Google Music vs. iTunes vs. Amazon MP3: How The Music Stores Stack Up

On Wednesday, Google announced its long awaited music service, called simply Google Music.

The service's online music store, which currently boasts 8 million tracks (with 5 million more on the way) will sell songs and albums directly through the Android Market.

Google Music includes several interesting twists on the traditional online music store, including a music discovery function that chooses songs you might like based on the tastes of your Google+ circles and also on an analysis of your music library.

Google also announced that the service is currently open to users in the U.S., who can upload up to 20,000 songs to the Google music storage locker for free.

Google Music is fully integrated with Google+, the web giant's social network. Users can share songs with friends on Google+. When you share content with your Google+ friends, those tracks will be posted to their Google+ streams, where they can listen to each of your song purchases once for free. This means you could listen to, say, a whole Drake album on Google+ before deciding whether or not to buy it--if a friend buys it first and shares it with you. Users can also share songs on Twitter, although it doesn't confer a free listen.

Google Music also offers a Myspace-like "Artist's Hub", where independent musicians can post and distribute their music directly to their fans.

Google obviously faces some tough competition from online music giants iTunes and Amazon MP3.

How does Google Music stack up? Check out our infographic (below) to see where you should be scoring your songs. REad on to find out everything you need to know about the new Google Music.

For an overview of the new Google Music, check out our slideshow (below).

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Comments

[koreadramas]

09:14 AM on 03/13/2012

i used this for downloadvds and mp3, it's good http://youtube-to-mp3.org/

[Quotidien]

05:20 PM on 11/21/2011

You can't beat "free"

[lemmyk73]

12:30 PM on 11/18/2011

Another Google fail. Shutting down Google can not come soon enough.

[torgeaux]

09:03 AM on 11/18/2011

Amazon's cloud is unlimited for songs purchased through Amazon. The limits (and costs) are only for uploading content not purchased through Amazon. Important note.

[DefineReality]

01:25 PM on 11/18/2011

Same note applies to Google Music. You have unlimited space if you purchase all music through GM.

[zorg]

11:04 PM on 11/17/2011

"Song" is an idiotic, inaccurate, dumbed down term. Why does every piece of music have to be known as a "song"? A symphony movement, for example, is not a "song".

[GirlInNYC]

10:40 PM on 11/17/2011

iTunes looks far superior on that chart. When will these copycats stop riding Apple's d**k?

[DefineReality]

01:32 PM on 11/18/2011

Yeah, except for the fact Apple is riding Ritmoteca's d**k or Napster's d**k... Contrary to popular belief, iTunes was not the first online music store / catalog out there and if weren't for others who'd done it first, iTunes wouldn't have had anything to copy.

[ancientuno]

06:42 PM on 11/17/2011

I'm surprised anyone would buy this crap that passes for music these days lol.

[davidmross]

06:05 PM on 11/17/2011

I know it's picky, but it's spelled Warner Bros. Not ever, never, spelled Warner Brothers

[pickles n pops]

01:25 PM on 11/17/2011

$1/tune seems a bit high; maybe 25¢ each?

[kmac23va]

01:07 PM on 11/17/2011

What about the upload/match business? I thought for Google you had to upload your entire catalog first? I know iTunes Match scans your library and only uploads what wasn't purchased or matched...what about the others? That goes to ease of use.

[thehighbrowpoliticker]

02:44 PM on 11/17/2011

You don't have upload your entire catalog. You can put the songs you want in the cloud in a folder and set the google music application to pull songs from that folder only.

[ware]

12:47 PM on 11/17/2011

Such an incomplete article, we got so many options, what about Rhapsody or Zune? They work with a monthly subscription and you can download/play unlimited music ( yes, DRM) . I got a Zune pass, $9.99/month, I download +500 songs/month and I can share it between pc, Xbox360 and my Windows phone. The Zune marketplace is so good for discovering music, I don;t even download from Bit Torrent as much.

[thehighbrowpoliticker]

02:46 PM on 11/17/2011

I have zune marketplace but i get 10 free song purchases. I sent all my songs from the zune markeplace(dmr-free) to google music no problem.

[Hank10303]

12:30 PM on 11/17/2011

I'm surprised Rhapsody isn't listed. I've used it for years and I can rent unlimited songs with the same monthly subscription and download the rentals up to 5 devices (2 pc's and 3 android). Or purchase forever at the same prices as Iphone, Amazon or Google. In fact, I'm a Amazon member and don't use its music service because you have to purchase all music if you want more than to listen to samples. Rhapsody is where they are all trying to catch up to it would seem.

[MrKC]

01:51 PM on 11/17/2011

Rhapsody isn't listed because you don't actually OWN any music. You just rent it. So it's not exactly the same as the other 3. Apples to oranges.

[ColinZeal2]

12:21 PM on 11/17/2011

They missed BitTorrent on the graphic. Here it goes:

Price per song: free
Catalog size: infinite
Cloud playing: yes (with any MP3 streaming service)
Desktop App: yes (any of them)
File format: any
DRM: no
Song sharing: yes, unlimited
Major Labels: all of them
Mobile OS: any

It is the worst: it comes with no "specials".

[rene68]

12:20 PM on 11/17/2011

Piratebay for FTW

[sergal stew]

11:25 AM on 11/17/2011

I would say google and amazon would be better then apple because you get an mp3 and you don't have to use itunes.

[theveggiedude]

02:42 PM on 11/17/2011

MP3 = MPEG-2, layer 3

MPEG-4 is much better in quality (128kbps in AAC is roughly comparable to 250kbps in MP3)