Google Play Music All Access will be my first paid music subcription service

It isn't perfect, but All Access is a step closer than anything else I've found

Like many people this week, I received an email from Google Play as a gentle reminder that my free trial for Google Play Music All Access was about to end, and that the subscription I signed up for will be charged in a couple of days. "Wow, it's been a month since Google I/O?" was my first reaction. Indeed, it has been a month, and now I was faced with the task of evaluating whether or not I was receiving more than $7.99 worth of value out of my pending monthly payment to Google.

I don't listen to a whole ton of music, I'm not too particular about what I listen to and I rarely find myself buying music at all. Before Google released All Access I primarily relied on a mixture of Pandora (well, about 90-percent of the time) along with my own music collection uploaded to Google Play Music. The draw of a subscription service like Spotify or Rdio just wasn't there for me because at about $10 per month I didn't see the value in them -- I wasn't buying much music anyway, so how is this a good deal?

But, at least for now, Google's going to be getting $7.99 per month from me.

For my uses, All Access represents a value proposition that is simply based in the fact that it is now a one-stop-shop for all things music. The main feature I've used out of All Access is the radio functionality, which takes what I've been used to on Pandora and goes a step further. Being able to search or browse for any artist or song, listen to it and instantly start a never-ending radio station from it is a huge plus for me, and something that's frankly done much better than Pandora ever could. The music selection is greater, the playlists are dynamic and infinitely skip-able and I'll never be paused to listen to an advertisement.

Interestingly, after using the service for a month I don't find myself building tons of new playlists or adding All Access music to my own library all that often. But when I did hear about a new song or artist, I could with one search in Play Music start listening to it right away. Now I generally won't listen to specific music enough over time to justify purchasing a full album, but I get the feeling that listening to a few new albums a month justifies the subscription cost. And when I do make the decision that I like an album or song enough to listen to it often, it is completely seamless to add it to my library where it is then indistinguishable from any of my own uploaded music.

The combination of great radio functionality and the ability to listen to any music I could find (and add it to my own library and playlists) when I have that need easily makes All Access worth the $7.99 monthly to me. Add this to the fact that it's all inside the same Google Play Music app and web interface that I was already using for my own music, and I really didn't have to think twice about whether to accept that pending subscription.

Andrew was an Executive Editor, U.S. at Android Central between 2012 and 2020.

193 Comments

I am going to subscribe as well. As a long time Pandora listener my only item at the moment for the with list on All Access is the ability to mash two radios stations together. Similar to Pandora's 'shuffle'.
It's still not worth it to me. Why pay anything at all when there is Pandora and tunein radio for FREE? I also have my own collection of music which I don't pay a monthly fee to listen to. I just don't see the value...
I used to use Pandora but many of the songs that would get mixed into my station I hated. Being a fan of metal and industrial music, my favorite bands would occasionally play, then it would be basically a list of everything I hate in the genre.
All Access was blew me away on my trial month. 2 of my favorite bands (Skinny Puppy and Download) released new albums this month and on the day of release, the albums were available to listen. I love that! No need to buy the albums at the moment as they've just been added to my favorites. Then the new Black Sabbath comes out and BAM! There it is.
I'm keeping it.
I used to use Pandora, free version, too, all access is way better, plus you can download every song you want, I love listening to comedy radio, louis ck, patton oswald, jim jeffries, all great. All access is totally worth it, and can only get better, especially for 7.99 a month. Hopefully they'll add podcast soon, but no big deal, cause they are free on the web like WTF and Nerdist. The only problem is the 3 pin menu is so small, I keep replaying the same song over and over, before the menu comes up so I can add it to my list.
I always appreciate a good misuse of commas <3
if you buy at least one album a month, it's worth it. Alternatively, if you don't chose the legal music route, you spend a lot of time "adding" to your own collection. For only $8 a month, you can save a lot of time. With seamless integration of music you personally own and music added from google's cloud, it's a great service. It's pandora, spotify, and your own personal music collection rolled into one.
I would argue just the opposite. If you buy one album a month, then you do not need a All Access Pass, because after a year or more, you will have 12 additional albums in your collection that you own and can take with you. Google will not your music provider forever... It is the people who buy much more or less music who benefit. If you buy 3-4, or more albums per month, this will save some money. For those who do not buy any music, this lets them listen to what they want when they want. The rest of the people are left with a very tough decision, especially if the Google Music collection does not have all the music you already like to listen to.
Pandora is good, but... the audio quality is CRAP, you may not realize it but its 64kbit mobile (still 64 even with pandora one) and 128kbit over the web. I stopped using it because of this. Also I would rather pay $7.99 for unlimited access @ 320kbit mobile and web, as well as no ads. Sure Google music doesn't do as good a job of playing music based on your choices/tastes as Pandora, but Pandora dropped the ball with their crap audio quality and lack of growing their service to a all you can eat subscription service.
My subscription to All Access is cheaper than the cost to legally download even 2 CDs of music a month. Not only that, but I can listen to any song I want on any internet connected device I have access to, on demand. Try that with Pandora and tunein. That's not even mentioning the lack of ads, the ability to arrange your own radio stations to your liking, and the top-notch audio quality. Pandora & tunein aren't even in the convo: they've been blown away. Spotify, Slacker, and Rhapsody were the ones in the crosshairs, and they all need to go back to the drawing board to try to best Google's offering.
When Pandora decided to start telling me how I could spice up my love life with Adam & Eve products, I decided I didn't want that app on my phone anymore. I'm no prude but I do sometimes have my parents or clients in the car with me. The variety wasn't there to pay for it to kill those ads.
For me it is the ability to add music to my library that I can listen to offline. I have added probably 20 soundtracks in the past month which if I bought them would be about 2 years worth of All Access service cost. so for me I find just two albums a month worth adding to my library it is worth it. the radio functionality is the bonus for me.
I think the article failed to mention the limitation of not being able to store your music on a microSD card in your phone. I would like to be able to upload my 35gigs of music to the Google Cloud, then have it all available on my phone, plus any music from the All Access Play store that I choose to pin. But, there is no Android phone made that will handle all that and play all day, when I'm traveling in areas with little or no signal. A 64GB One would hold it all, but with no swappable battery, it's not an option when I'm on my motorcycle in remote areas, or on most planes. And I'm certainly not going to pay Verizon for data just to stream music which I already own, from the Cloud. That is just crazy talk. Unless you're rich, I guess. In the meantime, I guess I'll stick with iSyncr to wirelessly sync my phone's SD card with my iTunes library on my laptop, and Pandora.
Exactly how long do you travel for that you need 35 gbs of music? Mt. Everest? You a park ranger? Posted via Android Central App
Why would I possibly want to spend time, say, every week, at home removing music from my phone so that I can put different music on it?? I want to have all my music on it, at all the time, so I never have to spend any further time "managing" the library that's on my phone. I can play anything I own, any time I want, without spending ANY time "managing" it after I initially get it on there. And why would I want to pay Verizon for the data bandwidth to stream a song to me that I already own, when I could just have it stored on my phone? And why would I want to pay Verizon again and again, each time I listen to that song? Really, why would I want to buy a phone or pay for a service that doesn't let me replace carrying around a 64GB iPod?? My current phone (with its 64GB microSD) and iSyncr (syncing my phone nightly, wirelessly, with my iTunes library on my laptop) does exactly that - replaces my 64GB iPod. But, trying to replace iSyncr/iTunes with All Access would be a step backwards.
I just looked through my MP3 library. It looks like a 192Kbps track runs on average around 5MB. If you're paying Verizon $30/month for a 2GB data plan. If I'm doing my arithmetic correctly, that works out to $30 per 400 songs. Or 7.5 cents per track. You want to pay Verizon 7.5 cents every time you listen to a song that you already own?? I guess you could just let them be cached and listen to a subset of your music over and over, so they'd be free after the first time. But, I want to listen to all of my music - without paying for it again!
While I can't say I would ever want my full library on my device, the option to store the music to external SD would be welcome. With the majority of Android phones having only 16GB of storage where we lose a good 4GB to OS and basic applications and then the storage of bigger games and such it doesn't leave much room for storing a larger pin playlist. Ideally we need the ability to store the music to external SD (even if there is some encryption on the files to stop us from ripping them from the card) as well as more phones with 32 and 64GB of storage without jacking the prices of the phone even higher than they already are.
mfriedman
You should have got an HTC One with 64 or 32 GB of internal storage instead of the more expensive under supplied laggy hard to view display Samsung plastic slab. Stop bitching lemming. You got what you wanted. There are many reasons the HTC One is the best smartphone for 2013 and likely will continue to be.
You can get a 64 gb Samsung phone as well. This means upto 128 GB of storage. Don't think HTC one can touch that. and relax, its a phone. no reason to get mad.
That's why I have an unlimited data plan for $30/month (minutes and texts included).
T-Mobile's $30 unlimited plan slows down after 5gb, though I assume not enough to make downloading audio-only content.
T mobile offers truly unlimited plans now. Plus even if you stream music all the time 5 gigs is a lot Posted via Android Central App
i literally just lol and scared my dog. Who needs 35 GB of music that is crazy.
Seriously? I'm consistently astounded by people who argue that there is no need for more storage capabilities on mobile devices (for music, movies, games, or whatever else anyone wants to put on their phone). Makes me feel like we're back in the 80s and people are arguing why anyone would possibly need any more than a few MBs worth of data, it's ridiculous. My phone is my only way to listen to music at work, and my data plan can't handle streaming for that amount of time. I currently use Rhapsody, which isn't great, but it lets me download my entire library to my SD card - like StuartV said, I'm not going to waste my time constantly changing around what music is saved on my phone. I doubt Google will ever offer SD card support, so I won't consider All Access unless I have a phone with enough internal storage. My Galaxy Note II is limited to 16GB (which I think is terrible), so I rely on the SD card. I'm with you StuartV!!
Who needs to listen to all 35 GB? I have 600 songs on my Note 2 and thats enough for me. There's no reason to get over 70 hours of music.
If you root your phone, you can link the Google Play Music cache to your external SD. Then you would just want to cache your entire music collection while you're on wifi. Or, you can just keep your entire music collection on your SD card in whatever format and the Google Play Music app will still be able to access it. All Access would just give you access to any other music you'd want at any time. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2003930 I know it stinks that you have to root to do this, so hopefully Google changes that. Of course, that's the whole reason we use Android phones. If you find something you don't like about your phone, you root it and change it!
I've got a problem. I initially cancelled my trial to avoid the continued charge in a few days. I changed my mind, though, and want to keep it. Unfortunately, I don't see any way to start it up again. I checked the Wallet page, subscriptions, etc. I see the "All Access" subscription but no way to renew. Any ideas?
I wont be cancelling any time soon... Found an app (Song Spout) that allows you to take Google all access music offline permanently. http://songspout.com
I wanted to try it, but it asks for a US credit card for the trial :( Licensing restrictions suck
Here is a little trick, take your current credit card and add a us address.
Apply for the trial, then once you are in change your card back. Worked for me :)
yeahhhh thank you sooooo much i was trying a lot af thing and nothing was ok.
but the trick was ok for me too.
thx
I already have the basic service. Does All Access work outside the states? Especially the paid subscription. Posted via Android Central App
Yup, I use it in Canada
Anyone know if this would work in reverse for a US card holder who wanted to sign up for a service in, for example, France that is restricted to those with addresses in that country on their accounts? I don't have anything specifically in mind--just curious if the trick would work the other way.
Holy crap. That works!? Mind blown.
The only difference then between Rdio, Spotify and Google is the price. Why do you keep comparing All Access to Pandora? The Radio functionality you refer to has been present on Spotify and Rdio for some time so it is certainly no differentiator and should not be the wow factor behind All Access. A far superior article would be to compare Rdio, to Spotify to All Access.
I think he's comparing it because that's what HE uses (clearly stated in the article) :) And in a review piece, while I agree this bears more comparison to Spotify or Rdio, the Radio feature IS a big deal to everyone (iRadio anyone?), so it is a feature that needs to be compared, and in that respect, Pandora has been a long-time favorite (even if georestricted).
It is a big deal to those who have restricted their previous listening experience to Pandora. Yes, I saw that he only uses Pandora but that is not a great article if the other major comparisons such as Spotify and Rdio are not included. This magic Radio feature is great, but it isn't news because it isn't new.
The last I checked, this wasn't a product comparison or a news article. This was a straightforward editorial. He's telling readers why he's moving on from what he previously used. Sorry if your apps of habit happen to differ from his. If you want a comparison, there are plenty on the web. This isn't one of them, nor is it intended to be.
Yes a great one too. One in which the person's purchasing decision is based on zero research into other products out there. The title should have been: "It isn't perfect, but All Access is a step closer than anything else I've found, and I haven't found anything else because I haven't bothered to look past Pandora, so this may be a redundant piece of writing". Would you agree?
Actually one major difference that Google has it the ability to store your MP3 / audio files in the cloud, have your playcounts and ratings sync to the list while merging your audio and your purchased audio fairly well. No more synchronization. I can see which songs I played the most and remove all of my thumbs down audio from my library after playing on my phone just by going online and deleting them from the library. Using the THUMBS UP auto playlist, a thumbs down also removes them from my phone since I set the playlist to autodownload so I save on data charges. Spotify is tedious to keep clean (and is often filled with fake songs or it just links them up incorrectly). And RDIO doesn't merge both your personal collection and its own. With Google Play getting artists like Metallica now, I just stopped buying music unless it's not in the GPlay store......
I really like it as well, and it's cheaper than spotify :) There's two things I miss though:
-You can't search for particular playlists, like "car playlist" or whatever and I like that in Spotify -As far as I know you can't save music offline on your phone. I listen to music a lot and like to have my music in the car. I've got a cap of 2GB and I exceed it if I don't look out which is a pitty :( Still staying with it though, love the lay out and the app and love Google so... :D
You can pin songs and albums for offline use I believe. Posted via Android Central App
Plus, if you have the "cache during playback" option turned on, it appears to automatically save a certain number of your recently played songs for offline playback.
Yes you can! This is the feature I love the most since where I work I get NO service. Just add the song or album to your library by touching the "+ My Library" text, then touch the "push-pin" and the music will be automatically downloaded to your phone for off-line play. Have fun!
I agree about the searching of playlists... I want an 80s station bad. You can actually save the music to your device. There is a little push pin with a circle around it and if you click it, it will download that track/album/playlist to your device. In settings you can set this to wifi or wifi/cellular data. Cheers!
The way I've been doing it is to create a playlist especially for music from All Access and make that playlist available offline on my phone. That way, when I add new songs to that playlist, when I connect to a WiFi network, the music gets auto-downloaded. Pretty seamless! Turns out that in the 20 seconds it took me to write this post, the comment was responded to 3 other times. How about that.
Oh wow thanks so much all three of you!! :D
Never noticed the push pin, this is a huge help.
Even extra nice that it will auto download new songs!
That's the same thing I do. I picked up that method when I was using Spotify, and it made the most sense using All Access. Seems to be the easiest way for me to manage what music I want stored on my phone.
Will stick with Rdio.
Pandora's free service is good enough for me. i like their preset stations too. i don't like pissing away money every month. bank and invest the savings instead. keep your nut low.
I agree. There are so many free options for listening to music that pay radio is hardly something that's mission critical. I only pay for services that would be harmful (detrimental) if they turned it off or took it away or kicked me out of it.
As far as I know, there are NO free options for this kind of thing. There's lots of ad-supported ones, but ad-supported != free.
I want this but until it's available for Sonos it's not worth it for me. Posted via Android Central App
That is one of my issues as well. Google Music seems to be very walled off so it might be a long time before it is made available to Sonos (or any other 3rd party (even the built-in music player on my phone cannot access Google Music!))
Why would you even want to use the built-in music player? (I'm assuming you're using some skinned out version of Android.) Use the beautiful Google Play Music app.
I agree the new version is nice to use. I never liked the old version and got into the habit of using the default player.
I too am paying the monthly fee! I've really enjoyed the music choices they offer, and I've gotten quite a few new favorites as well! :) Thanks Google!! :)
I love it because it is a combination of my own music library of things I already own along with all the music All Access provides, all in one app.
I love All Access!! Posted via Android Central App
All Access? Not really...In fact, I can't even access ALL of my OWN music because of Google's 20,000 song limit. The decision to limit the number of songs someone can upload just baffles me. I can't understand why they don't even offer this at an additional cost.....
It's All Access given the streaming ability. Which is why it's called "All Access". You're nitpicking over something somewhat unrelated Also, do you really need 20,000+ songs? Or do you, like most of us, myself included, have a f*ckload of music and actually only listen to SOME of it? I've got a sizable collection to say the least. I genuinely don't listen to all of it or even need access to all of it all the time. Which is why All Access is great, I can explore a plethora of artists and genres at my whim. In addition to all I have stored already. (The fact that I have unlimited data through T-Mobile and an amazing network connection where I live is just icing on the already delicious Google/Android cake.) Also, you're being very ungrateful and acting incredibly entitled considering that 20,000 song limit is EXTREMELY generous. Not too mention, you know, FREE. No other service allows you anything even remotely close to it in terms of storage space for JUST your music. Not for free at least. Then again, this is the internet. If someone somewhere didn't complain or act entitled about something they get for free it might self-destruct. So thanks for saving the internet, I guess.
Entitled people will be entitled.
My issue is not at all unrelated. Google strongly wants us to visit their "Play Music" mini-ecosystem. Your personal music collection is integrated with the on-demand and radio functionality of All Access...throw in the play store for good measure and you (supposedly) have a central location for all of your music needs. As it currently stands, I can't play some of my personal music within that ecosystem. So...now you're asking me if I really need all of my music. Wow! So, I'm going to have someone else tell me how much music I can have? And the point in my last sentence was that you'd think Google would at least offer an option to PAY for additional storage. I'd gladly do it. I currently pay $20/year to Amazon that allows me to upload max of 250,000. I also pay a monthly subscription to Slacker. My viewpoints (personal and political) are as far away from supporting entitlement programs as you can imagine, so don't even go there.
If you're complaining about not getting more from a free service, that's pretty entitled. The question I would ask is, how much of your personal music can you not already access through All-Access? If you can already get it, then why do you need to upload it?
Wow. Way to take offense. I genuinely meant, do you really need all that music? As in do you listen to ALL of it ALL the time? Or can you perhaps curate it and remove things you don't really listen to? Thereby freeing up some of that space for other material you wish to add to "your" library. The whole point of All Access is to be able to stream music anytime anywhere with minimal hassle and create radio stations and playlist around what's there. Seriously, you're acting incredibly entitled in wanting 20,000 songs and then some. Additionally, as evidence has shown, Google does things in roll outs and stages. The additional storage at a price is potentially something that might come down the line. It seems likely anyway. But that you want that unveiled ASAP along with All Access is asking a bit much, especially, when you have to factor in that Google can't just snap their fingers and make it happen. You completely overlook the fact that they have to offer up some limitations and put in place some restrictions (despite being negligible to everyone but you apparently) to appease the music labels. Who are far more likely the reason for the 20,000 limitation than Google (not wanting to offer certain features). And your viewpoints (personal and political, which are not stated, nor do I care to hear them) are actually quite entitled, per the given conversation. Google gives you something free. You take advantage of it and fill it. Google offers additional services and features on top of the one they already had in place. You see fit to complain about previous offering, which is free. If that isn't the definition of entitlement then obviously entitlement doesn't mean what the dictionaries say it means. When they unveil the additional storage at a cost, you can complain about limitations. Until then be happy with what you have. Apparently, it all and then some. That it's not in one place seems to be your gripe. That and the name of the new service, which is unrelated to the former one offered. "All Access... hardly!" That's you. That's how you sound. Entitled to say the least. Merriam-Webster. Entitlement: belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges Hmm. Google should provide additional storage for my bajillion song collection. Why, oh why, does that almost sound like the belief that one is deserving of or ENTITLED to certain privileges (or things)? Wait, wait. I'll figure this out.
I don't think I've ever said this to someone on the Internet before (though I have thought it, many times): You are an idiot. The guy complained that he doesn't have the option to PAY for more storage. That is the opposite of acting entitled. You also said: "The whole point of All Access is to be able to stream music anytime anywhere with minimal hassle" You also said: "can you perhaps curate it" Your first statement was valid. Your second statement shows more of your idiocy. HAVING to curate your music because of an arbitrary limit, which he is willing to PAY to raise, completely defeats the idea of anytime, anywhere, with minimal hassle.
This. Though without the name calling. I'm in the same situation. I wouldn't mind uploading my entire library and augmenting that with the new service. The problem is I'm also way beyond the 25,000 song limit. Curating doesn't work cause music taste changes with mood. If I want to listen to rap-core in the morning and new age in the afternoon I should just be able to do it without having to pick and choose how much of each has been uploaded. Honestly that kind of limitation is why I switched to Rhapsody years ago (before Google music and Spotify were available). I have access to my local library of songs, access to stream whatever I can think of, build mixed playlists, keep a library, and run it like a radio - or use other people's radio stations. For me Rhapsody provides way more than the other available services. Google is getting closer but still not there yet. What would make me switch is dynamic playlists. I've been asking Rhapsody for a couple of years now for this. I want playlists to adapt as I rate songs and add albums to the library. For example I want to build a playlist that is "Four star or better Industrial songs from the 90's" and have that playlist adjust itself as my library grows. Wouldn't that be cool?
Actually the idiot is you and that guy. You see, he started off by stating there was a limit. And he didn't have access to all his music or the ability to add more. To something that was free. That is the definition of entitlement. In addition to which was his remark about All Access, which was specifically focused on the fact that he couldn't have access to all his music and then some. A truly nitpicking and moronic point if there ever was one. THEN he stated it was odd that Google didn't have a pay option for additional storage space. Which he'd gladly pay for. That isn't entitlement. The former was, the latter wasn't. Surprisingly, there's a difference between the two. It's amazing how reading comprehension seems to be almost something that isn't required to comment online, otherwise you'd see how I'm correct in stating he's displaying a true sense of entitlement. Secondly, my second statement is valid and shows no idiocy whatsoever. You see, any reasonable person would see the arbitrary limit and determine if they really do need all their personal music going towards it. Which directly contravenes the idea of not having that limit and enjoying "all access" anytime, anywhere with minimal hassle. (Because of the streaming capabilities of All Access.) Basically, why do you need songs in your library that are available via All Access? Your need to insult makes you look more foolish than the first guy, especially given the fact that you didn't look at things even remotely from a logical and reasonable perspective.
Why am I an idiot? Jeez....been passive/aggressive much? I simply would like a "pay" option to upload my entire collection. If some want to take advantage of the free services, that's fine. A big message coinciding with the marketing of All Access is being able to enjoy all of your own music as well. An example is pasted below from the Google Play Store under the Google Play Music description: "With both All Access (US) and Standard, the Google Play Music app lets you listen to your music collection anywhere. All your music is stored online, so no need to worry about syncing, storage space or offline playback." Finally, your pretty insulting with your posts, so let's just move on.
250,000 songs, in today's market would have cost you a quarter million dollars.
I strongly doubt you've shelled out a quarter mil, or even $20,000 for your collection. Add to that uploading all of that (at 3 to 10 meg per track) would take years. Google probably limited it so as not to be a target for investigation. After looking around at a typical person's collection of CDs and Vinyl they decides that 20k was sufficient for all but the wholesale music pirates living in college dorms uploading each other's collection. Initially, Google music stored everybody's songs individually. That soon passed in the light of court decisions, and now they just keep a book keeping entry saying you "own" a copy of the song. They don't even really upload common music any more, they just sample it from your hard drive. So they could now afford to offer more storage for more songs, and probably do it for zero more dollars. But why should they? They want and need to make money.
Your post is also full of Fail. He never said he has 250,000 songs. Only that that is Amazon's limit. I have 5,000 songs and every one of them I bought the CD and ripped it to my computer myself. It's the result of years of listening to music. I doubt that it cost me $1 per track, but it may have. Regardless, it seems totally feasible to me that many other people could have way more music than I do. I actually don't buy music that often. Your additional fail comes in pointing out how long it would take to upload all those tracks, then pointing out that Google doesn't even do that any more. They just log which tracks you own. The next fail to mention is your speculation on why Google limited the uploads. Pure speculation and poppycock, to boot. They "limited it so not to be a target for investigation"?!?! Bwaahahahaaa!! Your final fail is pointing out that they want and need to make money and then busting on this guy because he's complaining that they won't let him PAY for a higher limit.
Also some of us have been collecting music for a long time. Well before "today's market". Some of us also have piles of music from attending shows and clubs - demos, compilations, and other stuff that is out of print (or never was in print). Some of us also maybe used to hit the used and scuf sections a lot back in the day and amassed huge collections for pennies on the retail dollar. Basically your response is based on logic that is extremely shortsighted.
There are probably more pirates than long-term collectors of obscure tracks.
They really should increase the song limit but it's not as big a deal as you think because you don't actually have to upload songs that are already in Google's catalog. It's a pain to have to prune what gets uploaded but in my case, easily half my 25k songs didn't have to be added to my locker. Google could make this easier for folks by not counting matched songs against the 20k limit or by increasing the 20k limit since we're paying anyway.
I agree, and I expect we'll see those features in the future.
And just how many songs do you own that aren't available via All Access? Posted via Android Central App
It is my first streaming service too. For now I am going to be keeping it also. I just hope it gets an iOS app soon. Posted via Android Central App
I.have.not paid for music in years. Not going to start now.
..
Yeah, because you know, the artists don't deserve to make at least a couple dollars off of their artistic material. You sir are a dick...oh wait, look at your name! Coincidence?
He could be using strictly Pandora. I hadn't bought music in years either, that doesn't mean I was pirating. I just went between Pandora and my existing collection.
That's kindof uncalled for. There are plenty of legal ways to listen to music without pirating it (any of the streaming services that have been around for years or listening to stuff you already owned). You know, I haven't bought a movie/dvd/blu-ray this century. But I still have managed to watch several movies each week legally and have never pirated one.
Your fist name suits you.
I was using Pandora but have switched to All Access as well. So far so good and I'll be sticking with it after the free period. The one thing I thought they showed during I/O was the ability to drag upcoming tracks to rearrange the play order but I haven't seen a way to do that. Is that functionality in yet?
Once you're playing the tunes, pull up the info/play/pause bar from the bottom to see the full screen album art & controls. Then in the top right-ish corner you'll see a list looking button, push it and you'll see your queue where you can freely drag to rearrange. :)
You have to drag it using the left-side of the title (the 3 horizontal lines to the left of the album art). Grabbing it elsewhere will just result in scrolling the list up and down. Took me a couple minutes trying to figure it out as well.
Could've sworn I tried that. Thanks for the tip!
Actually will be my first paid phone service or subscription as well! (I don't count Netflix) Although, I wish there was more built in radio channels like 90's, 90's rock/metal, etc.. Play All Access has been good enough to buy... Finally!
Go to Explore>Genres>Rock (for example)>Subgenres> there you will find 90’s Rock. Posted via Android Central App
I started my trial this week. As long as I play music via my phone's speaker, its great. However, over headphones, this app leaves a lot to be desired. The included EQ is worthless. Over the next month I'll have to tweak ViPER on my device for the best sound. I wish this had a built in EQ like Poweramp. Still I love the music selection and have experienced songs from artist I never would have listened to. For less than the price of a CD a month, I can discover new artist and if I like what I hear, I can pin the music to my device for offline listening. I'd say it's worth the price of admission.
From what I have noticed on my various devices, it will use whatever EQ is set up on your device if your ROM supports it. CM10 uses DSP Manager, which works very well and has a ton of features. The All Access app pulls it right up from the settings menu.
^^^THIS!! I would love to have a one-stop shop for all my music and would gladly pay for All Access to get music to supplement my own collection, but I can't get away from Poweramp because of the EQ. No other music player seems to be able to match it and that makes a big difference to me. It seems strange to me that more people aren't bothered by this (or maybe they just haven't heard how much better the music that comes out of Poweramp sounds). Or maybe I'm missing something....
I think Spotify is much better. More tracks to choose from plus the ability to download music locally...
Well, Spotify has ~20 million and Google has ~18 million (not a whole lot of difference when you're talking that many). They both let you download music locally, so that point is invalid. Google wins out for me since you can upload your own music, which is huge for me since I have a relatively large library of local bands that aren't going to exist in Spotify. And it's $2 cheaper. I haven't used Spotify much, but does it offer the ability to look ahead at the playlist and rearrange it or remove upcoming songs? That's one of my favorite features I haven't seen elsewhere.
You can rearrange or remove queued songs with Play Music, too. Works effortlessly on the app, haven't tried it on the web version.
Yeah, that's what I said. I was asking if Spotify let you do that.
You, sir, are 100% correct. That's not even mentioning that a notable percentage of Spotify's 20mil+ catalog is NOT comprised of original recordings. I happen to listen to a lot of rap, R&B, blues, house, etc. I hated the fact that for older songs Spotify quite often had just edits and remasters. Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes songs without Teddy Pendergrass actually doing the singing are NOT the same songs! I haven't encountered this a single time with All Access. When you also consider that Google considers anything 300MB and under a single song this clinches the title for All Access easily. I upload podcasts and hour-long mixes to Play Music and they count as just one song each!
Ditto. I was shopping around and leaning towards Rdio when they announced this at Google I/O. I'll be continuing my subscription here when my trial is up. The "all-in-one" feature with my purchased music (which includes a ton of local bands that aren't going to be available elsewhere) seals the deal for me. They need a couple of enhancements though which I hope they come out with soon: 1) Ability to choose your quality. It defaults to the highest quality it can get with the connection, which means I chew through data on 4G. it needs a way to choose lower qualities when using mobile data for those of us with data limits. 2) It needs a way to play a genre. Like "80's Rock" or "Explicit Comedy" for example....sure I can pick a band/artist from that era, but can't choose a generic genre. 3) Oddly, the Google Now Command "Play Guns N Roses" works fine (and will start playing Guns N Roses Radio). However, the Now command "What's this song" will identify the song but only give you the option to buy it in Play, not to play it in Google All Access. That would be great if it would. 4) Strangely I have seen music I've "thumbed down" play again. I thought that would ban the song (giving it thumbs down makes it skip to the next song, but all other services I've tried have banned the song for me, or given me the option to ban the song or the artist entirely). Other than that, I've been thrilled with the service.
You need to explore the app a little more. If you look at the main menu (headphone button, upper left corner) and then goto the "Explore" section you can choose by main genre's. You can then swipe to the left from the main genre to a list of subgenre's. I was easily able to locate 80's Rock music. Edit: I didn't find it initially either.
Yeah, I found it a long time ago, but you can't play it. It just explores artists and albums within that genre (and then you can play one of those or create a station from them). You can't just play "80's Rock" as a station. Sorry that my "complaint" wasn't clear on what I meant.
I'm going to stick with All Access as well, but they need to step up their game in the very near future. Mainly I'm talking about the thumbs up and thumbs down options. Why are they there if they don't matter? I can thumbs down all the songs I hate, but they keep coming back. I'd like to give it a thumbs down, never see that song again and most of the time I'd rather not ever see that artist again. Does anyone know if that's ever going to be an added option?
I started the trial the day it went live during IO. Absolutely loved it within hours of use and pretty much decided then and there this would also be my first paid music subscription service. I've shown it to others who've voiced similar opinions, definitely a keeper and money well spent. I think the best thing about it overall is that it basically takes what everyone else offers respectively and combines them into one place and does so in a way that is better than what the other services offer. It's Pandora, Rdio and Spotify combined. From Google. "Boom. Done." That'd be my way of putting it.
I like the fact that you can use it on more than one device at a time. I can be listening at work on my phone and my girlfriend can listen at home on the computer. Any other service boots you out when it detects another connection.
But then you have to be logged in on the same account, which is really awkward.
Create a dummy gmail/google+ account. My wife and I share a gmail account, but also have our own personal ones that we use on a more regular basis. The shared account really only used for the Play Store.
I had the free trial for about a week before I cancelled it. I love the price. I love the selection. I love the UI. I love the seamless integration into my current Play Library and as well as the library stored locally on my SD card. What I don't love and the single reason I cancelled it is the DATA USAGE! Even unchecking the "cache during playback" and "highest quality" options, GPMAA was still racking up the data usage, and I have a 4 GB/month cap. Streaming a single album was still using north of 200 MB. I tried Rhapsody and found that, even unchecking the high quality streaming option, the quality was better than GPMAA's lower quality setting and I was only using a 1/5 of the data to stream the same amount. Now if and when Google reins in their data hog of a music service, I would be very ready to re-subscribe, but until then, I'll stick with Rhapsody.
I've heard that before, and I don't get it. I'm tracking it and I streamed an entire album (one of the Black Keys) and used about 25MB. I tracked a few others and haven't seen anything close to 200MB. Typically I only stream over mobile data for about 1.5 hours a day (to and from work and for a short 1/2 hour walk) so it hasn't been an issue....yet. But it uses more than Slacker did (my previous streaming app). I've been keeping a close eye on it over the last few days because of the data usage complaints but haven't noticed anything close to what some people are saying. Maybe I'm not listening to the right (wrong) albums.
That IS very strange. I would have included a screen shot showing the usage over the past month, but I upgraded my phone after ditching GPMAA so I don't have that info anymore. I have read (can't remember where the article/comments were) that Google uses some kind of system where it will stream music at the highest quality that your device's current network speed/connection allows. It's meant to reduce the amount of skipping or buffering you encounter by shifting down to lower quality if the connection is too slow. Selecting the "Stream at Highest Quality" option disables this and forces the app to keep the quality even if it leads to skipping. If that is true, then the problem is that there is no way to force the app to stick with a LOWER quality regardless of connection speed/strength. You basically have no control over preventing high quality streaming. I really wonder how many users are going to get a nasty wake-up call when their next billing statement arrives and shows a huge amount of data usage.
Yeah, weird. I just looked and I'm up to 34MB today with about little over an hour's worth of streaming (been in the car a bit longer than usual).
I have no idea why that's happening but good for you!!! :D
It's been a toss-up between this and Spotify. Google's All Access using far and above more data than Spotify does, but in general I like All Access better, so I will just pin the music I listen to most to my device to get around the data usage.
I don't understand how anyone could use Pandora. Unless it changed after I tried it, but you only get radio stations, and won't even hear the song you requested when you start it. I only like the true on-demand style of Google Play Music All Access (GPMAA?) or Spotify.
Zune was my first paid subscription service. I'm still paying for it, but I'll be paying for All Access, too.
Same here. 1st music subscription service for me. I do listen to and buy a lot of music and again while not perfect, its features and benefits are incredible. There is lot of music I've had in my Amazon Wish List, so I have indeed added a lot of music to my library, as well as pinned it to my device.
I'm with you. I have never paid for a music streaming service, but am planning on keeping All Access. I was the same and only listening to Pandora, but you mainly heard the same songs and a lot of times it would be the live versions of them. I like that I can combine what I already own and others songs I don't into a playlist. I have it set up that it only streams on wifi so I will pin albums or songs I like to put them in a playlist while I'm driving. They need to add a social aspect where you can share a playlist or see what your Google+ circles are listening to (like Spotify does with Facebook) for better music discovery and in the radio they need to have more options like by genre.
In the browser version when you create a playlist it asks if you want to share it. Maybe, they will bring that to the mobile version as well.
I am liking it a lot. Google took every music service out there and combined it into one. On top of that, they did a better job than Pandora or Spotify, imo. Very happy with the service and got it at the introductory price of $7.99.
I currently use Spotify. I like it because I can share my account with my family. My daughter uses it on her Galaxy Nexus (but only while on wifi because she doesn't have a data plan), my wife uses it on her One X, and my son uses it on the PC at home, while I use it on my Galaxy Note 2. Since I have an unlimited data plan I'm the only one who streams live while away from wifi. The rest of my family members download their playlists (pretty huge playlists at that) while at home on wifi and listen anytime, anywhere in offline mode. Can I do the same with AllAccess? Posted via Android Central App
You can actually authorize up to 10 devices for use with your Google account and Google Play Music. One thing I hated about almost all other services is that I couldn't use multiple devices at the same time. With Google? No problem!
Tried using it simultaneously on multiple devices and I get "Music is temporarily unavailable. Be sure you're playing your collection on only one device at a time". Posted via Android Central App
I've NEVER received this message...EVER. In fact, just to test if Google has made any changes to the service I am at this very moment streaming Mint Condition - Breaking My Heart on my phone, while streaming Lyfe Jennings - Must Be Nice on my tablet. No issues whatsoever.
I'm going to pass on the subscription. I have had too many glitches with the service when sitting at a desktop computer: Audio on songs start two or three seconds into the track, or I get a message about not being able to reach the servers. (I use Slacker and Pandora without such problems from the same location). I also think the streaming on 3G connection isn't working very well at the point when you are in mixed coverage. If I loose the signal but then reacquire in good coverage, the music does not resume. Even if I force shutdown the app I can't seem to reacquire the music in those situations (like hiking in low mountains). Again, I don't have this issue with Spotify or Slacker. Finally, the selection does not seem to be that great.
Do they offer Google Play Music All Access as a program on the Mac or an app on the iPad? Just curious because I currently use Spotify and there is an app for every device.
Oh never mind, I guess you can just use the web interface. Is it well built?
Yep. There is an iOS app (GMusic) that I use on my iPad, but it's 3rd party. Waiting on the official Google one, but GMusic works fine.
I'm keeping Google Music All Access and saying "buh-bye" to Spotify. Both have their pros and cons. All Access won because of the price, and the app doesn't suck.
Google needs to buy iHeart Radio and then have live radio stations... Posted!
Clear Channel released iHeartRadio to help combat losses suffered from the dying radio industry. I don't think we'll see Google buy out Clear Channel, nor buy their streaming radio app with rights to their thousands of channels.
My free trial expires tomorrow. I'm teetering n the edge about renewing it. Music selection is small and the interface is clunky. Posted via Android Central App
how can i get a trail if im in the UK is there anyway to bypass it? thanks
Using xbox music on my pc which is good but no mobile app sucks. Want to move to Google for the longest time but not available in Canada. Just want one player for all my music. Posted via Android Central App
Not available in UK = useless, why should I bother??
Right now, you probably shouldn't.
The All Access app still has a very annoying bug on my phone - Before I drive home, I will look for 4 or 5 songs specific songs to add to the instant queue.... So I'll find a song, hit in the middle and it'll start playing. Then I'll find another song, hit the vertical-three-square icon and press 'Add to Queue.' Then I'll find another song... and another... and finally, on my last song, I'll hit in the area of the vertical-three-square icon and it'll completely ignore where I pressed, play that song and completely wipe out the quick playlist I created. So annoying, it almost makes it unusable. If I could long press on a song and bring up the option menu, I would do that, but I have to resort to positioning my finger in a perfect way to hit the icon (unless it overrides and hits the song anyways).
I LOVE Google Play Music All Access! Previously, I used to spend up to $10 per month on tracks, or sometimes just buy an album. The $7.99 subscription fee (per month) is a pretty good deal. All Access is like a buffet of music which I enjoy everyday, without a limit! I hope that Google finds a way to bring this to people everywhere!
I'm happy with All Access so far. I was using a Spotify (free radio only) and Pandora tag team for music before and All Access is a better option for my picky music tastes. I had 10,000 of my own songs already so it was an easy choice when announced. Someone started a subreddit for All Access playlists. So far there are only a handful but it was just started yesterday. r/allaccessplaylists/
For now, I'm going to continue with the service also. I hope some things improve though. For example, when I start the radio from the same album (or song) it's always the same radio queue, starting with the same song. Spotify radio is always different. Also you can only do radio from an album or song, not an artist or playlist. Again, things Spotify does. Also, on playlists you can pin the music (store it locally) on the phone. There is real estate next to that pin button that I wish had a shuffle button. Simple things like that could go a long way.
Actually, you CAN do radio from an artist quite easily. Just search for any artist (or look them up from "Explore"), and you will see a button that says "Play radio". Also, the way All Access works there is essentially no difference between a radio station and a playlist. If you play an existing radio station it plays that playlist. If you want to change the playlist just search for the song again, click the menu icon, and select "Start radio". You can even just open the station that has the song you wanted, click the menu icon next to that song, and select "Start radio". Either way completely randomizes the playlist.
So I'm reading the comments to this and interspersed throughout the comments are 'Ads by Google'. And what is Google advertising on this article for their music product - why Rdio and Spotify of course! Priceless!
Funny, I could have written this article. What I'm really enjoying is the nascient playlist exchange community that is starting to crop up around All Access. reddit has one here-> http://www.reddit.com/r/allaccessplaylists/ and of course, on Google Plus here-> https://plus.google.com/communities/115370956855213576174 and here -> https://plus.google.com/communities/110073796249866502840
My only complaints with the service, as an overall package, are: - Album art from my uploaded music looks terrible - Sometimes uploads my music into multiple albums - Needs different streaming quality options Not the biggest issues, just little annoyances.
Still like Rhapsody better because you can download music for playing off-line.
You can download All Access music for offline listening the same as anything else in your library.
Why do people keep saying this? Do you not look at the capabilities of thing you're comparing it to? Access let's you download it for playing offline as well.
I think you misunderstand what he's saying. You can download to *devices* with GPMAA, but not to a *computer* that I can find. With Rhapsody, you can download to a folder on the computer and keep it, thus, my entire Rhapsody collection is on my laptop (quite a few thousand songs). This has helped me a few times because albums will disappear from time to time in Rhapsody (probably because of some licensing issue with the artist or label). With Rhapsody, because the file is downloaded to the computer, I can still listen to it. If it's downloaded to a device, I wonder what happens? I haven't been able to find where the songs are stored, so do they stay or do they disappear?
Mine too since they my free 30 days are up tomorrow..
Yeah I had a Pandora One subscription, but after using All Access I had found more new music in 2 days than 6 months of Pandora. Two of my friends signed up at the same time as me too. One of them had a spotify subscription and cancelled that after trying it too. So they got 3 subscriptions from us where we normally wouldn't even purchase music. Too bad I just renewed Pandora. Posted via Android Central App
Is this another service where the UK will be forgotten about again? Posted via Android Central App
Does anybody here use slacker radio. You have the option of a free, $4 a month or $10 a month subscription. They have new albums literally within days if not hours of release and you can make your own radio station by picking through their catalog of songs or just adding whole artists at a time. Plus, you can choose which radio stations to cache on your phone, whether slacker preset stations or ones that you made. That way if you ever lose your signal you can still listen to the cached stations you stored on your phone. It has lyric lookup for each song and info about the artists and albums. Who still uses Pandora anyway. Every Pandora user I know hates it and loves slacker after I show it to them. Maybe Google has something going but I chose long ago to give slacker $10 a month and I haven't regretted it yet.
I used to have Slacker Premium. I dropped them for Spotify when they started losing licenses for a significant amount of the older music I listen to. When I emailed them about it (because I saw a marked preference for gaining new licensing for other genres of music) their response was essentially "we'll take a look at it". Great customer service there. The problem with Slacker compared to All Access is that it's still just radio. Slacker only lets you cache entire stations...a couple of hours of music apiece. Google lets you cache individual songs if you want to. Slacker lets you curate your radio stations, and sure Slacker Premium has on-demand playback, but All Access also lets you build a PLAYLIST on demand, and reorder it on the fly! Google also integrates in your own purchased and uploaded music into your radio stations and playlists, and has better audio quality. Slacker essentially has been lapped by the competition. Users like yourself just have yet to venture out of their pasture to see the grass really IS greener on the other side.
While it may be a bargain to some, and everyone has their reasons.
I can live with the Audio quality on Tunein Radio, which sounds good enough to me.
I am not going to pay a monthly fee to listen to the Radio.
And also not to mention, and agree with some others.
The fact that the music you purchase is hidden within the cloud is a deal breaker for me. Posted via Android Central App
There's a key error there: the music you purchase can be downloaded at any time. Yes, I mean the music you actually purchase, and I don't mean pinning it. You can download it. Your All Access subscription is not "purchasing" music. You are paying for a license to listen to whatever you want in their catalog of songs. If you want to own songs, you can buy them, and take them out of the cloud whenever you want. Considering that TuneIn is essentially terrestrial radio stations with no real control over what's played, you are getting what you are paying for.
You can actually download the music from All Access if you hit the "Add to My Library" button and then go into the Music Manager on a desktop there is an option to download My Library and it includes all the songs you added for free through All Access.
Um....did you read my comment? It should be understood that the songs you uploaded for free can be redownloaded for free. I was referring to the songs you actually pay for, which can also be downloaded...and which directly addresses the OP statement.
Maybe they changed it in the last few weeks, but no, you can't. I just read your comment and tried it. I thought that would be a great way to back up my library. However, when I select the option to download My Library, it will only download those songs that I've uploaded. Perhaps there's an option selection that I'm missing?
Terrestrial? It still works for me. I have better places to invest my money. ;-) Posted via Android Central App
Yes, terrestrial, as in "on the Earth" or "existing in real life". Tunein is just like Iheartradio. It's nothing but internet streaming of real radio stations, as opposed to internet radio. If you choose to invest your money in that, fine by me, although you sound like someone choosing to play their old VHS collection rather than pay for Netflix lol.
It may come as a shock to you. But I do have a Netflix subscription. And I do know what terrestrial means.
And I also know how to have an opinion, minus the sarcasm. :-) Posted via Android Central App
For those who are gonna drop Google All Access just remember you CAN download all the songs in you library through the Music Manager on the desktop so you can keep all those songs you added for free through All Access.
Actually no, you cannot. The only songs you can download are the ones you uploaded through the Music Manager app on the desktop, and the ones you purchased through Google Play. All other songs in your library will only display a "Share" button. That's because you don't own them, you merely licensed the right to play them for that month.
Subscribing too, and recently just went away from manually storing music on my phone. Just so much more convenient than downloading from say amazon mp3 and having to transfer/upload.
Also easy and cheap enough, piracy is just a hassle. Always loved what the Steam head said, no one will pirate if you offer far better and convenient services. Posted via Android Central App
I think the UI is cluttered and confusing. Throws in a ton of music and albums I've never seen in the My Library category. Posted via Android Central App
Nice. I'm actually thinking the exact same thing Chris. Likely will sub tonight. Posted via Android Central App
All Access is the best. If I'm having a party i can just select the playlist based on the crowd with no interruptions. I blow my Teenage daughter away when I play my rap playlist. She and her friends are like "How you know them songs" I can listen to any song or album anytime i want. I can skip, fast forward, rewind and repeat. We pay $7.99 at McDonald's or some fatty food place three or four times a week anyway. I deleted Pandora. Most people who speak negatively about Google All Access has never used it. They most likely steal music through illegal downloads getting all those virus and worms on their devices or they are not true music lovers.
That discount price is pretty tempting but I rather stick Spotify who's been good to me for quite some time. The updates have been noticeable and the interface works like a charm on Mobile devices. Plus, there's an app for my Roku 3. Posted via Android Central App
Question: If I download music for offline listening, then cancel my subscription, will I lose the music I downloaded?
if its anything like my past music subscription which was very similar to this one (Zune Pass) then you won't lose it, but you won't be able to play it. think of it having an expiration date. once that month is up, your tracks "expire" you will be able to see them in your library (maybe google will remove them when off subscription) but you won't be able to play them.
I didn't see anyone mention it, and a lot of people do not seem to know, that Google (once you create a User ID and Password) will also let you, through the Play store, store/upload up to 20,000 songs on their server for free that can be access by any device with an internet connection. You can set up playlits and all the usual. The songs can be from any source, including iTunes. I have an HTC One X+ phone, Nexus 7 and a laptop at home, and I do not have any music loaded on any them because of this. Let's see Apple or MS do that for it's customers!
I want to subscribe as well to make use of this 7.99 offer, but I'm not getting the popup and it doesn't show up at the Settings anymore.
I'm in the UK, but I know there's ways around it, but those don't work for me because of the above. Such a shame. Guess we'll have to wait for it to arrive in the UK, hoping that it will also be introduced with a discount offer in the first month.
I've been on this since day one and I'm loving it! On average I spend from 7 dollars to 10 dollars a month on music dl a month. This service will save me a buck or 2 plus its just plain cool.
Am I the only one that was really expecting a free "radio" only version of all access? I mean, give me an ad supported Pandora/iTunes radio clone and I would be happy. Google IS an advertising company, why not make some money off ads. I am going to be going back to Pandora here Tomorrow, and THEY will be getting my money....not google. Sad, because I Prefer the Play music interface over Pandoras and I can ditch another app in the Process. Please Google, do this. the "All access" just isn't worth it to me....but the ad supported radio definitely is, and I'm sure it is to MANY others as well.
I'm a big time music listener, so as soon as All Access came out, I subscribed. I haven't regretted it in the slightest. Being able to simply add any and all music I want to my library then make it available offline is incredible. No longer do I have to choose between buying albums, because now price is no barrier and I can have them all. Could see this not being for everyone, but for someone who has as diverse a love for music as me, it is an answer to prayers. Posted via Android Central App
so the main attraction to the writer was the pandora like radio service. he mentions how you can search for an artist/song and get a station playing music similar to that song/artist. isnt that precisely what pandora does? kind of failing to see what the big draw is...can anyone help me out here?
I see you completely stopped reading then, and skipped over this part: "and something that's frankly done much better than Pandora ever could. The music selection is greater, the playlists are dynamic and infinitely skip-able and I'll never be paused to listen to an advertisement." That's not even considering all of the other stuff All Access has to offer. SMH.
I signed up for All Access recently and love it. Find myself Exploring all the music and listening to more music more often. I'm sold and will be keeping it. Posted via Android Central App
My personal music collection + Google's algorithmic brilliance = very happy listening experience for me! I liked Pandora well enough, but I kept getting the same songs over and over. All Access has an advantage in having my (very very eclectic--read: weird) music collection ready to build upon, and they've done a great job introducing new stuff into the mix. Definitely worth $8 a month. This is also my first paid streaming music experience.
I originally canceled my service, but signed back up after reading this. I had not dug deep enough into the service to see all of the music available! I did not want it to be another service I forgot to cancel, yet paid for it every month. Definitely some value here... And it is my first subscription music service too. Posted via Android Central App
I'm going to say with it, too. Since uploading 9660 odd tracks from my own library to Play, I've found "radio" mix-lists that blend what I have with what I don't have but might like. And yesterday, for the "John Barry radio" play list, I heard a lot of good stuff. And ... I can "rewind" to previous tracks that aren't mine, unlike Pandora. For someone like me who hears 15 seconds of a song on MARKETPLACE that sounds good, then looks for it online, this is great. I can hear the whole song - for free. Hear the whole album, too? That's worth $8.56 ($7.99 + tax) to me.
Today is the day when my subscription runs out, and I'm not renewing. Don't get me wrong, it's a great service,and Google did a really good job with it. However, I'm not really a music person, I listen to just a few artist, but really love Podcasts. When I feel like a little music I go to my trusty TuneIn app, if the music is really good I hit record. My phone and tablet are packed with Podcasts from PocketCasts, and I'm happy.
I foolishly canceled the free trial which would give me the option to pay $7.99/month afterwards. Now I've decided to keep the service but I'll be stuck renewing at full price $9.99/month. Google apparently won't let me back in for the free trial. Any way around this? It burns me up knowing I could be paying less each month! And it's still before June 30th!!
As long as you signed up for your trial before May 31st you are still fine. Just wait until your trial ends and then sign up before June 30th.
That's the problem...I signed up June 12th and canceled the 13th...
I agree, All Access will be my first subscription music service as well. I was on the fence between Spotify and All Access, but Google wins because they can keep MY music in the cloud, and it mixes with Albums hosted by Google. I love that I can make playlists of my favorite songs, mixed with new music I don't own, and it's just as if its all the same.
Although I was never a heavy user of Pandora, and I never even downloaded Spotify. I have to say that All Access is worth the $8 a month. Over this month I added over 2k songs to my library, which would be well over $2000 (assuming .99 a song). This is a wise investment and beats all other competitors, including the new iTunes Radio which I think is just a shiny new white Pandora, but for $25 a month!
I use the Sirius/XM app and Tune-In Pro. Both provide more music than I could ever use and a great selection. I have a Sirius subscription for my car so subscribing to their internet app is only $4 a month...a great deal. Check out channel 54. Posted via Android Central App
I tried Spotify but I didn't use it enough, I eventually canceled. I was hesitating but yesterday I picked it up. I have to say I'm impressed, I like that it integrates the music on my device, in the cloud, and on all access. I also like that I can add albums to a playlist, I don't think you could do that with spotify and had to put it in song by song. I tried making a hip-hop list but realize the radio works really well. I'm glad I signed up before the 7.99 period ends, because i just might keep this. That and as a music teacher I think it will be a great resource for my classroom. Now if I could only get my HTC Thunderbolt not to suck, life would be great.
I am very much in love with All Access. The ability to listen to as much music as I am physically able to couple with the quality, speed, and ease of accessibility from any device is what sells it for me, and is what no other company has done (or, rather, has been able to do). £8 is a very good deal in my opinion, I'd happily pay more. Google just gets it.
I love the google music all access. But the issue is that my credit card has been denied and all my musoc has been deleted :'( if i pay the bill for all acces musoc will my musoc show up , because i added alot if musoc to my library wben i had the trial. PLEASE HELP!
This was what i was looking to find out, if all the music I added to my library would be deleted once I ended my service. Sorry this happened to you.
Strongly debating going back to spotify.. streaming music at highest quality and it still sounds like garbage. How hard is this?!?? Besides that, which is the most important thing for me, I like the UI.... Posted via Android Central App
Only thing still keeping me is the $8 and hope that they will fix this issue soon. (Even though they addressed it and still doesn't properly) Posted via Android Central App
BTW.. You can download an older version which will fix it. But you still have to deal with buffering ever 10 second. Posted via Android Central App
Well, I didn't get a reminder that my trial was about to expire, just a receipt for the subscription fee once my month was up, a bit cheeky. I have cancelled now. What I don't get is - what does all access give me? I can't see any difference between normal and all access. Is it for mobile access or something? All I see when viewing an album are the tracks I uploaded. I do see the occasional 'radio' button on some of my albums, but hey big frikin deal, is that all I am getting from all access? Basically google just ripped me off for £8 by not reminding me I was about to be charged for this shit service. Oh well, lesson learned.
I did the "Month free" all access thing last year and went on to subscribe. I don't know if it's just me but I thought that for £7, nearly 8 quid a month the quality of streaming was, well a bit tinny/ rubbish and the whole thing started to leave me cold....I do listen to a lot of music though . Since then I've hopped from Spotify to Deezer, back to Spotify and I've finally decided that if you want good quality streaming and downloads, Deezer is the way forward. I know that it's nearly £10 a month, but so worth every penny. Sorry Google :-/.

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