Back in 2011, Google launched their start of what would become a full-fledged music streaming service. In those days, it was simply called "Google Music Beta". I was one of the many who had signed up to take part in this new beta program. I love music, and I love Google products, so this was a no-brainer for me.

The program itself was in its infancy and was nowhere near where it is now, of course, that's expected - it was in beta, after all. The one feature it did have out the gate - which I didn't know how I would like it - was the ability to upload 20,000 of your songs, for free!

After the program dropped the beta stage, Google slowly starting adding features and made some changes to the UI as it progressed over the years. Now, in 2013, we see a major UI overhaul and the addition of a monthly subscription based streaming service.

Beta:

As I previously stated, I've been using this service since its beginning and although it wasn't necessarily a terribly looking app, there was room for some improvements. The features were pretty bare-boned at this point. The main feature it had going for it, was the ability to stream your library from Google (after your collection is uploaded). As you can see from the pictures below, the UI has transformed into a beautifully designed app and see how far its come.


All Access:

During Google's I/O, it was announced that they were going to offer a music streaming service with the introductory price of $7.99 ($9.99 after 6/30). If you plan on jumping on the service, nows the time. Here's the breakdown of the service:


After about a month of use, the service has been great. I'm easily getting service worth more than $7.99. Most new released albums are usually $9.99, and that's just one album. For this service, you have access to all new released albums.

With this new streaming service, you have almost all of Google's entire music library (more on that down below), that consists of millions of songs and different genres, right at your fingertips. Like music streaming services before it, you're able to look up an artist and play their music, plus any similar artists, too. Google calls this "Radio with no limits". Unlike the music streaming services before, you have the ability to see what songs are coming up, and skip ahead as many times as you like. That's not all, though. Since you can peek at what songs are coming up next, you can either swipe the song away (should you not like the song) and even change the order of the songs. This is easily one of my favorite features of the service.


To use the Radio feature, you simply search an artist and on their page, you'll have the radio icon. Alternatively, if you're already listening to an artist, you can hit the menu button and you'll have the radio option there. This also works while browsing any artists' albums.

I've found that using the Radio feature, is a way to explore tons of artists that I wouldn't have heard otherwise. Some of those new artists have made it into my library and are on rotation now. I also came in contact with older songs and artists that I had forgotten about over the years. Hello, Coolio's "Fantastic Voyage"!

Pinning and Syncing:

Pinning music and playlists have always been a feature of the Google Music since the beginning. Of course, you were only able to Pin music that was apart of your uploaded music or any music you purchased through the Play Store. With the recent change to "All Access", you can add songs and/or albums to your library and then pin them, which then downloads them to your device(s). These selections can be from any artists or songs in Google's library. The Play Music app also provides the option to display the music you have on the device. Pinning also comes in handy if you plan to be in an area with bad service, or if you have a data cap from your carrier.


Since this service is tied to your Google account, it will automatically sync throughout all your devices. There is one thing that is device-specific, though. For example, I like to keep my biking playlist pinned on my Nexus 4, but not on my Nexus 7. Since I have set that playlist to be pinned on the Nexus 4, it stays on that device, and not on anything else. The really cool part, is that I can add songs to that playlist from my Nexus 7 and then, they'll automatically download to my Nexus 4. It's a simple feature, but very convenient to me.

Playback:



Once you're playing a song, you have two views from the UI. One, has an artist image up top, with the album's cover right under it, to the left. Towards the bottom, you have the music controls.



If you happen to drag up (or a simple tap) of that music bar at the bottom, you're greeted with a full-size picture of the album's cover that has a small animation of it swaying side-to-side. From here, you can swipe to the left to go on to your next song.



By tapping on the menu button on either of these screens, you will have a options concerning the artist, like starting the radio, adding to a playlist, going directly to the artist page with their songs and albums, go the the album, share, clear queue, and save queue.



With the introduction of expandable notifications, the Play Music app took advantage of this feature and added notification controls. Controls have always been accessible on the notification shade for some time now, but since they're now expandable, you can move back a track and have more of the album are displayed.



Your music controls are also accessible from your lockscreen, which show the album cover and your basic play, back and forward controls. If you drag down the control, you get the full album cover.



The widget for the app has been improved and includes the options for to skip, go back and "thumbs up" a track. It also gives you a small preview of the album art. Before, you were only able to play/pause and skip forward a track.

Settings:

The app settings have a few options that you might be interested in. You'll find your next bill date for your All Access service and can also cancel, right from the app. You also have an equalizer, which isn't too bad (depends on what kind of headphones you're using). You can block explicit songs and also cache your music. It's also your choice whether to stream and/or download on Wi-Fi only.

One new setting they just added a few weeks ago for mobile devices, was the ability to choose the stream quality of your music. Users were experiencing gobs of data being used by Play Music, and for those on a capped data plan, that was not going to work. You would chew through your allotted data if you were a heavy music user. Google now gave you to the option to stream at Low, Normal, and High quality. I'm not sure if it's just me, but you can't really tell a difference between normal and high.


All Access on your Desktop:



Google Play Music looks almost identical to the mobile app. You have access to everything you would on your device. Whatever you sync through your device will show up here, and vice versa. You can also filter through your free and purchased songs, shared music, last added, and your thumbed up songs.



In order to upload from your personal music collection, you have to download the music manager application to your desktop. From there, you're able to pick specific folders to upload. It's pretty simple to use and I've never had any problems uploading music in the last two years. ***Note: You can download the Google Music Manger at the link below.***

So, is this service the "be all,end all" of music services? Probably not, but that really depends on the user. For me, this was my first music service that I've signed up for with a monthly subscription. Because it's a Google service, it does have priority for me over other music services alike. I like to keep and use all Google's services as much as I can, with rarely using a 3rd-party option. I believe its just easier to maintain and more convenient to have it all under my Google "umbrella".

Cons:

While this service has more pros than cons, there is one drawback that to it. So, with All Access, we have the ability to listen to most of Google's music library. I noticed that some albums from different artists are missing from All Access, but present in the Google Play Store. For example, the album "Crash" by the Dave Matthews Band, is not in their section of albums (through All Access), but present in Google's Play Store to buy. This might be by design, though, so that users can still purchase music through their store. As I recall, that was one of DMB's more popular albums.

What do you think of the service? Have you moved from another similar music service to this one?]]>