The Search for the Holy Grail of Music Streaming, Part 2: Google Play Music
I'm back, after trying out another music streaming service. In my search, I'm continuing to find different ways that different services work with my ways of listening to music. This time, I'm going to the one made by my favorite software company: Google Play Music.
If you're thinking that I have some kind of bias towards Google and their products and would choose Google Play Music just because of that, I wouldn't blame you one bit. I'm publically in support of Google and unashamedly tout Android as the best mobile operating system. So, when coming over to Google Play Music for a month-long free trial, I expected a lot.
Instead, I got a little less than I wanted.
Now, Google Play Music works much better for me than Spotify did, mostly because of the way it handles playback. It's very easy for me to use with my preference of listening to albums. I can search for an artist or album on either the mobile app or the web player, select an album, and place it in the queue. I can then place other albums in the queue after it and have them play one album after the other (something Spotify couldn't do at all). This alone makes it leagues better than Spotify for me.
The interface is also a lot cleaner, as it uses Google's Material Design principles present in Android 5.0+. I love Material Design, and its use here is good because it's incredibly simple and easy to navigate, especially compared to Spotify's almost bloated approach. It doesn't look at sleek and smooth as Spotify. Instead, Google Play Music opts for a more playful, pleasant color scheme with its bright orange accents. I like this a lot better than Spotify's emphasis on darker colors.
Also, Google Play Music has every T-Swift album from her self-titled debut to Red. Still no 1989, as that's exclusive to Apple Music, which I probably won't be touching with a ten-foot pole.
However, there's still some problems.
One of Google Play Music's hallmark features is the ability of a user to upload 50,000 of their own tracks for free and integrate them into Google's streaming library. This is an incredibly useful feature, as there are still some gaps in Google's massive 30 million track library that can be filled in with your own uploads. No Beatles or 1989? No problem. Just upload them. They'll even be present in your search results.
Here's the problem: Google doesn't just upload them. To expedite the process, they match tracks you upload with tracks they already have so they don't have to be uploaded for streaming. However good as this may sound, I've had a lot of incorrect matches that make albums seem like the track-to-track volume isn't constant. There's also no volume leveling (ReplayGain to the more technically inclined of us) to compensate for this, so the inconsistencies make me more than a little irritated.
One other thing that's wrong with the process: if you upload your entire 10,000+ song library, you're going to have duplicates. These uploaded tracks show up right alongside the tracks on Google's servers, but they don't eliminate duplicates from the results. This can be pretty frustrating at times.
It may seem like I'm really nitpicking on Google Play Music, and that's probably fair. I'll try to bolster it with the following:
Instead, I got a little less than I wanted.
Now, Google Play Music works much better for me than Spotify did, mostly because of the way it handles playback. It's very easy for me to use with my preference of listening to albums. I can search for an artist or album on either the mobile app or the web player, select an album, and place it in the queue. I can then place other albums in the queue after it and have them play one album after the other (something Spotify couldn't do at all). This alone makes it leagues better than Spotify for me.
The interface is also a lot cleaner, as it uses Google's Material Design principles present in Android 5.0+. I love Material Design, and its use here is good because it's incredibly simple and easy to navigate, especially compared to Spotify's almost bloated approach. It doesn't look at sleek and smooth as Spotify. Instead, Google Play Music opts for a more playful, pleasant color scheme with its bright orange accents. I like this a lot better than Spotify's emphasis on darker colors.
Also, Google Play Music has every T-Swift album from her self-titled debut to Red. Still no 1989, as that's exclusive to Apple Music, which I probably won't be touching with a ten-foot pole.
However, there's still some problems.
One of Google Play Music's hallmark features is the ability of a user to upload 50,000 of their own tracks for free and integrate them into Google's streaming library. This is an incredibly useful feature, as there are still some gaps in Google's massive 30 million track library that can be filled in with your own uploads. No Beatles or 1989? No problem. Just upload them. They'll even be present in your search results.
Here's the problem: Google doesn't just upload them. To expedite the process, they match tracks you upload with tracks they already have so they don't have to be uploaded for streaming. However good as this may sound, I've had a lot of incorrect matches that make albums seem like the track-to-track volume isn't constant. There's also no volume leveling (ReplayGain to the more technically inclined of us) to compensate for this, so the inconsistencies make me more than a little irritated.
One other thing that's wrong with the process: if you upload your entire 10,000+ song library, you're going to have duplicates. These uploaded tracks show up right alongside the tracks on Google's servers, but they don't eliminate duplicates from the results. This can be pretty frustrating at times.
It may seem like I'm really nitpicking on Google Play Music, and that's probably fair. I'll try to bolster it with the following:
- The apps for both iOS and Android are fantastic in areas besides just looks. Offline playback for downloaded tracks is included, and playback is smooth and sounds great. I have absolutely no complaints besides some really, really nitpicky things about the layout of the library. And those are so, so minor in the grand scheme of things.
- You now get YouTube Red included with Google Play Music All Access. This gives you access to ad-free YouTube anywhere you go, as well as the ability to continue listening to YouTube videos in the background or when the screen is off, which is great for podcasts and music videos.
- You get all this for the fairly standard $9.99/month fare that everyone seems to be charging today. However, you can upload your 50,000 tracks for absolutely nothing and still listen to them through the app and on the web player. That's something anyone should consider doing.
- Songza's radio stations are now also in Google Play as well as in their own independent app. These are free with ads and ad-free with a subscription. Considering that Songza is the best internet radio station I've ever dealt with, this is a huge plus, even for free users.
Overall, Google Play Music All Access is a far better option for me than Spotify. It's also great for someone who doesn't want to pay for streaming and has a bigger library because the cloud storage is free. However, because of the inconsistent matching it just doesn't quite cut it for me. That being said, I'll probably still use the cloud locker because it's free, and the integration with Songza is nice too. It's just a little bit off the mark for me, and I don't want to pay $120/year for a little bit off the mark. Oh, well. Back to the search.
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