Google Music

Earlier this week, Google made a backend tweak to the Google Search app for Android that added the ability to take a picture or video with Google Now by saying “Ok Google, take a photo.” This afternoon, the company has added another new voice command, this time relating to Google Music. Starting today, you can now say “Ok Google, play some music” and an “I’m feeling lucky” radio station will start to play via Google Music. The I’m feeling lucky station provides a constant stream of music based on your listening history.

Google has updated its Google Play Music app for iPhone with several new features and a refreshed UI for iOS 7. The app was first released last month but had not yet been designed for the latest version of iOS.

Besides the updated interface, the app includes support for “I’m feeling lucky” radio stations, the ability to search for music and create stations by genre, and auto-playlists.

iOS users can grab Google Play Music for free on the App Store.

What’s New in Version 1.1.0.988

– UI updated for iOS7

– Added support for I’m feeling lucky radio

– Auto-playlists (including Thumbs Up playlist) added to playlist view

– Genre radio stations added for All Access users

– Added ability to search for genres

Thanks for the tip, Isa!

Google Music for Android received an update this morning, bumping it to build 5.3.1316. Most notably, the update adds the ability to store cached music on an external SD card for KitKat users . For devices that still have an SD card, which aren’t many at this point, this is a very nice addition. Also coming with this update is the ability to share links to songs with social networks, as well as the ability to shuffle all songs by a specific artist. Design-wise, the update also makes some slight tweaks to the pull-out notification panel.

Full changelog:

Since first announcing its Google Play Music ‘All Access’ streaming service earlier this year on Android, Google has been delaying the release of an official Google Play Music app for iOS for unknown reasons. Android chief Sundar Pichai originally said the app would be out in “the next few weeks” in May, but four months later we’ve yet to get an iOS app or access to the $9.99 month streaming service on iOS. Today, Engadget reports that Google is continuing to test the app internally and will launch it later this month:

Sources aware of Google’s plans have let slip to Engadget that not only is the company currently testing a native Google Music iOS app internally, but that it’ll launch later this month. We’re told that while employees have been invited to test the app, Google still needs to fix a few bugs before it’s ready for release… The company had previously closed the door on iOS users because Flash was needed to enforce DRM restrictions set by music labels. Now, Google appears to have overcome that issue and is nearly ready to launch.

Until the official app from Google launches, popular third-party clients like the gMusic app have been updated to support the “All Access” streaming service.
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An update is rolling out to the Google Play Music app that bumps it to version 5.2.1204L. Notably, the update adds the ability to create new radio stations based on music genres. Previously, the radio functionality was only available for use by songs, artists, or your past listening history. It’s important to note, however, that an All Access subscription is required for unlimited radio use. Both iTunes Radio and Pandora have had the genre-based station feature for sometime now, so this is a much welcomed feature for Google Music.

Also new in the update is an improved download queue. Now, you have the ability to pause, resume, and cancel songs that are being downloaded at any given time.

• All Access Genre Radio is here! Go to Radio or Explore, pick your favorite genre and enjoy unlimited radio based on the music you love.
• New download queue that allows pausing, resuming and canceling

The update is available now on the Play Store. 
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When Google unveiled its brand new $9.99/month “All Access” Google Play music streaming service earlier this month at its I/O keynote, we quickly learned that the service would not be coming to iOS initially. Google didn’t get into why, but today developers of the popular gMusic iOS app has unofficially brought support for the service to iPhone and iPad.

The app previously acted as client for songs stored in your Google Music library, but with an update to version 6.0 today the All Access subscription service is now officially available to iOS users. The changelog on iTunes also lists the ability to “Create/play Radio Stations” and “Search, listen, and add music to your library from inside the app.”

As for why Google didn’t make it’s own All Access app for iOS, we’ve heard from sources close to the situation that Google wants to submit an app but is currently in a holding pattern with Apple regarding what they will accept.

gMusic: Google Music Player is available on the App Store now for $1.99. The updated app will require users to have a Google Play All Access subscription to access the new features. 
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You might be familiar with Google Labs from other Google services such as Gmail. The functionality allows users to enable experimental features that have not rolled out as main features of the service. Now, Labs is enabled for Google Play Music allowing you to add new features to the desktop version of the app, some of which were only previously available to iOS users.

One feature that made its way over from the iOS version of its web player is a toggle to switch to HTML5 audio rather than using Flash. You can also now enable Gmail-like desktop notifications that will give you details for the currently playing track including song title, artist name, album title, and album cover. Lastly, a 5-star Ratings lab will replace the current thumbs up and thumbs down features for more specific ratings. You can get all the details here.

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DoubleTwist player, the app that aims to provide the functionality of the iOS iPod in a single Android app, keeps adding features that take it even beyond the functionality of Apple’s iPods. Today, an update to the app adds several welcomed improvements and fixes, and the most notable is support for Google Music. The blog post noted Google Music offline tracks would now appear in the app’s library.

Also included in v1.7.3 are fixes for the latest Apple TV update and downloading album artwork. As always, the app includes several other improvements and bug fixes, and it can be downloaded for free from Google Play. The devs were also able to reduce the size of the app in the update, which is always nice while receiving new functionality in the process.

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Google is currently advertising a one-day leap year sale for Google Music that will let you grab 29 select albums for just $2.99 each. Among the albums offered include Lana Del Rey’s “Born To Die,” Drake’s “Take Care,” Rihanna’s “Talk That Talk,” Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” Jay-Z’s “Watch The Throne,” Van Halen’s “A Different Kind of Truth,” Lil Wayne’s “The Carter IV,” Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of The Moon,” Eminem’s “Recovery,” and The Band Perry’s self-titled album. All 29 albums should be advertised in a special section in the Google Music store shortly, but the albums listed above are already available for $2.99.

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With the 54th Grammys set to take place this Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8/7c on CBS, Google Music is getting ready for the big show by offering a selection of 59-cent songs and $3.99 albums from some of this year’s nominees selected by the The Recording Academy. You can visit the Best of the Grammys 2012 page in the Android Market now, and access dozens of albums and songs from artists like Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Codplay, Mumford & Sons, and David Guetta.

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Today is the last day to take advantage of Google Music’s blowout MP3 sale that has lasted for about a week now. Google is offering popular albums for only $4.99 and popular tracks for only $0.49. The lineup Google offers is pretty good, ranging from Lil Wayne to DeadMau5. Sadly, the sale does not include every offering on Google Music, but it has a decent list that you should browse through. Songs purchased will be saved to your Google Music locker and can be downloaded as an MP3. What are you waiting for?

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While Google said it would be days for the updated Android Market to roll out to users, users are already seeing the update hit their handsets (we’re not seeing it yet). The Market update includes the new Google Music which allows users to find new music to purchase straight to their handset and backup to their music locker. We’re waiting for the update to hit our handsets to give you guys a hands-on, but in the mean time try checking you’re own devices for the update. If you’re still not seeing the update try clearing your Market’s cache (go to settings>applications and tap on the Android Market app). Interested in seeing the rest of Google Music? Check it out after the break. (via AndroidCentral)

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The day after Google Music was announced at an event in LA, Google has unveiled a new Music app for Google TV. The new app streams music directly from your music locker, getting rid of the need to download music or stream it from your computer. The app is as simple as signing in with your Google account and even works in the background as you use other apps.

As long as you have Android 3.1 installed on your Google TV, the Music app is available on the Android Market. Besides streaming music you can also purchase it directly from your TV.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPd0EZ_ukK4&feature=channel_video_title”]

Google has just announced the new Google Music, so we’ve decided to show our lovely readers a quick tour. Above you’ll find a tour of both the Android and web app, including me purchasing a song. My Google+ friends were also able to use the one free play, as seen below.

Before its official announcement at an event tomorrow night, more details on Google’s new Music service have leaked out. Bloomberg reports that Music will have a store that closely resembles Apple’s iTunes and will allow users to purchase music. Google has reportedly earned licensing deals with Sony (this evening actually), Universal Music Group, and EMI Group Ltd. Songs will also cost between 99-cents and $1.29, but Google may offer discounts.

Wall Street Journal drops an awesome feature that Google Music will reportedly have.

“Additionally, after buying songs from Google Music for around $1 apiece, users are expected to be able to share one or two free listens of the songs with their contacts on the Google+ social-networking service, these people said.”

All the details will be spilled tomorrow. Make sure to stick with us tomorrow evening at 5 PM EST for all of the breaking news.

T-Mobile has begun sending out invites to the press this afternoon (via TechCrunch), inviting them to Google’s upcoming event on Wednesday. T-Mobile’s presence was already hinted at in Google’s invite last week, but today’s invite confirms that T-Mobile most likely has a big involvement in what’s coming up.

The event is most definitely looking to be the launch of Google Music. Look at all of those music artists (for the after party) in the invite: Drake, Maroon 5, Busta Rhymes, Dirty South, and R3hab are certainly some big names. However, it’s not clear what T-Mobile’s roll will be, but a Galaxy Nexus version could certainly be possible.

Check out last week’s invite after the break:

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Late this afternoon, Google announced a new blog called Magnifier. Magnifier’s purpose is to shed light on new songs, and well, to remind you to start using Google Music Beta again. The blog features free music and interviews from the artists that make it.

Each day there will be a “Song of the Day” available for free. Today’s featured artist is a personal favorite of mine, My Morning Jacket. Head on over and grab two free songs.

With all three players having introduced their respective music lockers in the skies, we can now pit their respective offerings against each other. The above chart is from paidContent which opined that “Apple doesn’t always get it right the first time” before observing that in iTunes “syncing should be faster and easier” while “song quality may get a boost”.

Apple yesterday took the wraps off iTunes Match, a new feature that scans all your music (regardless of sources) to make matching songs instantly available using iCloud. “With 18 million songs we’re most likely to have what you got”, Jobs said at yesterday’s unveiling. He noted that Apple will automatically upgrade all matching songs to 256Kbps AAC. On the downside, you cannot stream songs with iCloud – yeah, you read that right. What that means is you have to download each iCloud song that is not saved on your iOS device before you can listen to it. What else should you know?

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If you missed big announcements from today’s Google I/O 2011 keynote, don’t sweat – here’s your recap of key takeaways. Google executives first touted 100 million Android activations so far and about 400,000 new devices being activated each day. Other mind-boggling stats include 200,000 free and paid applications on Android Market and 4.5 billion downloads since Android’s launch less than three years ago. That was just a warm-up for big announcements, though…

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This video just went up on the official Google blog, helps shed more light on the just announced music locker service.

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(Cross-posted from 9to5Mac.com)

As we await for the Google I/O 2011 keynote to begin, the search giant’s long-rumored iTunes competitor dubbed Google Music has just went live. It’s an invite-only affair at the moment but we have no doubt it’ll roll out to some or all US users following the upcoming announcement. It’s unlikely that the service at this stage will be immediately available to everyone in the world due to complex licensing terms.

It’s a digital locker in the cloud that lets you access your music via the web and on Android devices (they don’t mention anything about iOS gadgets).

Music Beta is a new service from Google that gives you instant access to your personal music collection without the hassle of wires or syncing. Add your music collection and listen on the web or any compatible Android device.

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