdBlock you never got ads. I'll have to try it out and see if maybe a switch is in my future.
Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
#44My main issue with Google Play Music is that they don't have a desktop app. I wouldn't even care if their desktop app was a wrapper around their HTML player. I just want keyboard music controls from my desktop and the ability to Cmd+Tab to the music app instead of hunting down the browser tab. Without a desktop app, using Google Play Music is disruptive to my workflow.
You can make any website a webwrapper "desktop app" using Chrome/Chromium's "Create application shortcuts..." in its More Tools menu. It just opens the website without any browser chrome, and prompts you to create a desktop shortcut for it. For a while, this was what Slack was recommending to Windows users for a "native" application, and it is still what they recommend to Linux users (see the bottom of the page here: https://slack.com/getting-started).
Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
#45Yay , more micro dollars for artists ...
Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
#46Being able to upload your own music has been the only reason why I use this. I have a lot of mixes that aren't commercially available so this is basically the only way I can listen to them without having the actual MP3s on whatever device I happen to be using.
Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
#47Is there a reason why no one has tried to add 10 to 30 second spots to these streaming services? Is the temptation to have ad spots after every song too great to resist? Or are ad spots just too hard to measure and often times ineffective?
A 30 second spot after each song is simply too obnoxious - you'd lose users faster than you can say "monetizing advertising" (even in that annoying sped-up commercial voice).
Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
#48This is a nice additional option, but I won't be cancelling my subscription. I hate ads.
What I want to see from Google Play Music (aside from a name change) is:
- Keep improving music discoverability. It has become better, but could be further improved.
- Family plan. I want to pay $15/month and give it to my wife and kid.
- Fix the strange YouTube bug, where if I hit pause on Play Music, and then start a YouTube video within a few seconds I get an error telling me I am already playing media on that device (or similar). What does YouTube have to do with Google Play Music anyway? YouTube is ad supported, Google Play isn't. There is no cross-over. This issue shouldn't be a "thing." Plus I might be watching a YouTube video muted and listening to music (yes, people do that!).
- The new interface is arguably a step backwards (just like every Google Maps update). You keep "simplifying" away functionality.
- The offline playback stuff continues to be pretty clunky to set up. If I know I am going on a road trip and will be driving out of range, actually adding that music to the device is a huge pain, and often the easiest way is just to leave the device playing music for days and let it build up a cache. Horrible.
Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
#49I've been considering subscribing to a music service lately, but there are so many nowadays that I have honestly no idea how to decide. For those of you with experience in this area, what criteria would you recommend? what should I look for, other than the music itself?
If you have iOS, then wait 7 more days until Apple Music is coming out. My Spotify premium thing expired after 1 year now, so I have tried out all music services out there this month. My conclusion is that if Apple Music does not provide the integration I am seeking for (since I have an iPhone), I will just go back to Spotify. I am currently on the Google Play Music trial. It is pretty good, but I do not like the "Android" app on my iPhone. If you have an Android, I'd go with Google Play Music.
Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio
#50My main issue with Google Play Music is that they don't have a desktop app. I wouldn't even care if their desktop app was a wrapper around their HTML player. I just want keyboard music controls from my desktop and the ability to Cmd+Tab to the music app instead of hunting down the browser tab. Without a desktop app, using Google Play Music is disruptive to my workflow.
I use Gear Player which works quite well: http://www.gearmusicplayer.com/