Google Announces 'Google Play Music All Access' Subscription Service

Google today officially announced its new music subscription service, Google Play Music All Access, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. As reported yesterday afternoon, the service is designed to compete with Spotify, providing songs on demand that can be streamed to a computer or mobile device.

googlemusic

The service, which is built on Google's existing Google Play Music Store, will cost $9.99 per month with a 30-day free trial available. Google is, however, offering a discount for early adopters. Those who begin the free trial by June 30 will pay just $7.99 per month. The Verge has a rundown on a few of the available features for music discovery and recommendations.

A recommendation engine will guide users towards new music they may have already discovered. As demoed on an Android device — it also works in a standard web browser — All Access incorporates both local tracks and those available for streaming into one master searchable library, a marked improvement over much of its streaming competition.

Google's tagline for Google Play Music All Access is "Radio without Rules," a small jab at Apple's upcoming Pandora-style music service, iRadio. As of last week, Apple was still in negotiations with music labels but is reportedly aiming for a summer launch of its own music subscription service.

Popular Stories

Apple Glass

Apple Smart Glasses: Everything We Know So Far

Wednesday May 21, 2025 8:21 am PDT by
Google made waves yesterday by showcasing a set of lightweight smart glasses featuring deep Gemini integration and an optional in-lens display. The demo has reignited interest in Apple's own smart glasses project, which has been the subject of rumors for nearly a decade. Here's a recap of where things stand. Current Development Status Apple is actively working on new chips specifically...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Air Battery Capacity and Weight Allegedly Revealed

Monday May 19, 2025 2:22 am PDT by
Apple is expected to launch an all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air later this year, and while there have been plenty of rumors about the camera's overall design and thinness, we haven't heard any details about the device's weight and battery capacity until now. According to the leaker going by the account name "yeux1122" on the Korean-langauge Naver blog, the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air has a weight ...
Apple CarPlay Ultra instrument cluster themes 01

Apple's CarPlay Ultra Is Here – Does Your iPhone Support It?

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:17 am PDT by
Apple's recently announced CarPlay Ultra promises a deeply integrated in-car experience, but not all iPhone users will be able to take advantage of the new feature. According to Apple's press release, CarPlay Ultra requires an iPhone 12 or later running iOS 18.5 or later. This means if you're using an iPhone 11, iPhone XR, or any older model, you'll need to upgrade your device to access...
WWDC 2025 Banner

Apple Announces WWDC 2025 Schedule, Including Keynote Time

Tuesday May 20, 2025 8:13 am PDT by
Apple today announced a more detailed schedule for its annual developers conference WWDC, which runs from June 9 through June 13. The schedule confirms that Apple's keynote will begin on Monday, June 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, with a live stream to be available on Apple.com, in the Apple TV app, and on YouTube. During the keynote, Apple is expected to announce iOS 19, iPadOS 19, macOS 16,...
macOS 16 visionOS Inspired Feature 1

macOS 16: Everything We Know So Far

Tuesday May 20, 2025 7:31 am PDT by
The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple's annual developer and software-oriented event, is less than three weeks away. We haven't heard a great deal about macOS 16 ahead of its announcement this year, so we could be in for some major surprises when June 9 rolls around. Here's what we know so far about the next major update to Apple's Mac operating system. macOS 16 Name? Every year ...
maxresdefault

OpenAI Buys Jony Ive's AI Startup to 'Completely Reimagine What It Means to Use a Computer'

Wednesday May 21, 2025 10:27 am PDT by
OpenAI is acquiring io, the hardware-based AI startup co-created by Jony Ive, OpenAI announced today. Ive has been working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on io for two years, and the duo expects to develop a family of AI devices. In a video shared by OpenAI, Altman and Ive outlined their partnership and what they expect to create as a result of the merger. "I have a growing sense that everything ...
Apple Glasses Purple Feature

Apple Smart Glasses Launching in 2026

Thursday May 22, 2025 12:22 pm PDT by
Apple is planning to launch a set of smart glasses by the end of 2026, reports Bloomberg. The glasses will be comparable to the Meta Ray-Bans and the Android XR glasses that Google showed off earlier this week. Apple's smart glasses are expected to include cameras, microphones, and AI capabilities, much like the Meta Ray-Bans. The glasses will be able to take photos, record video, provide...
Apple CarPlay Ultra instrument cluster themes 01

Apple's 'CarPlay Ultra' Experience Now Available

Thursday May 15, 2025 5:07 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its next-generation CarPlay experience, now dubbed "CarPlay Ultra" begins rolling out today, starting with Aston Martin vehicles. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. CarPlay Ultra is now available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the U.S. and Canada. It will also be available for existing models that feature the brand's next-generation ...

Top Rated Comments

bushido Avatar
157 months ago
See no point in paying for music when things like Pandora are free.

but Pandora sucks. you cant simply play what you want i always end up just skipping till i reach the limit cuz it never plays what i want.

this has the best of both "worlds" like Spotify which i will stick with cuz it does not get added to my data volume on my iPhone.

gonna laugh if apple announces "iRadio" when everyone else offers both in one deal
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Neuro Avatar
157 months ago
I find it funny that people think spending $120 a year on music is a lot...

Times have certainly changed.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
samcraig Avatar
157 months ago
I find it funny that people think spending $120 a year on music is a lot...

Times have certainly changed.

Same people B*tch about apps that cost more than free - or .99
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
malnar Avatar
157 months ago
See no point in paying for music when things like Pandora are free.
A lot of people don't like listening to single songs by different artists and instead want to hear albums. Pandora is completely useless to someone like me, free or not. I'll gladly pay $10 a month for access to many hundreds of thousands of full albums. This is why Apple's offering, if it's modelled after Pandora, is going to be a non-starter for me. No albums, no deal.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
imgonephishin Avatar
157 months ago
Not interested on paying 10 bucks a month... oh well.!

That's completely fine for you. I, on the other hand, find my Spotify subscription to be indispensable. For $120/year, I can stream unlimited albums at 320 kbps bitrate with no ads. It's the world's jukebox. I've probably listened to 100 different albums in the last months alone. For that price, I could buy 12 albums on iTunes. Sure, you own the music with iTunes and you all are free to choose that route.

But I'd rather have unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of albums instead.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
samcraig Avatar
157 months ago
I don't pay for spotify.

When you create a radio station - can you swipe/remove songs in the play list?

Nice function of Google's offering

----------

So the big news at Google Uh/Oh is a Spotify copy? There is nothing compelling here to make anyone switch from Spotify.
Why does there have to be something to switch people? Is everyone ON spotify?

Second - the reason why some might switch is because they like Google's ecosystem and want a one stop shop. This provides that.

Also - I don't think you can access your entire music library anywhere via spotify. Right? With Google's service - you can - in addition to millions of tracks
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)