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Google Music Features: The 7 Coolest Things About The New Service

The Huffington Post   Ramona Emerson and Catharine Smith   First Posted: 11/17/11 02:16 PM ET   Updated: 11/17/11 02:35 PM ET

Google Music launched on Wednesday at a star-studded event in Los Angeles. The search giant announced that their socially integrated iTunes rival would include a full-blown music store within the Android Market, a music storage space, tools for music discovery and a platform for independent artists to distribute their music directly to their fans.

So far, the Internet's response to the new service has been somewhat lackluster, but TechCrunch advises against despairing, writing, "all Google products start out underwhelming and gradually expand."

And what Google Music already has isn't exactly chopped liver. Take a look at the slideshow (below) to find out about the service's 7 coolest features -- from Android and Google+ integration to free stuff to extra goodies. Then, read on for a look at how Google Music compares with big-name music services iTunes and Amazon MP3.

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Google has built its music store into the Android Market. Visitors to this content hub can browser songs, play samples and make purchases. Songs start at $0.99. The songs are stored in Google's cloud-based music locker and can be streamed onto the user's devices. Google will also let users store some songs on a mobile device for offline listening. A Music Manager tool helps the user organize tracks on their desktop.

Image via Google Music
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Google Music launched on Wednesday at a star-studded event in Los Angeles. The search giant announced that their socially integrated iTunes rival would include a full-blown music store within the Andr...
Google Music launched on Wednesday at a star-studded event in Los Angeles. The search giant announced that their socially integrated iTunes rival would include a full-blown music store within the Andr...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
onlythetruthcounts
Golden Rule: whoever got the gold, rule.
165 Fans
 
05:06 PM on 11/20/2011
No AIFF support. :((
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Stb1990
0 Fans
07:14 PM on 11/21/2011
Wht the f is AIFF?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
onlythetruthcounts
Golden Rule: whoever got the gold, rule.
165 Fans
 
03:54 AM on 11/23/2011
These kids today (shakes fist)!!
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wellingtonian
55 Fans
02:47 PM on 11/18/2011
Oh boo, it's only available in certain countries. I was excited there for a minute.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
macmanchgo
"You don't need a weatherman...."
373 Fans
 
08:15 AM on 11/18/2011
If you fancy yourself an Android I would guess this looks very impressive. To a human, ...not so much.
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santhosh12689
0 Fans
07:40 AM on 11/18/2011
Thx for this great information that you are sharing with us!!!
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Loyal Whig
"Some animals are more equal than others."
637 Fans
05:15 AM on 11/18/2011
Why the musicians don't sell their own music from their own websites at a reduced price since they can eliminate the middle man music companies, Google Music, Apple Store, Amazon and etc.?
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inguatu
5 Fans
07:11 AM on 11/18/2011
Just like other small businesses, they don't want the hassle that comes along with running a site. Also, if they have a publisher, they don't take to kindly for bands selling their own music without getting some cut.
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tooncesrocks
my micro bio is empty
159 Fans
07:50 PM on 11/17/2011
now google will know what you listen to
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inguatu
5 Fans
07:11 AM on 11/18/2011
Because Apple, Pandora, Spotify and Rhapsody don't already?
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tooncesrocks
my micro bio is empty
159 Fans
11:29 AM on 11/18/2011
comparing itunes to pandora spotify rhapsody are all failures to understand the difference between music stored on your hard drive and music streamed. wow.

the point is that having 1 corporation know about every aspect of your life is B A D... that you cannot see where this is heading is just one more example of what is wrong with the unthinking lemming populace
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
onlythetruthcounts
Golden Rule: whoever got the gold, rule.
165 Fans
 
04:40 PM on 11/20/2011
Good, maybe they'll show me ad's I'm actually interested in!
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ZulMonster
18 Fans
 
07:36 PM on 11/17/2011
Yeah this couldn't possibly have been more effortless. Now I can access all of my music from anywhere and everywhere that the internet exists.
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HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Robert Weller
Retired AP Foreign Correspondent
99 Fans
 
06:00 PM on 11/17/2011
Despite getting help from Google, I have been unable to play a movie I rented. That is because I want to play it visa a Macintosh desktop. Google says its rentals will play. But it requires a content manager that needs to be downloaded. I and others have made dozens of attempts to download it and each time get an error 4404. It appears computers did not figure in their plans.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Stay Up Shabazz
Meet me on 110th street
96 Fans
 
05:44 PM on 11/17/2011
...so their coolest features are basically things I get from iTunes?

Cool Story Bro. I'm good. >_-
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Rhancheck
148 Fans
07:59 PM on 11/17/2011
Aside from the sings being kept in a proprietorial format and DRM's to Hades and back.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
kmac23va
62 Fans
08:55 PM on 11/17/2011
iTunes doesn't do DRM anymore. Hasn't for years.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
smokeypenguin
25 Fans
09:09 AM on 11/18/2011
You get the cloud storage for free through Google. Apple charges $25 a year. Plus music is cheaper from just about anywhere except iTunes
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Tmboy
Reading comments messes with my ZEN, but I'm addic
233 Fans
 
04:15 PM on 11/17/2011
So If I buy a song and can pretty much only store it on the cloud with some limited exceptions? No thanks.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
thehighbrowpoliticker
69 Fans
 
04:52 PM on 11/17/2011
You don't have to store the song in the cloud.
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JasonMcl
8(Na) + 8(Na) = BACHMAN
317 Fans
10:32 PM on 11/17/2011
It can be downloaded to your PC, cached on your phone or downloaded to your PC and transferred directly to your phone.

It can also be played from any web browser by logging into the service.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Hardyman1966
The antonym of liberal is INTOLERANT.
2669 Fans
03:48 PM on 11/17/2011
So far, this is awesome, if for no other reason than my entire iTunes library was effortlessly uploaded to this cloud that gives you a 20,000 song limit.
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tooncesrocks
my micro bio is empty
159 Fans
07:50 PM on 11/17/2011
1) i have way more than 20,000 songs...
2) your bold text annoys
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Hardyman1966
The antonym of liberal is INTOLERANT.
2669 Fans
07:56 PM on 11/17/2011
1.) Then pay for it. 2.) Call the font police.
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JasonMcl
8(Na) + 8(Na) = BACHMAN
317 Fans
10:27 PM on 11/17/2011
"1) i have way more than 20,000 songs... "

Is there any chance that you do not need access to more than 20k songs at any given time? We are talking about over 41 days worth of music at 3 minutes per song. That's kind of a lot of music to be stored for no cost to you.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Carbon Forteetoo
Not enough characters to say anything clev
1764 Fans
03:37 PM on 11/17/2011
Once you're fully involved with iTunes, and iTunes is more than adequate, who's going to go to all the trouble of converting their entire music library to something that's pretty much the same, but slightly different?

Plus...you just KNOW that anything revolutionary that might come out of Google Music, will just be introduced in the next iTunes update. So if there's a "feature" you really want...just wait for Apple to execute it better.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
thehighbrowpoliticker
69 Fans
 
04:57 PM on 11/17/2011
"who's going to go to all the trouble of converting their entire music library..."
It's no trouble at all. Step 1 Download Google Music, Step 2: Select the your itunes folder, windows media folder, to upload to the cloud and that's it. Now you have access to your music on any device.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
mairs
3040 Fans
06:09 PM on 11/17/2011
According to the above it won't be that easy to download to an iPhone. But the more options people have in phones and ways to get music from device to device, the better.
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tooncesrocks
my micro bio is empty
159 Fans
07:51 PM on 11/17/2011
paying to stream music to your phone instead of storing it there... priceless
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
bring in swat
95 Fans
03:13 AM on 11/18/2011
you don't have to convert anything...G will take any format as is and not force to in to a crappy compression rate to control server space
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