Google Play Music for iOS Gets 'I'm Feeling Lucky' Radio

The recently launched iOS version of Google Play Music has received an update bringing it up to par with its Android and browser-based counterparts and giving it an iOS 7-flavored visual refresh.

The (excellent) I’m Feeling Lucky Radio feature is now in place, offering up a selection of music you’ll probably like at the tap of a finger. Auto-playlists have been added to the Playlist menu and the ability to search for genres in addition to artists, songs and albums is now in there too. All Access subscribers get the additional benefit of genre radio stations.

Google Play Music App Lands On Google Glass

Last month, Google confirmed that Google Glass would soon be updated with Google Play Music and All Access integration — and the company has delivered today.

Google has added Google Play Music to the list of official apps supported by Glass — as announced by Glass engineer Stephen Lau in a Google+ update (hat/tip CNET).

Glass owners are able to listen to tracks from their Play Music library, as well as All Access – Google’s on-demand music streaming service – simply by uttering the phrase “Okay Glass, listen to,” and the name of an artist, playlist, album or song. Android Police reports that a ‘Live Card’ will then appear, which displays information such as the artist and song name, as well as basic commands to pause or skip to the next song.



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Google Music Launches with Free Listening on Google+

Google Music went live for U.S. users today, leaving the invite-only beta announced this summer. It's free, and it lets you host up to 20,000 of your songs and stream them to your devices. You can also "pin" songs from the player, which will cache them on your device for playing offline.
You can also now purchase music from the Android Market. It's available in high-quality, 320kbps MP3 format, and you get a 90-second preview before you buy in the store. But to drive more sharing and purchases, the service is integrated with Google+. Music that's shared to Google+ can be played back in its entirety by anyone in your circles.

 

Everyone's searching for a lasting business model for the future of music. On the content side, Google has to contend with Apple, Amazon, and the established digital retailers. But the state of the industry also depends on social sharing, which means that Google Music has to make music sharing better than Facebook's integration with Spotify.

Facebook is a social network bigger than most countries, so Spotify's streaming-only music business has a scale advantage. But Google Music offers something no other social music service does: full-length, high-quality playback for all your friends on Google+. Google Music is a compelling offering, giving users a 20,000-song streaming locker for free, and the Android Market music store has lots of discovery features. Would a great music service like this drive you to use Google+ more?

 By Jon Mitchell at ReadWriteWeb