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Review: Google Music Beta

Michelle Lentz — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:08:35 +0000

Google unveiled its new cloud-based music streaming service during a keynote presentation at the Google I/O conference in May. The service allows users to upload their song library to Google’s storage servers so that their music can be played through a Web browser or on a compatible Android mobile device. Key to that sentence is upload. Google (and Amazon) have both bypassed licensing songs from the recording industry, preventing the ability to “scan and match” your collection… so if you have a large music library, you might want to wire up on a fast connection.

Initial Thoughts
What I love is simple: Music Beta provides instant access to my iTunes library (and any other music I upload) from any computer, wherever I am (as long as I can connect). What I instantly liked about Music Beta was its seamless and automatic synchronization with iTunes. Not only did it upload my entire iTunes library, it also uploaded my playlists, song ratings and play counts. The free Music Manager app also automatically keeps Music Beta in sync with my iTunes library. On install, Music Manager asks me if it can scan my iTunes player (which is a key difference from Amazon). I keep my iTunes library on a removable SSD drive, and Music Beta linked to the library I had open based on iTunes. Amazon’s uploader, on the other hand, would not recognize my iTunes library on the external drive. I manually pointed it to the drive, but it didn’t upload iTunes specific metadata (play counts, ratings), and didn’t transfer my playlists.

On initial signup, Music Beta offers an array of free songs from several genre categories. I skipped this option, and found it a bit cheesy. This is where Google exposes some “holes” in their strategy… they don’t sell music. Amazon has the upper hand here, because any digital music bought on Amazon is instantly available in your Amazon Cloud Drive, and stored for free. When playing a song in Music Beta, you have an option to “shop” but you’re just sent to a Google search results page for that artist with links to Google shopping. I presume Apple’s cloud-based music locker will have deep integration with the iTunes music store. If Apple has a “scan and match” process (which seems likely since LaLa, the music streaming service it bought last year, had that exact feature), then Music Beta will quickly look old-school.

Hands-On
I’ve been using Music Beta for about a week now. Playback has been extremely smooth, with minimal hiccups. Using Wi-Fi I have been streaming my songs for hours on end with hardly any skipping or pauses. Typical to Google, there are a few user interface quirks that are somewhat frustrating, but with a little use I’m getting used to it. For example, I have a lot of playlists: about 70. I’d like to be able to collapse the “Playlists” folder in the sidebar so I don’t have to scroll the whole list. I’m a “metadata junkie” and love to rate my music so that I can get automatic mixes. I prefer the 1-5 star song rating system in iTunes. Music Beta uses a Pandora-like “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” rating system. These are all my songs, so I’m not going to have too many “thumbs down” in my library. Songs I rated 4 or 5 stars in iTunes automatically gets a “thumbs up” in Music Beta. Another user interface quirk is the actual icons for thumbs up and down. There’s not enough contrast between the up and down thumb, so it’s hard to tell what rating the song has.

I do like the metadata editing capabilities at the song level, something Amazon’s Cloud Player does not have. Music Beta also trumps Amazon with Instant Mixes (similar to iTune’s Genius Mixes), ratings, and play counts. I also haven’t figured out how to edit metadata in Amazon Cloud Player, but editing basic metadata in Google Music is simple.

Music Beta Step By Step

Music Manager
First, to get songs into Music Beta, you have to install Google’s proprietary Music Manager app. Unlike Amazon’s Flash-based app, Music Manager secretly installs itself into the Mac’s System Preferences. It would be nice if the app told us where it was installing. I spent some time looking in the Applications folder for it. Music Manager can upload the entire contents of your iTunes library, the contents of your local music folder, or the contents of specific folders you select. You can configure it to watch your iTunes library (or any selected folder) so that it can stay in sync. There is also an option for uploading at a specified interval, or you can manually initiate an upload at any time. It took about 36 hours to upload my near-3,000 song library (and I’m on a 6mbps upload speed). Music Manager hung up near the end and never showed that it “completed” the upload, however. I also needed to log out and log back in to Music Beta to see my playlists appear. Music Manager is great if you want to mirror your iTunes library. If you prefer a more fine-grained approach to your Music collection, you might find it a bit frustrating — uploading specific songs from multiple folders is not possible. Another big plus is you can access your music during the initial upload… no waiting for a large collection to upload before you start jamming!

Music Manager lets you know that you can begin listening right away… no need to wait for the upload to finish.

Music Manager scanned my iTunes player library and matched compatible songs for the upload.

The Music Manager app installs in the System Preferences on the Mac. From here, you can configure how you want it to handle your library.

Web Player
What I like (and at times dislike) about Google is their approach to user interfaces. The Music Beta web player is stripped of anything non-essential, and is focused on getting you to the business of playing music right away.

On the left side of the UI, there is a library column that lets you choose a specific view of your library on the right: “New and recent”, “Songs”, “Artists”, “Albums”, and “Genre”. The “Songs” view gives you a flat sortable table of all your songs. The “Artists” views shows albums for each artist. When you select an artist, it will show the full discography for that artist — each album cover and a list of the songs.The “Albums” view displays a grid of album covers and titles.

I would like to see a bit more customization, however. I’d like to move the sidebar to the top or the bottom. I’d like to control my filtering options. Music Beta also gives you three auto playlists: “Thumbs Up”, “Recently Added”, and “Free Songs”. Since I skipped the “Free Songs” feature, I’d like to be able to delete that playlist. Also, as I mentioned above, I’d like to organize my own playlists to reduce all the scrolling. I’m on a Macbook Air 11.6 inch screen, so space real estate is a premium… even in Chrome’s full-screen mode.

My favorite feature is the “Instant Mix” playlist that generates an assortment of songs that are similar to one you have selected. It works great. I selected “Sir Duke” and chose “Make Instant Mix” and it created a 25-song playlist with what it deemed to be similar songs (it was good with the matches by selecting Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind & Fire, Curtis Mayfield and Diana Ross among others).

Music Beta also proved to be very good at making sure all my cover art was attached and accurate (with just a few hiccups).

The Web interface is fast and responsive. Google uses some HTML5 trickery to switch out the content when you change views, so you don’t have to wait for the full page to reload when you do something. Simple fade animations that are displayed during interface transitions make it feel like a native application. I miss the “auto cross-fade” of iTunes, but maybe soon we can have that too.

The web player’s interface allows easy access to Albums, Artists and Songs in your library.

Android Music App
To play your Music Beta songs on an Android device (no iOS support yet), you will need to download the Android Music app. On my HTC Thunderbolt I now have two apps named “Music” — Google’s and the default “Music” app provided by HTC. This app will be the default music player in future versions of Android. The Music Beta app has a visually rich user interface and immediately synced to my songs on the cloud drive without hesitation. From the Menu > Settings” screen, you can configure the app. You can choose which Gmail account to sync to, and set caching and streaming settings. A great feature is the app’s ability to download music for offline listening. You can “star” which songs you want to cache so you can have uninterrupted listening.

You can tailor your app experience based on how you hold your phone. Go into portrait orientation and the app operates much like a standard music player. You can scroll through your artists and albums and select a song to play. Rotate the phone into landscape orientation, however, and you will get a Cover Tunes-like interface with all your album covers floating across the screen.

Conclusion

Music Beta is impressive, and interestingly enough, already seems more “mature” than Amazon’s offering. In my opinion, Google can remove the “Beta” moniker already. The Web-based player is smooth and well-engineered. The mobile client support on Android is excellent. Streaming performance and audio quality are both good, however, I do have song hiccups more often than on Amazon’s service.

When compared directly to Amazon’s service, I’m torn. I prefer the ease of use of Google’s service, but I like how easy Amazon makes purchasing and playing. I’ll wait to see what Apple’s service has to offer before swearing “allegiance” — but Google’s Music Beta is the one that Apple has to beat.

I can’t take credit for this amazing review. My good friend, and a music geek, Brandon Carson is the author. All I did was give him access to my beta account. My thanks!

Michelle Lentz is a freelance writer, trainer and instructional designer with a serious need for the latest and greatest gadgets. When she has time, she tries to be a wine blogger, although it may just be an excuse for free wine. She currently lives in Cincinnati but has definite designs on the Bay area.

Amazon Kindle Apps a Threat to Apple?

Kristen Nicole — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:14:58 +0000

So, everyone is making their own mobile devices these days. At least, that’s how it seems. Connecting a hand held device to the web and enabling it with Wi-Fi seems to be enough reason to make one’s own mobile device and sell it for an exorbitant price. Yet the ability to use these mobile devices to run various platforms could entice developers, build out a growing marketplace, and become the new way of doing business. Companies such as Amazon are looking to move in on Apple’s turf in order to get a piece of this pie.

Apple’s iPhone still dominates on the mobile app scene. It’s cell phone has won the hearts of millions around the world, with the iTunes App Store attracting countless developers, publishers and buyers to its mobile marketplace. The growth f an entire industry is looking to mobile as its future, and Apple is starting to see more and more competition from others seeking a comparable platform approach to the mobile app forum.

Amazon, for example, has the Kindle. It was launched as a mobile book reader, and has seen some good numbers in the couple of years it’s been out on the market. As a mobile device that is able to connect to the web, however, it has much more potential beyond that of an e-book reader. According to BusinessWeek, Amazon is looking to expand by launching a platform where developers can create apps to run on the Kindle.

It makes sense for Amazon to move in this direction, especially as Apple continues to launch mobile devices that support its growing selection of apps. Enabling developers to create apps for an open platform supported by Kindle could mean additional revenue streams for the online retailer. The best part, is that Amazon gets to maintain its position is a relatively intangible retail service, moving deeper into the mobile app industry and being able to provide access to more virtual products.

Industry-wide, Amazon’s move will also spur further growth in the mobile app space. Google has already begun to impede on Apple’s territory with its Android platform, which is run on multiple devices and is more open than Apple’s own platform. Amazon could learn from the existing battle between Google and Apple in this regard, as the two platform extremes demonstrated by Google and Apple represent two sides of the regulation spectrum.

The concern is that Apple is too strict with its review process, without having a transparent system for developers to navigate. Google, on the other hand, could let malware creep into its Android Marketplace, as it’s more lax with its approval process. Reaching a middle ground could be a good way for Amazon to launch an app store for Kindle, encouraging the developers right off the bat.

Additionally, the ensuing war against Apple’s app domination is being taken up by more than just Google. Several mobile devices from several companies (i.e. GPS navigation service Garmin), will be looking to make some extra money through mobile apps and the ownership of a platform that runs on their self-distributed devices. While this breaks up the industry a great deal, it also gives developers and publishers more options for distributing content.

Against Apple in particular, apps running on Amazon’s Kindle could be for music or television content, which could cost less than what we find on Apple. Amazon already made a similar move when releasing its own mp3 download service, though this didn’t seem to make much of a dent in Apple’s jurisdiction. Specifically towards the price wars, consumers are less likely to see extreme differences amongst different devices this time around, as it’s clear that industry-wide changes are capable of being made.

Whether or not this oncoming variety of devices and content distribution will remain consumer-centric remains to be seen. With so many of the big players being involved, the standards established around the mobile app industry could end up evening out in favor of companies like Apple, Google and Amazon. I think it’s important to keep the consumers in mind when developing competing platforms and methods of mobile app distribution, so hopefully we’ll see some efforts towards this direction as well.

Streaming TV on YouTube?

Michelle Lentz — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:20:04 +0000

Google is talking about offering first-run TV shows on YouTube for a fee, similar to the Amazon or iTunes model. For $1.99, you could view the latest episode of your favorite show, the day after it aired on network television.

The catch? It’s a streaming video. Unlike iTunes or Amazon, you have to watch it as a streaming video. The video won’t reside on your hard drive.

Sources say the site’s negotiations with the networks and studios that own the shows are preliminary. But both sides seem optimistic, since models for such deals already exist. No comment from YouTube.
The biggest stumbling block may be consumers. That’s because Google (GOOG) is talking about streaming the shows instead of letting consumers download them to their computers, as both Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) do. But the networks and studios, which control pricing, will want to sell the streamed shows at the same price as downloads; they fear that offering them at a different price will force them to go back and rework their existing deals.
Executives at YouTube and TV insist that the disparity is simply a perception problem and cite studies showing that most people who download TV episodes only watch them once, anyway. But that’s a tough sell.

Now, the reason I will occasionally buy shows from iTunes is that I then have the freedom to watch them on my phone, my iPod, my TV, or my laptop. I can watch the show on an airplane because it’s local to my device. Personally, I hate the idea of paying $1.99 for streaming content. So until they figure things out, I’ll definitely stick to free Hulu for the television that I miss and downloading episodes from iTunes for television on the go.

Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

Amazon’s Mea Culpa

Michelle Lentz — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:54:13 +0000

Back in July, Amazon got all Orwellian and removed George Orwell’s 1984 from Kindle devices. The irony was lost on no one. The Digits blog (Wall Street Journal) is reporting that Amazon is now trying to make up for it. They are offering a return of the book, including any annotations made by the consumer, or $30 in either a gift certificate or a check.

The full text of the notifying email is below:

Hello,
On July 23, 2009, Jeff Bezos, our Founder and CEO, made the following apology to our customers:
“This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.
With deep apology to our customers,
Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com”
As you were one of the customers impacted by the removal of “Nineteen Eighty-Four” from your Kindle device in July of this year, we would like to offer you the option to have us re-deliver this book to your Kindle along with any annotations you made. You will not be charged for the book. If you do not wish to have us re-deliver the book to your Kindle, you can instead choose to receive an Amazon.com electronic gift certificate or check for $30.
Please email Kindle customer support at kindle-response@amazon.com to indicate your preference. If you prefer to receive a check, please also provide your mailing address.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Kindle Team

I’m not sure what took Amazon so long to offer this solution (which is supposedly not in response to a pending lawsuit about the incident). Is it enough or is the fact that Amazon reached into people’s Kindles just a little too 1984?

Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

CoolerBooks.com Teams with Google

Michelle Lentz — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:32:36 +0000

CoolerBooks.com is now billing itself as the world’s largest eBookstore. It was announced today that CoolerBooks has paired with Google to include over 1 million public domain books from Google Books.

Starting today, COOLERBOOKS.com will feature a Google API with out of copyright works from the Google Books index, accessible for free via the COOLERBOOKS.com website, and the COOL-ER ereader. With this partnership, COOLERBOOKS.com becomes the largest ebookstore in the world, with over one million titles available for purchase or free access.

CoolerBooks also produces the Cooler eBook reader, which looks sort of like a giant iPod. The eBook store carries 19 different file formats, including PUB and PDF, and MP3.

This is sort of a direct hit at Amazon who, again, carries books only in the AZW format for it’s AZW-reading Kindle.

Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

Sony’s Answer to the Kindle DX

Michelle Lentz — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:37:58 +0000

Sony held a press conference today announcing a new addition to it’s eBook Reader family, as well as some interesting partnerships.

Earlier this month, Sony announced the adoption of the ePUB format for its stores, making me seriously consider switching from the Kindle. Now Sony has upped the ante a bit. There are now several eReaders in the family.

The Pocket Edition has physical buttons and is smaller, sporting a 5 in display and 512 MB internal memory. It’s a perfect candidate for someone’s first foray into eBooks and is priced at $199. The Touch edition has a touchscreen, 6 in display, 512 MB internal memory and a slot for a Memory Stick Pro Duo SD card. It also includes an audio player and picture viewer. The Touch is priced at $299. Both of these devices are available now (and were actually announced earlier this month).

The big news is the Daily Edition, announced today and available by the holidays. The Daily Edition is the top of the line, selling for $399 and is comparable in many ways to the Kindle DX. That includes 3G access via AT&T but unlike the Kindle, you can’t surf the web, just the Sony store. The Daily Edition includes a 7-in touchscreen and can be used in portrait or landscape mode. I’m not sure of the exact specs, but the press release states that the reader “has enough internal memory to hold more than one thousand standard eBooks and expansion slots for memory cards to hold even more.”

If I understand correctly, these devices are in addition to the existing Digital Book PRS-505, which sells for $279, but I suspect they may be phasing that one out and replacing it with the similar Pocket edition.

The really excellent news is Sony’s deal with the public libraries of the world. Believe it or not, your public library most likely has an eBook library available. For example, I have access to the Ohio eBook Project. Unfortunately, because my Kindle won’t read DRM’d .mobi or ePUB files, I can’t read any of the books available to me. Sony is making sure that its users can easily access the libraries and check out books, all from their eBook device.

Thousands of libraries in the OverDrive network offer eBooks optimized for the Sony Reader, and visitors can now find these libraries by typing their zip code into the Library Finder. Through the selected library’s download website, visitors can check out eBooks with a valid library card, download them to a PC and transfer to their Reader. At the end of the library’s lending period, eBooks simply expire, so there are never any late fees.

Sony has another major advantage over Amazon – it has physical stores. It’s one of the reasons that I am constantly asked about the Kindle in airports. “Is that a Kindle? Can I see it?” Sony makes it easy. Not only can you walk into any SonyStyle store in your local mall to play with an eBook reader, you can also wander into any Borders to experience one. eBook Readers, whether Kindle or Sony, are hard to explain until someone actually has one in their hands, sees, the eInk, and “flips” a few pages.

Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

Maybe I’ll Switch to the Sony eBook Reader …

Michelle Lentz — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:37:43 +0000

I’m not loyal to my electronic devices and brands. I’m happily leaving behind Apple to grab a different mobile phone. (This week I’m playing with a Blackberry Tour, but I still want to get my hands on a Pre.) And now, I’m considering leaving my Kindle behind to pick up a Sony eReader sometime this year. After all, I can sell the Kindle on eBay.

In the same way that Apple has irritated with iPhone/App Store quirks, Amazon is irritating me with Kindle quirks. In the last 6 months I’ve been rubbed the wrong way by several things:

Inability to read formats other than DRM-free MOBI, DRM-free PDF, and AZW (Amazon). This keeps me from using the eBooks from my local library, all available in ePub and DRMed MOBI files.
Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle 2 by $100. Yes, I paid $400 for the thing back in February. I should have waited a few months and saved some case.
Amazon took back the George Orwell book. Now, I didn’t have it on my Kindle to begin with, but it does make me sort of shudder. Please don’t Big Brother my eBook Reader.

Today comes the news that Sony will be adopting the ePub format for their digital store. ePub is the open standard for eBooks and its a great sign that Sony is moving to the format. According to the New York Times,

After the change, books bought from Sony’s online store will be readable not just on its own device but on the growing constellation of other readers that support ePub. Those include the Plastic Logic eReader, a thin device that has been in development for nearly a decade and is expected to go on sale early next year.
“There is going to be a proliferation of different reading devices, with different features and capabilities and prices for a different set of consumer requirements,” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading unit. “If people are going to this e-book shopping mall, they are going to want to shop at all the stores, and not just be required to shop at one store.”

Sony is going out of its way to let other readers into its store. It smartly sees the value in selling the books and not just the device. Wait a minute. Haven’t we gone through this before with music players? It’s worth mentioning that Sony will be switching to the Adobe DRM. Just because these are ePub, does not mean that they will be DRM free. But they are available for other devices, which is key.

The ePub format will be compatible with all of Sony’s available eReaders, including the PRS-500 (1st generation), which my husband happens to own. See? No brand loyalty in this house.

Amazon needs to get in the game. They cannot play the Apple card in the eBook field and hope to survive. Not with so many low-cost readers heading to market within the next year, all of which support the open ePub standard.

Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

Snow Leopard on Preorder at Amazon

Michelle Lentz — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:00:16 +0000

If you don’t care about Windows 7 and are focused in on the new Apple update, you can now pre-order 10.6 Snow Leopard from Amazon. Snow Leopard is the refined OS X, making little quirks to the interface and speeding things up.

The upgrade is available for $29 (single license upgrade) and will be shipped sometime in September. If you purchased your Mac anytime after June 8 of this year, you can get a copy of Snow Leopard for $9.95 from Apple.

Amazon pulls no punches, choosing not to list a release date and reminding you that “only Apple OS X Leopard users are eligible for the Snow Leopard upgrade. Tiger & earlier OS users will need to purchase either versions of the upgraded Mac Box Set. Also, Snow Leopard will only run on intel-based Mac computers.”

So if you need to enjoy pre-ordering software at an affordable price (thank you Apple!), then head on over to get your copy of Snow Leopard reserved. And yes, I indulged my inner geek and pre-ordered my own copy.

Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.