This morning at I/O, Google has officially announced its new subscription music service for Google Play Music – All Access. There had been rumours at the beginning of the year that the company had started work on a music streaming service to rival the likes of Spotify and Rdio, and today finally confirms these.
The service essentially works just like its rivals do, letting users stream songs on-demand to their Android device or a computer. It’s built on top of Google’s existing Google Play music store, and like most other streaming services will feature a recommendation engine that will guide users towards new music that they may not have discovered. One great thing it has, just like Microsoft’s Xbox Music, is that it incorporates your local library into it as well, meaning if Google Play doesn’t have a song you like, you can source it from somewhere else and add it to your library and not have to worry about switching between apps for songs.
The service comes with a 30-day free trial which will then turn into $9.99USD a month, or if you start your trial for before June 30th, your monthly fee will be just $7.99.
Apple is reportedly close to securing deals for its own music service to be released this year, but it’s said to be more like Pandora than Spotify or Google’s new All Access.
There is no word yet on Australian availability or price.