Using Google Music

[Money_Mark]

So I finally transferred all 3,000+ songs from my iTunes library, to Google Music. It took nearly two days, but so far it seems to be working well. My main goal was to be able to have access to my entire music library (anywhere) without having to sacrifice my phones internal memory. At this time I do not have a microSD card, so saving memory is important.

With that being said, Google Music leaves alot to be desired. It is not nearly as streamlined as iTunes at this current point in time, and I can only hope they are working on refresh soon.

Whats most important is that I now have complete music access. This leads me to an obvious question; Does this mean my music is now 'in the cloud'? I notice my 3G signal is consistantly on when playing music now. Am I setting myself up for possible throttling from AT&T? Also, I notice the music will turn off if another app is selected. Does this mean it can only play music in the background if listening off-line or via wi-fi?

Any help or insight would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Mostly Harmless]

I found Google Music (GM) to be pretty awesome.

First off, do you have any music loaded to your phone right now? If you don't then anything you are playing with GM is playing from the cloud and is using data. There is an option in the menu "Offline Music Only" which will disable able you from seeing anything stored in the cloud and therefor preventing you from using up your data. There is also an option to "Stream via Wi-Fi Only" which will only allow you to stream your cloud music when you are on wifi (sorry to state the obvious). You can also turn off the option "Steam high quality" which will increase the compression and decrease the amount of data you are using.

Last but most important, if you are worried about using too much data then opt to use the "Available Offline" option on songs/albums/artist that you listen to the most. This will download the songs/albums/artist to your phone. Just make sure you click the "Download via Wi-fi Only" if you don't want to use any data while making the songs/albums/artist available offline.

I find GM to be pretty easy to use and streamline, I am curious to know what you don't like about it.

 

[Money_Mark]

Thanks for the information, Harmless. Great review. Before I answer your question, I just wanted to state that I really do like GM, I just think that it needs a little polish to surpass iTunes.

For starters, I would say that the UI looks very dated. If you have to look at something, hopefully it's attractive to your eye. But getting back to the point, I prefer to look up my music by album cover art. The ability to increase/decrease cover art tile size is HUGE to me. This function alone, allows me to increase the number of albums I can view at one time, or a single scroll. GM cover art size is fixed, so I can never few more than 10 albums at one time. Compare that to 45 via iTunes. If GM can fix that, I'd be a happy camper.

Right clicking 'Get Album Artwork' or 'Get track name' option is awesome on iTunes. Makes fixing your file fast and easy.

The My Library column on the left requires scrolling nearly every time in GM. In iTunes, this same column is narrower, cleaner, and all options are visible without scrolling. Again, another navigation, UI issue.

Why are the play/forward/reverse buttons on the far left, and the loop/shuffle buttons on the far right. should all user controls be near each other? This is something both platforms could improve on.

No EQ settings? Fail.

No user controls from lockout screen on phone. Not sure if this is a phone specific issue (I have SGS2). But having to press the wake or volume button, then unlocking screen, then locating the GM app and tapping, just to skip to the next song? Their has to be an easier way!!! C'mon Samsung or GM, fix this fast!

As I spend more time with GM, I'm sure I will find more things that I both hate and love about it.

Mark

 

[fldude99]

You don't have to use the GM player to list to your music. Try cloud music player in the market

 

[nyydynasty]

GM definitely needs more refinement but for what it offers and how long its been out, its pretty good. I had some problems with it on my last phone but after some GM updates and getting a new phone, GM has been flawless (in regards to reliability).