Jon Seff for Macworld:
Like Spotify and its ilk, All Access offers millions of tracks (although Google didn’t say how many millions, or which music labels for that matter) for streaming on Android phones and tablets, as well as from a Web browser. And in the process, Google has also taking a big swing at its Android app partners like Spotify, Rdio, and Rhapsody.
It seems suspicious to me that Google won’t tell us which music labels they have or how many songs they have. That immediately leads to the assumption that it’s not that good.
I’m not at all surprised that Google is taking a swing at its competitors. The third-party app developers and services are making money from Google’s operating system and users — it makes sense that Google would want to cash in on some of that.
I would think by now that someone who follows these deals would be able to easily test some key albums from each label on any given music service, thus revealing which labels are included and which are not.
according to Mac Rumors the name of the service is “Google Play Music All Access” — five words; practically a sentence. if they cant even focus on their product name, id be concerned w/ their ability to focus on the product.
I’m not sure why anyone would switch away from another service. It seems like another “me too” product from Google. So far users don’t seem willing to pay for any Google service.
They have the labels for their download service. If they didn’t have all the labels they would of spined it by saying, “we have 80% of the top labels, with more being added daily.” If Spotify and Rdio can get all the labels, it is not surprising that Google can with a lot more money.
@quietstorms:disqus Android users who have already bought into the Google ecosystem will find this convenient for the same reasons that Apple users stick with the iTunes ecosystem. How many are willing to pay is a different question.
@Tvaddic:disqus believe the labels draw up separate contracts for streaming service and download service, with different fees for each. This is undoubtedly why Apple thrives with iTunes downloads, yet still doesn’t have a streaming service in place. The labels are capricious bastards.
(Edit for previous comment – for some reason Disqus doesn’t like the colon character, which I originally wrote after the respective user names, and strips it out along with some other text. That’s why it reads kind of wonky.)
They just want to get in before Apple might
Former Microsoft nerds will love it.
If they had something specific to brag about, they’d brag about it.
Google Apps?
No reviewer has complained about not having all the labels, and if you go to the free trial you will see that they have the big 3.