[This article was updated on 29 March 2014]
The world is relying more and more on The Cloud. The cloud is of course a whole bunch of servers where data from your PC is held remotely. These last couple of years have seen Cloud related applications used more than ever, and personally I use Dropbox for backup of all my photographs and videos, and Google Docs for everything else.
The world is relying more and more on The Cloud. The cloud is of course a whole bunch of servers where data from your PC is held remotely. These last couple of years have seen Cloud related applications used more than ever, and personally I use Dropbox for backup of all my photographs and videos, and Google Docs for everything else.
Google has another service that, quite simply, is mind blowing when you consider what it achieved with my music collection. To put things into context, I have 11,654 songs, equating to 484 albums stored on my 80GB iPod, which in turn is obviously stored in my iTunes library on my computer.
Connecting to Google Music
The first thing you have to do is open a Google Music account which will be tied to your Google account. You need a credit or debit card, but no money is taken off this card, and it’s just to verify that you have the one account as Google’s Music service offers so much.
Once you’ve joined, you then have to download the uploading client which will be used at all times in the future for you to upload your music to Google Music. Once you run the up-loader, it will ask you where your music library is stored and begin it’s search of your tracks. This is a brand new feature of uploading via the web browser instead of a dedicated client can be turned on in the Labs section of your settings.
The clever thing is that Google Music doesn't upload all your music, but instead points any albums you have that are on the Google Music server, thus eliminating hours and hours of uploading. Within a few minutes, 95% of my 11,654 were showing as being uploaded, however the final 5% took a while to upload, however these were very obscure albums. For the majority of people who buy standard music available anywhere, Google Music should not need to upload hardly any music.
That’s all there is to it. Now which ever device you sign into with your Google Music account will have access to the songs. On your PC, your internet browser will be the music player, in a very nice layout.
You’ll have options to “Listen Now”, “My Library”, “Instant Mixes” and of course “Shop” plus a few other options depending on your device. Using a Mobile Phone or tablet (either iOS or Android) gets a more simplified version, however the Android is very slick, while the iOS version is very basic.
Performance
On a PC. Google Music could easily replace iTunes as a music player as it’s slick, intuitive and streams without any hiccups. Prolonged play has proven that the web-player is very capable and ultra-quick to use when choosing and playing songs.
On an Android phone the experience is just as good, and in use out in the “wild” it proved capable of playing back good quality music while on the move on foot and in transport. Even with low signal areas where the likes of Spotify struggled, Google Music keeps on pouring out your music with no stutter or errors of any kind. The Android experience is very nice, with a great app that looks awesome and is very easy to use while on the move. The iOS app does the same job, however doesn't look half as good.
The mobile apps give the choice of streaming quality, with Low, Normal and High settings. In my test’s on transport and foot, streaming was seamless using the High setting, and the songs sounded pretty amazing. I have recently gotten an even better experience with a new pair of Sony ZX600 headphones, these showed the sound quality to be exceptional while on the move using high sound settings, with the equaliser turned off.
Overall
Google Music is the kind of service that once you've tried, you cannot live without. As my iPod is a fixture in the house now due to the fact that my phone does everything, having Google Music on it means I have all the songs without taking up any of the valuable room that so much music would take up.
Google Music allows you to upload 20,000 tracks, which for most people is a substantial amount that they will probably never reach. The web-player allows editing of track and album details should there be any mistake, plus album artwork can be amended. Less than 1% of my uploaded albums had errors in track, album or album artwork., however Google Music displays a picture of the artist taken from it’s records, and this can sometimes be wrong! It’s no big deal, and only a small percentage of the 1% of errors, and I’ll find a way of fixing these errors one day!
If you like music, have access to the internet at all times via WiFi or mobile data, then Google Music is a no brainer. It’s simple to use, performs exceptionally and can be accessed anywhere on any device. Awesome.
