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- Thread starter airborne
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Although the GPM catalogue is very large, you can upload your own mp3s to fill in any gaps in the catalogue you notice (eg. Taylor Swift).
On the Android app, you can download albums or individual songs for offline listening. However, you can also download radio stations or even download your "I'm feeling lucky" playlist. It will download a bunch of songs, and then add new ones next time you're on WiFi. It's an awesome feature if, for example, you're bringing a bluetooth speaker to a party and you want to load up on some music first.
GPM suggests playlists and radio stations based on your taste in music, the time of the day, and even your physical location (for example, it suggests more upbeat music if you're at a gym). In my experience, once you've done enough listening for it to understand your taste in music, these recommended playlists tend to be really good.
If you have a Chromecast, you can cast music to your TV/home theatre. Another feature that's great for parties.
On your PC, if you prefer to listen to music through a dedicated app rather than a browser window, there's an unofficial desktop app for GPM (although it is basically just a glorified browser Window, but it's still nice): https://www.googleplaymusicdesktopplayer.com/
In terms of social features, GPM isn't as good as Spotify or Deezer. It's not a mini-social network; it doesn't allow you to "friend" or "follow" others users. However, you can share playlists with your friends manually, by hitting the "share" button and copying & pasting the URL. If you're interested in GPM playlists created by other users, there's a subreddit for sharing them: https://www.reddit.com/r/allaccessplaylists/
Okay, that's all I can think of for now. Overall, GPM is a great service that's reasonably priced. It's a pity that it doesn't come bundled with an ad-free YouTube experience, like it does in the United States. But even without it, it's my favourite streaming music service. Enjoy!
On the Android app, you can download albums or individual songs for offline listening. However, you can also download radio stations or even download your "I'm feeling lucky" playlist. It will download a bunch of songs, and then add new ones next time you're on WiFi. It's an awesome feature if, for example, you're bringing a bluetooth speaker to a party and you want to load up on some music first.
GPM suggests playlists and radio stations based on your taste in music, the time of the day, and even your physical location (for example, it suggests more upbeat music if you're at a gym). In my experience, once you've done enough listening for it to understand your taste in music, these recommended playlists tend to be really good.
If you have a Chromecast, you can cast music to your TV/home theatre. Another feature that's great for parties.
On your PC, if you prefer to listen to music through a dedicated app rather than a browser window, there's an unofficial desktop app for GPM (although it is basically just a glorified browser Window, but it's still nice): https://www.googleplaymusicdesktopplayer.com/
In terms of social features, GPM isn't as good as Spotify or Deezer. It's not a mini-social network; it doesn't allow you to "friend" or "follow" others users. However, you can share playlists with your friends manually, by hitting the "share" button and copying & pasting the URL. If you're interested in GPM playlists created by other users, there's a subreddit for sharing them: https://www.reddit.com/r/allaccessplaylists/
Okay, that's all I can think of for now. Overall, GPM is a great service that's reasonably priced. It's a pity that it doesn't come bundled with an ad-free YouTube experience, like it does in the United States. But even without it, it's my favourite streaming music service. Enjoy!
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Bryn
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Play Music sucks in Firefox. I had plenty of issues during my free trial, but it's certainly possible many of them have been dealt with since then.
If you have a family who would also like to stream music, Apple Music is the way to go. Play Music doesn't offer their family plan in SA, but Apple do. R90pm for 6 people to get individual accounts as long as they live at the same address. It has been the most terrific value since I got it.
Apple Music has the largest music catalogue from my experience with our various services. The service is also (in)famous for its exclusive content. The allowance for uploading your own music is much more generous than Play Music, and the service also seamlessly puts your store purchases, personal uploads and Apple Music stuff together. Unlike similar services, you can download anything with Apple Music and not just playlists. The amount of curated content has increased drastically in recent months and now rivals Spotify imo. iTunes used to be the biggest drawback of Apple Music, but even that has seen really good improvement recently. The Android app is decent since a number of big updates in recent months.
Apple Music has announced that their student plan is coming to SA, which will presumably cost R30pm based on it being 50% of the standard rate in the US. This might be relevant to you or your family.
Play Music doesn't include Youtube Red. Youtube Red includes Play Music.
Youtube Red gets tuned by everyone. It's hardly available in any countries. It is ridiculous value:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6308116?hl=en
Of course you can still enjoy ad-free Youtube with Adblock Plus in any desktop browser, and by using modified Youtube apk's on Android that remove ads. Even easier on Android if you're rooted.
Apple Music is incredible with automatically generated playlists based on any particular track. The curated playlists are great too.
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backstreetboy
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Bryn
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Could have sworn I looked into it in the past and it wasn't the case. It was a little absurd, so nice that it's been sorted out.
It's a real shame that the Play Music family sub doesn't exist here.
Yes.
Well, it's semantics really. In (the few) countries where YouTube Red is available, subscribing to one service automatically gives you the other. In countries where only GPM is available, you only get GPM. Like I said, in my opinion GPM is still an excellent service in its own right.
@airborne: I doubt starting petition will help. It's not like Google is deliberately trying to exclude South Africa (or any other country). It's just that copyright issues are complex, and trying to make sure that a service YouTube complies with the copyright laws of multiple countries, when they have something 100 million videos and millions of different rights holders who could potentially complain, is extremely complex. They'll get around to us eventually, but it will take some time.
Yes, but with YouTube Red, you have the knowledge that some of your subscription money is going towards the content creators, and you're not screwing them over by blocking their ads. I realise that some people don't care about this, but when I subscribe to a YouTube channel, it's usually because I like that person and I get value from the content they produce. I don't want to feel like I'm free-riding off them.
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Cool, but I am only looking at the free content at this stage, which Apple doesn't offer. I don't mind the ads since I only occasionally will use this service. Currently on Deezer but I don't like the way it works that much. Pandora was perfect, but the region blocking is a problem.
Cool, will give this a try tonight. Thanks
airborne
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Play music has been working flawlessly in Firefox for me at this point.
Tell me more about the modified YouTube apk for no ads and no root needed!!
Damn I need that, sauce for the apks?
Bryn
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Apple will give you a free 3 month trial of Apple Music, so you can enjoy it for quite some time for free. Hopefully it will be enough time to convince that quality services are worth paying for.
Another aspect is artist remuneration. Apple pays more than most, and is currently pushing for a more generous artist payment scheme for streaming services. What they're proposing, if forced industry-wide by insistent labels, would make free tiers from existing services impossible. $10pm, or $120 per year, is much more money than the average music-buying customer spends. Labels should be earning more money from streaming, not less. I like to support a company that's fighting for them.
Bryn
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Just a quick Google dude. You've been suffering needlessly.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-patched-ad-free-youtube-apks-t3449312
airborne
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Thanks, should have checked XDA, always good to get the link from someone that knows it to be good, so much dross on the Internet.
airborne
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Bryn
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Damn. Didn't notice that. Not something I'd notice since I've been rooted since my first Android phone, and because it's not immediately obvious on that page.
What phone do you have? Why not just root? Battery life can't be too great without Greenify hibernating the unwanted background crap.
airborne
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Greenify even without root works really well, I have the paid version.
It's a Samsung Tab S
Doesn't "doze on the go" pretty much do the same thing these days, without requiring root?