Google Play Music All Access Hands-On: All You Want (Minus Friends)

Today at its I/O developer's conference, Google launched Google Play All Access, its long-anticipated subscription music service. I just spent some time exploring the on-demand catalog as well as its radio and music discovery features. The service's UI is impressively fast and fluid. Indeed, it's minimal in all the right ways. If only it wasn't so lonely in there.

It's an Add-On to Google Play Music

All Access is an add-on to the Google Music storage locker that has existed since the end of 2011. That means that you can upload the music from your computer and then complete your collection from Google Play's enormous catalog of music.

It costs the same as Spotify, Rdio, et al. Once its introductory $8 promo-pricing is gone, All Access will cost $10 per month for the entire on-demand catalog, radio, and use on mobile devices. There are no tiered plans. It's the whole shebang or nothing.

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The Web UI Is Fast and Intuitive

Navigating the catalog and the app's different features couldn't be easier. The design is simple but at the same time packed with functionality. When you hover over a rectangular icon for an artist or album you're immediately presented with graphics to play the music or the familiar Google "..." button that reveals a menu with more options.

The whole interface is refreshingly intuitive. You never hit a dead-end when you're moving about different sections of the service. Every time you want the name of an artist or an album or something to be clickable, it is.

The detail pages albums are really nice example of the myriad ways All Access makes your life easier. Besides a little info about the artist, there are obvious buttons that let you launch radio based on that album or to add it to your library.

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The new Google Play Music App for Android is slick too

Same deal as the browser version. No dead ends. Swiping songs you dont want to listen to out of the play queue is very satisfying.

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I love that "Share YouTube Video" is an option

YouTube videos are actually my de facto vector for sharing music with friends on Facebook and Twitter. If you share a Spotify link?or a link from any walled in garden?it inevitably means that someone won't be able to enjoy it.

Google built that behavior into All Access. Instead of having to go search for a YouTube video when I want to share something, I can just click "Share YouTube Video" and a pop up will present you with links for few versions (if they're available). It's easy, and it doesn't require your friends having a Google+ account to enjoy.

I don't love that the service only gets social with Google+

Then again, All Access doesn't have very good social skills. Facebook? Nope! Twitter? Nope! A real-time feed of what all of your friends are listening to? Nopenopenope!

If you'd like, though, you can choose share on Google+ because of course you can share on Google+. It feels awfully lonesome in there.

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Listen Now is a convenient way to just put something on

Part of the problem with expansive streaming music services is that sometimes it's hard to figure out what jams your want to bust. The "Listen Now" tab is Google's answer to this problem. It's designed to provide you easy access to the radio stations and artists you like?as well as those it thinks you might like based on your activity. The straightforward tile design makes it simple enough to just impulsively click something and be done with it.

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Radio is solid but unremarkable

This is the oldest trick in Pandora's box: New Order is your favorite band? "Age of Consent" is your favorite song? Type it in and you'll get a playlist. The playlists I got were great on some cursory inspection. Plenty of variety and even hints of robotic taste. It's nice that you can remove songs from your radio queue if you want.

Again, it's the UI that sets radio apart from competitors. There's a lot packed into a simple interface.

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Should you ditch Spotify or Rdio?

Not yet. Take advantage of the free trial first. Google Play Music All Access has amongst the smoothest designs we've seen for something with so much horsepower. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with Spotify's great social integration baked-in?and the social integration it does have is half-baked.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/google-play-music-all-access-hands-on-all-you-want-mi-506844196

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