On June 23rd 2015, Google announced that its Google Play Music will be adding a free, ad based tier to its music streaming service. The launch of the new service creates a companion to its $9.99 a month subscription option. Analysts see this as a move to get ahead of the release of Apple Music, which is due later in the month. Google has said that it is offering the free service as a way to entice listeners to buy a subscription to the ad free version.
Some features are missing from Google's free service. Free users will be limited to six song skips per hour. Users can pause songs but there is no ability to rewind or scrub through tracks. While the paid version allows users to save playlists and listen to songs offline, the free version dose not offer that feature. Google Play's free tier is more like radio, but has at least on nice perk. All of the music that's stream is at a rate of 320kbps.
The new ad supported version of Google Play Music is similar to Songza, a company which Google purchased for what was rumored to be, the sum of $39 million, in July of 2014. The playlists are curated by music experts that also include Songza music staffers. Users can browse music by genres, mood, decade, activity, artist, song or album. Listeners will also be able to choose from themed stations such as "Driving," or "Working Out."
The new ad supported version of Google Play Music will launch first in the US. It will be available on the web on Tuesday June 30th 2015, and it should be available for iOS several days before that.
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