Check out Googles latest product "Play" It's the new centralized spot for apps, games, music, books, and movie sales.

I am just going to focus on the music side with this post, but I am sure all the other features are cool too.

With Google Play you can discover new artists, browse millions of tracks and share music you buy with your friends on Google+ or Bluetooth. You can even store up to 20,000 songs from your own library for free and instantly access your music on any of your Android devices or the web -- no more syncing or wires.

This is going into direct competition with iTunes and it will be interesting to see how this all rolls out. I am a long time iPhone user and recently have been getting frustrated with the limitations that iOS and iTunes has. It is also quite difficult for small labels with a limited amount of releases to sell their music through iTunes Connect  without having to go through an Apple approved Aggregator. You need at least 20 releases to even be considered.  With Google's bottom up philosophy they seem to be about empowering the masses to get exposure. I hope that Play offers a more Youtube-like way to distribute music online rather than just trying to copy iTunes. I know a lot of DJs and producers already use Youtube to upload audio content with great success. Look at UKF and other popular channels and what they are doing. If Google Play could somehow tie that into music sales it would mean HUGE payoff for both Google and the labels/artists.

One thing Apple iTunes does have going for it is integration. Since it has been around for so long it has deep integration with a lot of popular DJ Software like Serato and Traktor. They offer the ability to play songs directly from you iTunes library from within their software. Although Google is usually pretty open with their projects and it wont be long until you start to see these kind of mashups happening with Play.

Google Play has some cool features which I have summarized below.


  • Personalized Recommendations

  • Play music on any device - no syncing required

  • Music is automatically stored in your music library

  • Add up to 20,000 of your own songs for free

  • You can share a free listen with your friends on Google+.


I for one am very exciting about another major player like Google stepping into this space. Its time for iTunes to have some competition; they have way to many rules and limitations in my opinion. It seems that Google has got some big names on board like Lady Gaga, Deadmau5, and Coldplay. Do you think Google can disrupt the monopoly that iTunes has on the digital music market? Leave your comments below.