If there is one thing about Google that I think most would agree on, it is that people love their products their approach of giving stuff away for free. That creates a bit of an issue, since survey after survey finds that the same folks who like Google don’t view them as a trusted vendor that they want to use to buy their products. This certainly causes issues with Google Music, which launched with a whimper and lacking label support, an whose locker system has been universally derided for awful performance.
But even if they have no clue about how to make a non-crappy music service, there IS one thing they know: people want to pay less. Maybe not enough for everyone to jump onto their service … but perhaps enough that someone will acknowledge that it exists! So here you go – this is about as nice as I can be talking about the ‘worst-in-class’ music service from Google.
But even still … they hit me where I live: the opportunity to grab music for cheap that I really wanted to check out. I immediately grabbed the recent release Conversations With Christian by the incredible bassist Christian McBride. It cost me $4.99 – as opposed to $9.99 on iTunes or $8.99 on Amazon!
Google are claiming ‘millions’ of songs on sale for $0.49 and loads of albums for $4.99, and I have no reason to doubt them based on looking around the store. In fact, pretty much the whole store is on sale with a few exceptions:
Promotion excludes single albums with original retail price above $15, double-albums, and tracks with original retail price above $1.29. Google Music artist hub and Sony albums and tracks are also not included.
Be forewarned – the interface even on the PC is abysmal … I don’t call it worst in class for nothing. But if you want what is a ‘staff pick’ or ‘top chart’ or simply plan to search, you should be able to find plenty of great deals.
Head to the Android Market and grab loads of great music on the cheap while you can, then import it to any of the good music services out there, or just leave it on Google music to play from your phone.