Google Music Listen Now

When Google released Google Music I immediately uploaded half my collection.  It was a great way to access the songs I listened to the most.  Of course it would require a constant connection and if not on WiFi, a nearly unlimited streaming plan (Thank You, T-Mobile). With the new Google Music Listen Now I find myself rediscovering a great app that is just that much better.

Search

I relied heavily on Google Music search to find the music I wanted.  I've never found any playlist function that I've liked but Google Music is beginning to grow on me.  Google likes instant search and so as I type a song name, album, or artist, the app will start searching my catalogue for anything that matches.  It's usually pretty quick depending on the connection.  I guess, I just like to find each song and play it, sort-of like being my own DJ.

Playlists

Playlists are fairly simple to generate and if you listen enough, Google will begin to make some for you.  I can use the same feature of search to find the song, album or artist and then just drop that into a playlist.   The new Google Listen Now allows me to add the full album, even if I don't own it.  For example I've been listening to Beck recently and I don't yet own all his albums, so i just created a playlist and dropped his entire discography into it.  Honestly, I wish this had been possible with any other music service.

Radio

Google Music is all about discovery, like the prior paragraph I can search anything pretty quickly and then drop it into a playlist or just listen a la carte. But the Radio feature, like Pandora or Slacker allows me to just create a station and start listening.  But unlike every other music streaming service, I can skip limitlessly.  I can even grab the songs and add them to my collection.  Although I can't download them, I'm not sure that I will ever want to (unless Google goes bust), I don't have to use the radio feature to listen.  I think that the radio is good for people who just want to lean back and listen.  At least with Google Music Radio, you don't get a DJ interrupting or have the same "popular" song played 5 times in one day.

Pinning Music

My favorite feature after search is pinning.  I can pin any song and keep it locally, so that if I get out of internet-access range, the tunes can continue.  I'm sure that you cannot pin the entire sum of all songs in Google Music (except your own), but I have pinned up to the capacity of my local storage.   If there is a limit to how much you can pin, it's likely pretty high.

Explore

The last feature I want to touch on is explore.  Google Music will recommend music that they think you would like, based on what you have, or have liked, or have in playlists, or radio stations (aka Smart Recommendations).  My tastes are fairly broad and so Google has a tough time pinning me to a genre.  Thankfully, for what it's worth, they've managed to figure out what I don't like and have never included music that I despise.

Some of these features will not be available once Google Music Listen Now becomes a paid service.  It will be $9.99/ month for Unlimited Streaming, Radio, Unlimited skips, and smart recommendations, but it's only $7.99/ month if  you get it before June 30th 2013.  All the other features are included whether or not you pay.

Thanks Google, you've finally got something worth using.

Check this app out on the Play Store