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Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

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Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

#91

Post by joshstrange »

infinitone wrote: post #58

Is there a full in depth comparison between all these streaming services? I use Spotify, but I'd like to know if I should switch- the main feature I'm looking for is better recommendations/discovery. Also it'd be nice to see actual # of songs each of these services actually have.

I too would like to see such a comparison but # of songs isn't the important metric for me, it's # of songs I want to listen to. That's why I hate that metric, really just tell me which artists you have (or don't have, though this would never happen) that other services do not...

Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

#92

Post by ericdykstra »

I will never pay for one of these music streaming services.

You would think in a time when basic necessities are extremely cheap for a significant portion of the world population, people would be more willing to spend money on art. But instead, the vast majority would rather get something for free than pay for it. And the people who pay the $10/month for the convenience of Spotify or Google Play Music or Apple's music product don't care that only pennies of that actually goes to the artists.

All that the shift to all-you-can-eat streaming services has done is make it so that people feel they don't need to buy music (since they're paying for the right to stream any time, there's no value in purchasing a copy) and shift where the money goes away from artists.

I'm going to stick with supporting musicians directly, and do what I can to let people know that it's not that hard to do the same, and that artists appreciate even a little bit of support a LOT.

Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

#93

Post by spankalee »

Mahn wrote: post #22

I'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?

I'm biased because I work for Google and dogfood Play Music, but for me it's a great combination of:

  * A free music locker you can upload your songs to
  * iTunes-like store, with non-DRM'ed files and offline support
  * Spotify-like subscription service, with offline support
  * Pandora-like radio stations, with the addition of "I'm Feeling Lucky" radio that adapts to your listening habits, and offline support :)
  * Songza curated playlists/stations
  * Great web and mobile apps
  * YouTube video integration (I don't really use that though)
  * Pretty decent discovery
What it lacks is Spotify-like social features: profiles, activity, etc.

edit: forgot the store.

Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

#94

Post by andmarios »

spankalee wrote: post #78
andmarios wrote: post #17

A bit offtopic but I am a Google Play Music subscriber. I switched to them over Spotify because they had a much better UI and UX. I use these music services at the radio mode mostly and I am pretty sure Spotify's designers primary concern was how to make users' experience miserable. Unfortunately Google seems to follow the trend nowadays. Take for example the Play Music Radio Page. There is a list with photos and tit…

We have a very active dogfood group internally. It's likely, even with a lot of internal users, that none of us have hit the text selection problem, or haven't reported it (or there's some technical or prioritization reason for it). I'll look into it and report it to the group though!

Please do, thank you very much! This is an issue only on the radio page currently.

With spotify you can't select text anywhere. It was one of the most serious shortcomings for me because when I listen to a song and want to learn more about it, the web-browser way is “select -> right click -> search with google”. :)

Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

#96

Post by spankalee »

mattmanser wrote: post #85
spankalee wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a very active dogfood group internally. It's likely, even with a lot of internal users, that none of us have hit the text selection problem, or haven't reported it (or there's some technical or prioritization reason for it). I'll look into it and report it to the group though!

Honest question, why do I have to click the hamburger menu on the desktop? Why isn't the menu shown by default? Your recent redesigns consistently suck ass on desktop.

1) They're not my designs, I just dogfood. 2) I don't know :)

Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

#97

Post by Kudos »

nathcd wrote: post #44
mrinterweb wrote: post #21

My 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:…

That feature is not in Mac Chrome, and it does not help with listening offline.

Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

#98

Post by dragonwriter »

mattmanser wrote: post #59
andmarios wrote: post #17

A bit offtopic but I am a Google Play Music subscriber. I switched to them over Spotify because they had a much better UI and UX. I use these music services at the radio mode mostly and I am pretty sure Spotify's designers primary concern was how to make users' experience miserable. Unfortunately Google seems to follow the trend nowadays. Take for example the Play Music Radio Page. There is a list with photos and tit…

UI/UX is subjective. My recent thoughts on the new UX from google is that it's bloody awful. When I just want to listen to some random music I just play my thumbs up playlist. But every time I open Google play, you have to click to open the hamburger menu because menus are no longer trendy on desktop sites. Want to have a list of what's playing be your homepage? Impossible in the new google play, you can only view th…

> Their algo is bloody awful, it seems to use one song as the basis for "I'm feeling lucky" and never mixes up genres.

Okay, so is the problem that "I'm feeling lucky" is bad because it "never mixes up genres", or...

> if you click "I'm feeling lucky" there's a 20% chance google music will only play me female artists. And it will spiral into genres I don't even like and have no songs thumbed up, purely because they're female too.

...is the complaint that "I'm feeling lucky" is bad because it does mix in genres you don't like based on the sex of the artist?

Because it can't be both.

Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

#99

Post by spankalee »

ericdykstra wrote: post #92

I will never pay for one of these music streaming services. You would think in a time when basic necessities are extremely cheap for a significant portion of the world population, people would be more willing to spend money on art. But instead, the vast majority would rather get something for free than pay for it. And the people who pay the $10/month for the convenience of Spotify or Google Play Music or Apple's musi…

Well, you'll be happy to know that you can still buy albums and songs through Google Play (and all the other stores).

Re: Google Play Music – free, ad-supported radio

#100

Post by naspinski »

chrisper wrote: post #49
Mahn wrote: post #22

I'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 "An…

So your advice is to go with something that isn't out or proven in any way over a proven service because "I do not like the 'Android' app on my iPhone"?
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