Google Announces 'Google Play Music All Access' Subscription Service

Google today officially announced its new music subscription service, Google Play Music All Access, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. As reported yesterday afternoon, the service is designed to compete with Spotify, providing songs on demand that can be streamed to a computer or mobile device.

googlemusic

The service, which is built on Google's existing Google Play Music Store, will cost $9.99 per month with a 30-day free trial available. Google is, however, offering a discount for early adopters. Those who begin the free trial by June 30 will pay just $7.99 per month. The Verge has a rundown on a few of the available features for music discovery and recommendations.

A recommendation engine will guide users towards new music they may have already discovered. As demoed on an Android device — it also works in a standard web browser — All Access incorporates both local tracks and those available for streaming into one master searchable library, a marked improvement over much of its streaming competition.

Google's tagline for Google Play Music All Access is "Radio without Rules," a small jab at Apple's upcoming Pandora-style music service, iRadio. As of last week, Apple was still in negotiations with music labels but is reportedly aiming for a summer launch of its own music subscription service.

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

bushido Avatar
151 months ago
See no point in paying for music when things like Pandora are free.

but Pandora sucks. you cant simply play what you want i always end up just skipping till i reach the limit cuz it never plays what i want.

this has the best of both "worlds" like Spotify which i will stick with cuz it does not get added to my data volume on my iPhone.

gonna laugh if apple announces "iRadio" when everyone else offers both in one deal
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Neuro Avatar
151 months ago
I find it funny that people think spending $120 a year on music is a lot...

Times have certainly changed.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
samcraig Avatar
151 months ago
I find it funny that people think spending $120 a year on music is a lot...

Times have certainly changed.

Same people B*tch about apps that cost more than free - or .99
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
malnar Avatar
151 months ago
See no point in paying for music when things like Pandora are free.
A lot of people don't like listening to single songs by different artists and instead want to hear albums. Pandora is completely useless to someone like me, free or not. I'll gladly pay $10 a month for access to many hundreds of thousands of full albums. This is why Apple's offering, if it's modelled after Pandora, is going to be a non-starter for me. No albums, no deal.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
imgonephishin Avatar
151 months ago
Not interested on paying 10 bucks a month... oh well.!

That's completely fine for you. I, on the other hand, find my Spotify subscription to be indispensable. For $120/year, I can stream unlimited albums at 320 kbps bitrate with no ads. It's the world's jukebox. I've probably listened to 100 different albums in the last months alone. For that price, I could buy 12 albums on iTunes. Sure, you own the music with iTunes and you all are free to choose that route.

But I'd rather have unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of albums instead.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
samcraig Avatar
151 months ago
I don't pay for spotify.

When you create a radio station - can you swipe/remove songs in the play list?

Nice function of Google's offering

----------

So the big news at Google Uh/Oh is a Spotify copy? There is nothing compelling here to make anyone switch from Spotify.
Why does there have to be something to switch people? Is everyone ON spotify?

Second - the reason why some might switch is because they like Google's ecosystem and want a one stop shop. This provides that.

Also - I don't think you can access your entire music library anywhere via spotify. Right? With Google's service - you can - in addition to millions of tracks
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)