Google Music, a free media cloud storage and streaming service, graduates from beta today! The service had been in beta since its announcement at the Google I/O conference in May of this year, but is now available to all users in the United States.
The service offers convenient cloud storage for up to 20,000 songs for free, allowing many users to upload entire song collections to save space on local drives and mobile devices. Google Music then streams the music to desktop browsers, Android mobile phones, and tablets running Android. Google Music also runs on any device that supports Adobe Flash, but also has an HTML5-based player to serve the future of mobile.
The service lets user choose how they want to maintain their music by offering hassle-free organization methods, customizable song information editing, and the ability to determine favorites by song rating. The service’s most convenient feature is the ability to create a playlist that can be accessed from your desktop, mobile phone, and your tablet. There’s no syncing and no waiting, so you are always listening.
Several bonus features come with the full release, including the option for users to purchase songs. The service allows users to discover new music and explore artists with the artist hub. Google Music is now fully integrated with Google+ so users can share the songs they are listening to.
All Android phones and tablets running a version of Android 2.2 or later will automatically receive an update to the Market with access to the music store. T-Mobile users will also have free Google Music from several featured artists like Drake and Maroon 5.
T-Mobile and Google celebrated the national release of Google Music last night with a celebrity event featuring live performances by artists, Busta Rhymes, Dirty South, Drake, and Maroon 5. Exclusive to the event was a live Google Music storefront alongside a T-Mobile shop. The event was liveblogged on Twitter, Google+, and T-Mobile’s Facebook page under the hashtag #GoogleMusicLA.
The release comes just in time for holiday shopping as more and more consumers are making decisions to acquire tablets and are deciding between iOS, Android, and Microsoft Mobile devices.
To register for your Google Music account, visit http://music.google.com.
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