As expected Google on Wednesday used the Google I/O Conference to unveil a new Spotify competitor. Known as Google Play Music All Access the service costs $9.99 per month.
Launching exclusively in the United States the platform costs $9.99 per month. Users who sign up by June 30 can take advantage of the new Google Music platform for just $7.99.
Google plans to roll the platform out to more countries in the future.
Google has entered the streaming music game at an interesting time. Pandora still controls the most users with 70 million monthly active users and 200 million registered but Spotify is gaining ground with 24 million monthly active users and 6 million paying subscribers in 28 countries. Like Google Play Music All Access the Spotify program costs $9.99 per month. Spotify currently also controls the largest catalog of music with 20 million song titles available for listening.
Google engineering director Chris Yerga has described Google Play Music All Access (not pictured) as “a music service that’s about music” and not the technology behind it.
The platform offers an Explore tab that allows users to brows through millions of tracks. Users can search personalized tracks or examine the service’s recommendations that are curated by experts and arranged by genre.
Google’s new music streaming service also allows users to turn any song into a radio station of related songs. Google has also launched a service that allows users to tap on their radio playlist icon and then view upcoming songs. Don’t like a song that is about to play? Simply tap on upcoming song to deleted unwanted tracks.
Google is also offering a “Listen Now” tab which pushes together purchased music with recommendations and a radio feed.
While Google has yet to announce which partnerships it has formed early reports are pointing to licensing contracts with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment.
Google isn’t exactly a stranger to the music scene, the company already offers cloud music service Google Music. The current platform allows users to upload up to 20,000 purchased songs which can be listened to via the Google Cloud at any time across any Android device or via a web player.
Will you be giving Google Play Music All Access a try?
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