Google Music Beta Set To Clash with Music Applications on the Net

Melanie Gross
May 31, 2011
Updated • Dec 4, 2012
Music, Music and Video
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Google recently launched its new online music service through Google Music Beta which is jam- packed with features. It allows uploading up to 20,000 songs on to the virtual cloud known as a Virtual locker. These songs can be accessed from any part of the world with an Android phone, a tablet or a computer connected to the internet service. It provides instant updates of the modified playlist and the settings of a particular locker when it is accessed through any device. It will also assist in creating a playlist dictated by your preferences and moods. Google Music Beta also makes music available offline on the portable devices.

Google Music Beta is exciting with a great user interface which is simple but multi-functional. The service at the same time is limited to users from the United States only. It has other quirks, like no music shop integration, no downloading and the fact that it will turn into a paid service after the beta.

google music

There appear to be a few music service providers already available on the web that can give Google Music Beta a run for its money.

Spotify

This application is launched in the UK, France, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, and not available in US, but it will soon make its appearance in the US. Spotify a new desktop application which streams music files from the web instantly for listening. This application also makes music available offline. It provides higher quality of bitrates than most of the streaming applications, up to 320kbps. Spotify has integrated sharing features to share music on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

YouTube

youtube-music

To every one’s amazement YouTube also provides music video streaming services. Almost all the official music players use Youtube to access their videos from any part of the world using any portable device. These videos can be added to a personal playlist, which can be accessed while listening to the music.

Amazon Cloud Drive:

amazon cloud drive

Amazon Cloud Drive is one of the strongest competitors to Google Music Beta. Amazon not only offers to stream music but allows uploading of all types of documents to its Cloud Drive. The Cloud Drive later provides a music player called the Cloud player through which all the uploaded music can be played-back on the cloud from anywhere while on the run using different portable devices. The main drawback to Amazon Cloud Drive is that it provides limited storage space of only 5GB which can be used to store any type of data. This storage space permits only 1000 music files compared to Google’s 20,000. Extra storage space can be purchased at a rate of $1 per GB if required. Amazon also provides offline streaming of the videos, music and all the uploaded files.

Pandora:

pandora-music

Pandora is a music streaming application which has been available on internet for the past few years. It is more like a digital radio available on the internet. Users cannot build a playlist or upload the music that they have with them. Instead it uses musical preferences and creates its own channels from which the user can select the favorite music. Two versions are available, one free and a second paid option. The free version allows only 40 hours of monthly usage while paid version for $36/year gives access to unlimited hours of high quality music at speeds of 192 kbps.

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Comments

  1. Justin said on November 30, 2011 at 10:18 am
    Reply

    The warning message about AAC streams when you load streams is because you don’t have the free Orban AAC/aacPlus Player Plugin installed.

    http://codecpack.co/download/Orban-aacPlus-Player-Plugin.html

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on November 30, 2011 at 10:56 am
      Reply

      Justin, thanks for the information.

  2. santosh said on December 1, 2011 at 12:43 am
    Reply

    does this support AAC ? or only mp3 streaming

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on December 1, 2011 at 1:43 am
      Reply

      I’d say it supports all pls streams but I have not tried that so cannot verify it 100%.

  3. Barnabas said on August 3, 2012 at 5:15 pm
    Reply

    Thank you Martin for a most informative and viable solution (it allowed me to play streams from a Netherland internet radio station in my WMP)! Continued success to you!

    Barnabas (USA)

  4. AppleRome said on October 7, 2012 at 7:31 am
    Reply

    Your steps’ recommendation is still valid until 7th October 2012.. Thank you very much !!

  5. Laura said on December 1, 2012 at 4:41 pm
    Reply

    Thank you!

  6. sak2005 said on December 9, 2014 at 8:03 pm
    Reply

    You must convert file.pls to file.m3u
    because file.pls open with winamp and file.m3u open with wmp.

  7. Lithium said on February 10, 2017 at 11:10 am
    Reply

    Hi
    2017 still kicking on Windows 7
    Thx a ton

  8. Dennis said on April 18, 2017 at 4:05 am
    Reply

    Hey, even i can do it, i stumbled through it and it works great! The only instruction advice i will add as i had to figure this out, when the wmp box opens that says save or open the bar on right says wmp click that drop down and select “open pls in wmp” once you do that it will work . Took me quite some time to discover that as i am no computer expert by any means. Having said that, previously i had downloaded codec packages and something about aac. None did any good. This rocks, i listen to a lot of internet radio and a number of them have dropped flash player and getting wmp to work had been a nightmare. So many thanks for this great solution to another problem that Micro-Hell will not even address. Peace- Out

  9. stephen marshall said on March 19, 2019 at 2:07 am
    Reply

    openplsinwmp came in a zip file. I unpacked it, and didn’t find anything that looks like an executable, and even the files in the “doc” folder were in a format windows didn’t recognize. I’m not stupid. you said it would open effortlessly. It didn’t. This a rabbit hole I don’t want to go down.

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