Music in the Cloud: Reviewing Google’s Music Beta

For several years now, techies have praised the “cloud” as the future of computing. Referring to cloud computing, the could is defined by Wikipedia as: “the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage and process data, rather than a local server or personal computer.”

Google is one of the bigger players in the developing future of cloud computing, so it’s no surprise that they’ve recently launched their own service geared to compete with Amazon’s new cloud service: Music Beta.

Music Beta is a pretty simple concept—using a proprietary program, you upload and store your digital music on a Google server and then stream it from your computer or Android device whenever you want to listen to it. 

Advantages

• You can access your music from any computer and up to eight Android devices can be linked to your account. This means you can sync one main device to Music Beta and have access to all of your music wherever you are (as long as you have an Internet connection).
• Google provides a wide selection of free music to every Music Beta account holder—so, for example, I uploaded 100 songs to my account, but also have access to over 400 songs based on the genres I selected.
• Accessing your music isn’t device dependent. You can upload music from any computer by logging into your Music Beta account (which is linked to your Google account) and you can easily edit which devices are linked to your account.

Disadvantages

• You can’t stream music from more than one device at a time.  This means if you're listening on your computer, your husband can't listen on his Android tablet in another room.
• It only works with Android based devices currently; this means you can’t access your music through your iPhone or iPod.
• The invite comes with a warning that Music Beta is “currently” free—this is the only Google program I’ve used that comes with such a warning, indicating that once they’ve worked the kinks out and built up a loyal following, this is going to be a paid service.

My Experience

Since I’ve experienced losing everything in a fire, I really appreciate the safety of having a copy of my music stored somewhere besides my computer. I’m also enjoying access to a variety of free popular music. One of the options I really like is the ability to select a song and have an automatic playlist created based on the elements of that song. This is similar to Pandora, including the opportunity to rate a song as it’s playing to have it added to or removed from your favorites. Unlike Pandora, however, you can’t suggest additional songs to add to this automatically generated playlist.

You should also be aware that your listening experience will only be as good as your internet or wireless streaming service. Streaming from my high speed cable connection at home is wonderful, but in my office, where we have a DSL line, the streaming can be spotty. 

Google is offering invites to Music Beta in limited quantities and so far, they haven't offered account holders invites to share with their friends and family. To try the service, request your own invite here.