Google's Music Service Just Got A Lot Better
Play Music - Google's $9.99-a-month music service - will now offer thousands of curated playlists based around time of day, listeners' moods, or what they're doing, much like Songza does.
However, Google has added some features that Songza doesn't have, like the ability to download playlists for listening when you're offline, the ability to see what songs are up next, and add or remove specific tracks.
"We want to give you music that helps you do whatever you're doing - better," Google Play Music product manager Brandon Bilinkski told us.
Although users will often see the same playlist suggestions, each individual person's playlist will be influenced by their prior listening history. For example, a big EDM fan would get a different selection of songs than a jazz aficionado, even if they picked the same playlist.
"'Working To A Beat' means something different to everyone," Bilinkski says.
By letting users narrow down what they want to listen to both through genre and then more specifically through time of day or activity based playlists, Google wants to make sure users can get exactly what they want. Playlists are updated daily or even multiple times a day (there's a playlist called "Obsessively New.")
Here's a taste of what these curated playlists will look like in Play Music:
Google declined to disclose its number of paying subscribers.
The updated Play Music app and web version is available to users now.