UPDATED 14:15 EDT / MAY 15 2013

Google Unveils $9.99 “AllAccess” Music Service, Rivals Spotify + Pandora

Google unveiled “Google Play MusicAllAccess” its much rumored (and awaited) music subscription service at the 2013 Google I/O conference, which rivals Spotify and Pandora. According to Mike Isaac of AllThingsD, what distinguishesAllAccess from Spotify, is that it is accessible across the Internet – “which is nicer than Spotify’s desktop client” – and available on Android phones and tablets. For the most part, however, AllAccess users will enjoy familiar streaming music features including the ability to browse different music categories, enjoy recommended content from Google’s editors, stay current with top albums and songs, and build playlists inside the app.

Silimar to Pandora, AllAccess users have a personalized radio station option, tailored to listening habits. Google suggests its radio station is superior given that you can view a queue of upcoming songs and remove the songs you wouldn’t want to hear.

Pricing

 

Pricing is similar to Spotify with some slightly different drawbacks. Our editor Mark Hopkins tweets: “AllAccess (the new subscription service) is $9.99 a month in the US. Available today. Just like Spotify.” Still, users will find, unlike Spotify, this is the ONLY pricing plan. Google is not offering a free version with ads, which Isaac suggest may have “been the reason why Spotify has gained more than 6 million paid subscribers globally to date, and more than 20 million active users of the service overall.” Currently available, AllAcess is free for the next 30 days.

Time will tell if users are willing to pay for a different, yet, familiar music experience.

As you can see, our editor, Mark Hopkins was not particularly impressed with AllAcces. Review his live tweets from Google I/0 via @rizzn.

“The new streaming service for Google Music looks like a feature for feature rip off of Spotify. #stealfromthebest.”

 


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