Just last night we saw rumours that Google was planning to launch a music streaming service to take on the likes of Spotify, and the company has just confirmed that at Google I/O. Google Play Music All Access expands on the existing music available on the Play Store by offering a streaming service for a subscription fee.
Google seems to be placing a big emphasis on music discovery. When you fire up All Access, you’ll immediately be granted with recommendations based on your browsing and purchase history. If you’re not seeing anything you like there, you can drill down into individual genres of music to find what you’re looking for. Once you select what you’re after, All Access will build a radio station and begin streaming.
The company has added an interesting twist on the traditional radio station creation too. You can reorder tracks that Google has suggested, for example, and if you don’t like a particular track on the queue, you can simply swipe it away. Of course, if you’re after a specific artist, you can search for them too. Pulling up “James Blunt”, for instance, will display the artist’s albums and tracks that you can instantly begin streaming.
As for pricing, Google is pricing All Access at $9.99 a month in the United States, although anyone signing up now will see a free 30 day trial along with a reduced $7.99 fee after the trial is over. It’s launching in the US today, but pricing and availability for the UK haven’t been confirmed just yet. We’d imagine that when it does come to the UK, however, that the pricing will mimic the likes of Spotify and Rdio.
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