Google Music Leaves Beta, Joins Your Music Cloud?

Google has a history of leaving projects in beta testing for absurd lengths of time (Gmail lasted five years with a beta tag). So, when Google launched its long-awaited music service this summer under a beta tag, with the proviso that it was “free, for now” there was some concern about whether users could really rely on an option that might change dramatically on them at some indeterminate point in the future. Yesterday, users could breathe a sigh of relief as Music Beta by Google (the worst-named music service since Sony’s unpronounceable Qriocity) shed its beta tag to become simply Google Music.

At its core, Google Music is unchanged from the beta. You can upload up to 20,000 songs to Google’s cloud storage and play them back through any web browser or Android device, all free and now with no invites necessary. The Android app was updated within minutes of the event, bringing a new Ice Cream Sandwich inspired look (and removing any sign of the word “beta”) but otherwise largely unchanged. The big news in the announcement came from the new Google Music section of the Android Market.

Like books and movies before it, music gets prominent display space on the Market app (an update should be rolling out within days), as well as a dedicated section of the web interface (that went live during Google’s presentation). Inside, you’ll see offerings from three of the major music labels (Universal, Sony, and EMI) as well as a variety of indie label offerings. Google offers discovery options similar to the rest of the market, including Staff Picks, New Releases, and a Recommended for You section that shows you purchase options based on the songs in your library. Prices seem to range from $.99 to $1.29 per song, and all songs have a 90-second free preview so you can browse your options. Any song you buy goes straight to your Google Music library (as with Amazon’s Cloud Player, purchases from Google don’t count towards your 20,000 song limit), and you have the option of downloading it back to your PC as well as a 320kbps mp3 as well.

T-Mobile put in a brief appearance at the event, touting their history as an early supporter of Android. It was a fairly out-of-place moment, but we did learn that T-Mobile customers receive some unspecified extra free content through Google Music.

So far, all of this is pretty much as expected, but Google’s Senior VP of Mobile promised a “twist” from the new service, and he delivered in more ways than one. The first wasn’t a big shock. Google’s Magnifier blog has been rolled right into the new Music Market, bringing users easy access to the free song of the day and other free content, some of it exclusive to Google. Some of the early offerings will come from six major artists announced during the event. The Rolling Stones, Cold Play, Busta Rhymes, Shakira, Pearl Jam, and Dave Mathews Band all offer exclusive content through Google early on, and some of it is already available for free.

Another twist wasn’t really a big deal for the consumers, at least not up front. The Google Music Artist Hub is Google’s attempt to do to the music industry what Amazon’s self-publishing option in the Kindle library has done to books. Artists can build their own profile pages (for a one-time $25 fee, just like an app developer joining the Market), upload as many tracks as they’d like, set their own price for their content, and even choose what free preview options they want to offer (90 seconds, full preview, or even unlimited free play). It’s not exactly music label backing, but it lets independent artists get their music in front of a potentially huge audience (it was briefly mentioned that Google has now activated over 200 million Android devices) for purchase.

Predictably, given recent events, Google Music has some integration with Google+, but the details are impressive. You can share your Google Music purchases on Google+, and anyone in those circles receives one full preview of that song for free (as opposed to the usual 90 seconds) right there in Google+. Of course, you’ll see a convenient purchase link alongside the post. You can also share via email for people not on Google+. What I find most interesting is how smoothly this sharing option works even in the Google+ Android app. Despite no update to the app (indicating some advanced preparation on Google’s part), when you click the listen link, the song begins to play, and a Google+ icon appears in your notification area, along with some basic song information.

Google Music does pose some concerns, however. You may have noticed how often the word “exclusive” has been used here, which brings rather strongly to mind the issue of content fragmentation. And Google’s offerings are missing some important components as well. Not only are a couple of major music studios still missing from the new service, but the offerings from artists already in the Market can have some conspicuous holes as well. I was particularly interested to note that Adele’s 21 album, which is not available on subscription streaming services like Spotify, is her only offering on Google Music. As a result, Adele’s fans could potentially need to go to multiple sources if they want her complete discography (though Amazon and iTunes both offer more complete catalogs, at least in this case).

Despite these concerns, Google is showing a strong start for its cloud music offering. Now that a purchasing option is available, it offers the most serious challenge available to Amazon’s Cloud Player for Android users. If the content offerings improve, this will be a tough option to beat.