Google Music Beta - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

fredr123 · 05-10-2011, 11:59 AM

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/n...losed-beta.ars

Quote:

Music and movie rental services are coming to Android devices straight from Google's labs, the company announced at its I/O conference today. Customers will be able to stream movies from the Android Market and stream their own uploaded music from a service Google is calling "Music Beta." Users can also "pin" both types of media to their devices for offline consumption.

It's been rumored for a long time and now it's finally here. In beta form, at least. Of course, as per usual, the service is only available in the USA and Canadian users will be out in the cold until licensing issues can be sorted out.

La Flames Fan · 05-10-2011, 03:43 PM

Is it because of the CRTC we're locked out? Because if so...I'm getting real sick of their shiat.

kermitology · 05-10-2011, 03:55 PM

Sort of kind of not really.

Licenses for digital media seem to still be on the basis of regional boundaries. So instead of having content licensed for international distribution there are individual licenses applied to content for each country.

This is an age old thing.. Hulu, Netflix, Last.fm, Pandora, Rdio, Spotify.. they all have regional restrictions on the distribution of content. You make your content for a specific audience in a specific country. Everyone else has to pay more!

QuadCityImages · 05-10-2011, 06:16 PM

That doesn't really make sense for this particular issue though, because Google is doing this without the cooperation of the record labels. You can't buy music on Google Music, just upload your own music to the cloud. Its basically Dropbox for music, just like the Amazon Cloud Player.

Azure · 05-10-2011, 07:14 PM

But you have to think that eventually the record labels would cooperate.

I have no idea why they're not. Clearly this is the way of the future. As usual they're the last ones to get on board.

McG · 05-10-2011, 10:06 PM

i watched this presser live and it was pretty solid.

The tungsten device, while still a "concept", was cool. check this out...

you buy a cd and it has near field communications built in. you touch it to a device connected to tungsten/the web and it "uploads" all of the music on the cd to your google music account, which is then available to play on any android device.

of course, i am sure that it is a concept because there would be licensing to consider...nonetheless it is a very cool concept.

fredr123 · 05-11-2011, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuadCityImages

That doesn't really make sense for this particular issue though, because Google is doing this without the cooperation of the record labels. You can't buy music on Google Music, just upload your own music to the cloud. Its basically Dropbox for music, just like the Amazon Cloud Player.

That's a good point. Perhaps google has no ulterior motives and is just trying to limit the size of the beta through geographical restrictions and invitations to keep things manageable.

Alternatively, google understands that they will likely face legal challenges of one sort or another and have taken a calculated risk in doing so. Their legal team and defence fund is set up to first defend a challenge based on US law before worrying about dealing with these prickly legal issues in multiple countries. Fighting a war on two fronts usually doesn't work out too well for those combatants.

sclitheroe · 05-11-2011, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McG

you buy a cd and it has near field communications built in. you touch it to a device connected to tungsten/the web and it "uploads" all of the music on the cd to your google music account, which is then available to play on any android device.

of course, i am sure that it is a concept because there would be licensing to consider...nonetheless it is a very cool concept.

No, it's ######ed. Why would I need this, when competing services like Amazon allow me to purchase in a browser on a mobile device and the music shows up in the locker automatically, and is immediately available?

Why are they trying to dis-disintermediate the process when we can already buy and consume content directly online?

Makes no sense to me..

Mad Mel · 05-11-2011, 06:57 PM

Somebody just freakin' hurry up and get these online musicmarts available globally already. Ever tried to find a Trews CD in Australia? And before anyone suggests iTunes, screw DRM. The reason I need a Trews album is because I bought the last one and can't listen to it on my new laptop or Android phone.

sclitheroe · 05-11-2011, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Mel

Somebody just freakin' hurry up and get these online musicmarts available globally already. Ever tried to find a Trews CD in Australia? And before anyone suggests iTunes, screw DRM. The reason I need a Trews album is because I bought the last one and can't listen to it on my new laptop or Android phone.

There is no DRM anymore on iTunes stuff - if you are stuck with DRM'ed Trews, you should be able to update that album via iTunes Plus for a few bucks - it sucks paying a bit more to essentially strip the DRM, but you also get a higher bitrate version to boot, so it's not the end of the world.

Mad Mel · 05-12-2011, 03:31 AM

Can you download music in mp3 format from iTunes, or are you still stuck with .aac?

Mazrim · 05-12-2011, 08:41 AM

iTunes can convert files to mp3 for you if you need.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

There is no DRM anymore on iTunes stuff - if you are stuck with DRM'ed Trews, you should be able to update that album via iTunes Plus for a few bucks - it sucks paying a bit more to essentially strip the DRM, but you also get a higher bitrate version to boot, so it's not the end of the world.

I didn't realize paying to unlock them also redownloaded the file with a higher bitrate...awesome! It's definitely worth my money to get rid of the DRM then.

Russic · 05-12-2011, 02:15 PM

This service will let you create a playlist and then have that playlist auto-create on all of your other devices. If Apple doesn't cut/copy/steal that idea for their upcoming cloud service I'm going to shank somebody with a filed-down iPod Shuffle.

McG · 05-14-2011, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

No, it's ######ed. Why would I need this, when competing services like Amazon allow me to purchase in a browser on a mobile device and the music shows up in the locker automatically, and is immediately available?

Why are they trying to dis-disintermediate the process when we can already buy and consume content directly online?

Makes no sense to me..

because people don't always have access to the cloud and have a need for both physical media but also want access via internet?

sclitheroe · 05-14-2011, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mazrim

iTunes can convert files to mp3 for you if you need.

I didn't realize paying to unlock them also redownloaded the file with a higher bitrate...awesome! It's definitely worth my money to get rid of the DRM then.

Yeah, I've been slowly, very slowly, upgrading my library. I do a couple albums a month, so maybe $6 a month, with the intent of gradually replacing all the DRM stuff.

I didn't really mind the DRM, but it makes sense to opt for DRM free where you can.

Mad Mel · 05-14-2011, 03:40 PM

^ I don't mind DRM in principle either; the wannabe musician in me supports paying for music, so I do. It's just the thought that eventually the music I purchase will have been moved from device to device often enough that it'll be a pain in the ass. I don't want to be tied to a provider, such as Apple. They're just a retailer that I bought a product from that was manufactured elsewhere. They shouldn't have their hooks into me after the cash register closes.

sclitheroe · 05-14-2011, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Mel

^ I don't mind DRM in principle either; the wannabe musician in me supports paying for music, so I do. It's just the thought that eventually the music I purchase will have been moved from device to device often enough that it'll be a pain in the ass. I don't want to be tied to a provider, such as Apple. They're just a retailer that I bought a product from that was manufactured elsewhere. They shouldn't have their hooks into me after the cash register closes.

It gets in the way in other ways too - as another wannabe musician, I can't use DRM'ed tracks in Garageband or even playback software like Capo (which slows tracks down), nor can you build your own streaming service all that easily, even if you have the tools and the know how.

Mad Mel · 05-14-2011, 05:47 PM

I used to use Audacity to change the key that a song is in and stuff like that. Might be worth a try, or it might have the same issue.

MickMcGeough · 06-17-2011, 10:39 AM

Finally got my invite today. The service is awesome so far even though it'll take be a few days to upload all my tunes.

Songs start playing pretty much immediately in the Android app and it's awesome that it caches recent songs because my tablet has no 3G.

Sound quality isn't great though - but I suspect it also might just be my tablet. I'm used to listening via an external DAC/amp.

Loving the Google Music Android App itself, super-slick UI. Much better cover flow than iTunes.

fredr123 · 06-17-2011, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Finally got my invite today. The service is awesome so far even though it'll take be a few days to upload all my tunes.

Songs start playing pretty much immediately in the Android app and it's awesome that it caches recent songs because my tablet has no 3G.

Sound quality isn't great though - but I suspect it also might just be my tablet. I'm used to listening via an external DAC/amp.

Loving the Google Music Android App itself, super-slick UI. Much better cover flow than iTunes.

Are you located in Calgary? If so, what kind of ancient incantations or other voodoo did you have to perform to get Google Music north of the border?