Last week, Google announced a slew of new products, from a pair of Google Home voice assistant variants to the new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones. Those new voice assistants, such as the $79 Google Home Mini and the $US399 ($514) Google Home Max, make music playback throughout the home simple — so you’re going to want to hook up to a music streaming service. Google Play wants to be the streaming service of choice for all Google devices. With added features designed to entice Google Home, Chromecast and Android users, here’s why it’s worth your consideration over other services such as Spotify.
Spotify’s pretty platform-agnostic, but the service doesn’t benefit from the integration found in pairings such as iOS and Apple Music, or Android and Google Play Music. Sure, it works on voice assistants such as Google Home and Amazon Echo, and other connected speakers from companies such as Sonos. It also plays nicer with Android devices than a service like Apple Music. But Google’s integration with its own products and services brings with it even more convenience for the same $11.99 monthly price as Spotify’s Premium service.
Google Play Store Integration is Convenient
In addition to managing both your streaming and personal music collection, Google Play Music makes it easy to purchase and consume other forms of media you can enjoy on your devices, such as movies, podcasts and e-books. Spotify only has videos related to its own original content, content you’re probably not actively looking for (unless you’re into Green Day documentaries).
Get YouTube Red for Free
Google Play Music bundles YouTube Red with its subscription, making it a great option for video junkies who hate commercials. YouTube Red also makes your Google Play Music service more functional. If you’re listening to a song with an accompanying music video, you can choose the video option and watch it sans interruption. Since you can effortlessly watch whatever video (including YouTube Red Originals) you’d like, it makes the subscription perfect for Chromecast users as well.
Google Play Music Stores More Imported Songs
Where Google Play Music shines is in offline playback. While Spotify lets you store songs offline, you can only import over 10,000 songs. With Google Play, you can listen to up to 50,000 of your own songs. As someone with an iTunes library full of weird video game soundtracks and obscure jazz albums, I like the idea of being able to access my personal library of music that’s otherwise unavailable online.
Google Play Music also seems to carry a few more songs than Spotify, according to their advertising. You don’t need to worry much about albums exclusive to either service, as Spotify said it was moving away from the tactic deemed harmful to the music industry. Spotify claims a library of “over 30 million songs”, while Google Play Music says its catalogue includes “over 40 million” tracks to choose from. Google Play Music also has a few more podcasts in its catalogue compared to Spotify (two of my favourite podcasts were unavailable on Spotify).
There’s no reason you shouldn’t at least look into switching music services, especially if your new choice lets you bring your favourite songs from back in the day. Whether or not you’ll like the bright visual stylings of Google Play Music is based on your personal preference, but the benefits seemingly outweigh the learning curve and initial growing pains associated with switching when compared to the next best thing.
Comments
One response to “Getting A Google Home? Here’s Why You Should Ditch Spotify For Google Play Music”
I made the switch recently. here are my gripes:
– Sometimes songs take a noticeable time to change i’m talking a few seconds but it is annoying.
– Depending on what device you own OK google can be really shitty with music. On my moto G5+ saying Shuffle my music and okgoogle doesn’t know wtf to do? seems pretty simple, however on some other android devices this command works?
– There’s no “official” dedicated Desktop app, there is a third party one and its ok but sometimes janky.
– I can’t easilly play the music all all devices at once like i can with spotiy connect ,etc.
– The android app isn’t great, there’s no right letter scroll (holding down while scrolling on the right of the screen to show the current letter to browse through) Sometimes songs refuse to seek through the track, on certain screens the shuffle, replay, etc buttons just aren’t there.
there’s more! i just can’t think of it now but I’m constantly annoy by google play music.
TLDR: Google play music service is better value for money but spotify has the APPS side of things locked down good and flushed out. Google play music app has much catching up to do.
If you don’t live in USA, then Google Play Music is a gamble.
Firstly, they do have a family package, but it is only available in a list of seemingly random countries – if you do not live there, then you’re out of luck. You’re not allowed to have a family.
Secondly, the YouTube Red connection is even more rare. If you don’t happen to live in one of the FIVE countries that have YouTube Red, then you’re paying the same price for WAY less service. You even still have to watch YouTube ads. Don’t mention f’ing licensing on that one.
The Play integrations are nice, but since you probably already have all the Play apps on your phone, it doesn’t really add much.
Basically, if you do not live in USA, then there’s a huge chance you’d be WAY better of choosing Spotify or even changing to Apple’s ecosystem. And that is coming from an avid Android and Google supporter.
If you are looking how tow import music from spotify to amazon music / google music or vice versa )
Try MusConv.com it’s great!!!