Google Play Music vs Spotify

DublinBeaker

Does anybody know the main differences on the above.

I have an ipod for last few years and occasionally and out of handiness i buy the odd album through itunes

I have signed up to the 1 month free with google play music.

So my questions
After the free month its 9.99€ a month for unlimited access ?

I have a 5gb data plan so would be downloading music over wifi, once downloaded whenever I play the music it plays it from device and not streamed.

If I cancel the subscription I presume all the albums i have downloaded will be removed ?

which is better, googly play or Spotify.

Is there similar for movies ?

Thanks again.

jester77

I have used both, now I just use Google Music. In terms of content they are the same. Google Music a much more pleasant experience on the phone. If you download music and cancel then your music is gone. I remember with Spotify that offline music would time out after a while and you would need to go online again before it would play. These days I just stream music, I don't bother with downloading. I listen to about 60-90 mins of music every day and that uses around 2-3 Gb of data a month.

For desktop I find Spotify to be better, the app integration and song discovery is much better than Google music, but they are getting better. They recently purchased a company that specialised in this and it's beginning to show.

As for movies, I use Netflix and Amazon Prime. Prime is better for movies.

Dudda

It might be still to early to tell for sure as it’s just launched and in beta but Google Music All Access will get you the new Youtube Music Key for free which will allow you to watch videos add free, listen to them when the screen is off and download them for offline use.

To be honest it’s not the hardest to switch between services and there are ways of transferring your playlists if you want to switch service.

Tony H

Google music is great for me . it has a lot of Irish trad music including a lot of old Gael Linn stuff from the 70's
And even better I use my payg credit from 3 to pay for it every month.

DublinBeaker

Thanks all for the advice. So I previously bought the odd album through ITunes to listen to in work.
Sometimes downloading and listening to it once and paying 9.99 !

What I can get my head around is that for 9.99 a month i can listen to whatever I want to.

A bit of a newb with the idea of music as a service !

Mantis Toboggan

Try both : AFAIK both have trial periods. I've used both and Spotify is better imo. Lot more features/customisations and the app is much better in terms of layout.

Lucas Hood

Spotify is way better IMO.
Deezer is even better than Google play music.
Though there is one advantage to play music that you can pay for it through your phone credit on three.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Spotify is way better IMO.
Deezer is even better than Google play music.
Though there is one advantage to play music that you can pay for it through your phone credit on three.

I've been using spotify for a while now and think it's great for the most part.

But being able to pay with credit would be brilliant for me, I always have tons built up.

symbolic

I've used both and they are both fantastic. Crazy to have all the music you want for a tenner a month. Great for listening to bands that have gigs coming up.

I've stuck with Google music myself. I find it handy being able to upload old albums I have that aren't online. But maybe Spotify do this now?

BobMc

I'm a deezer fan myself, all personal I guess, I use sonos, have 3 months of spotify at the moment to see if any better than deezer bar the playlists on spotify i still prefer deezer they do offline play also

Genghiz Cohen

Used Spotify for a while and really liked it.
Then the Radio got stale and threw up the same 30-40 tracks again and again. Ignoring my downvotes. I couldn't figure out how to undo and upvote or a downvote.
Google Music solved all these issues for the same price, why not switch?

Ludo

I am trying to decide between the 2 at the moment also. Will almost definitely go for Google Music purely because of ChromeCast support. Spotify does not have it and it is the deciding factor for me.

Lucas Hood

Ludo wrote: »

I am trying to decide between the 2 at the moment also. Will almost definitely go for Google Music purely because of ChromeCast support. Spotify does not have it and it is the deciding factor for me.

Get an app called spoticast it'll let you do that.

Ludo

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Get an app called spoticast it'll let you do that.

Yes I know. However, that is a totally unofficial app. I would prefer to use an official app rather than rely on third party stuff which gets removed from the Play store every so often for violating the terms.

Lucas Hood

Ludo wrote: »

Yes I know. However, that is a totally unofficial app. I would prefer to use an official app rather than rely on third party stuff which gets removed from the Play store every so often for violating the terms.

Cool story bro.

Ludo

Lucas Hood wrote: »

Cool story bro.

What is that meant to mean?

Mantis Toboggan

Ludo wrote: »

I am trying to decide between the 2 at the moment also. Will almost definitely go for Google Music purely because of ChromeCast support. Spotify does not have it and it is the deciding factor for me.

Who wants to cast music to a tv?

Bluetooth it to a sound system!!

Ludo

Buddy Holly wrote: »

Who wants to cast music to a tv?

Bluetooth it to a sound system!!

Yeah I do that also. Can do that with both so no distinction there for deciding between the 2.

Also chromecast costs 40 quid...I dont have a portable sound system so why spend a lot on one when I can use the chromecast to the tv with a good sound system attached.

Also bluetooth means leaving the controlling device near the player. Not so with Chromecast.

And apparently a good few thousand people want to:

http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/Add-support-for-Google-ChromeCast/idi-p/482900

Professey Chin

Buddy Holly wrote: »

Who wants to cast music to a tv?

Bluetooth it to a sound system!!

I cast to my TV cause it has a surround sound system. Plus you only need the devices to be on the same network and it doesn't rely on the phone for the music since it gets it directly from the source

Mantis Toboggan

Professey Chin wrote: »

I cast to my TV cause it has a surround sound system. Plus you only need the devices to be on the same network and it doesn't rely on the phone for the music since it gets it directly from the source

Ah yeah that's fine. My sound system is connected to the TV also but I can stream to it with Bluetooth. Works well. Tvs generally have terrible speakers so no point otherwise.

moonboy52

GPMAA allows 20,000 of your own songs to be uploaded. That is a big plus for me over Spotify.

I believe with the launch of Music key, there will be an introductory price of €7.99 like when GPMAA launched here, but not 100% on that.

Keith186

moonboy52 wrote: »

GPMAA allows 20,000 of your own songs to be uploaded. That is a big plus for me over Spotify.

I believe with the launch of Music key, their will be an introductory price of €7.99 like when GPMAA launched here, but not 100% on that.

Seen thatprice rumoured somewhere too. I'd go for Google Music at that price. I got a special offer when I signed up for it at the lower price for life or until I cancel it and its good value.

Google music is definitely improving of late especially since taking over songza and implementing their playlists.

moonboy52

Keith186 wrote: »

Seen thatprice rumoured somewhere too. I'd go for Google Music at that price. I got a special offer when I signed up for it at the lower price for life or until I cancel it and its good value.

Google music is definitely improving of late especially since taking over songza and implementing their playlists.

I hope Songza is rolled out to Ireland and other regions soon. It surely is a matter of when and not if.

Turtwig

Used to use Spotify. Marginally preferred it then. GPMAA is very much worth it. Especially if you're using PAYG. I had a massive excess of prepaid call credit with 3. Used Play Music and Play movies to put that credit to some use. In terms of cost differences. With Spotify it was €10 per month. With Google Play music I was paying €20 top up per month and rarely using all that. From that €20 then came 9.99 for Play music. With Spotify I was paying €30 a month because it didn't allow phone credit purchases. This way I'm still only paying €20.

Flaccus

I used Play music for a while and the problem with play is it will always default to the highest quality settings if you think your network has the bandwidth. It doesn't matter what you set it to in settings. A bit of a problem when you are on the bus with a 4g signal. Uses data up really fast. Spotify gives you the option to set the quality setting and it sticks. Another issue with play music for some is that once you click on a track it starts caching it to your device. Fine if you are always the type that listens to the full track. And very handy when you relisten or go into an out of coverage area, it won't try to download it again as it will just play locally. Not so fine if you are just flicking through stuff. I remember on one 2 hour journey I used up almost a gig of data, and I probably only listened to a handful of tracks or so but skipped through dozens. Spotify in my view is the better option in terms of data usage.

When at home, I stream spotify from my note 4 to my qacoustics bt3 bluetooth speakers. Very good quality.

AlanS181824

This mightn't work for everyone but....

I've a Vodafone sim, I top it up by €20 every so often and I get Spotify Premium at the reduced rate of €5.99!

Exact same service but it just says under payment on Spotify that my account is managed by Vodafone!

Get a free Vodafone sim, top it up by €10 every month and save yourself €4!

moonboy52

Flaccus wrote: »

I used Play music for a while and the problem with play is....

So even if one selects mobile network stream quality to low, it changes to high on its own? That is not good at all

If you untick cache during playback it still caches?

I must look into it.

AlanS181824

AlanS181824 wrote: »

This mightn't work for everyone but....

I've a Vodafone sim, I top it up by €20 every so often and I get Spotify Premium at the reduced rate of €5.99!

Exact same service but it just says under payment on Spotify that my account is managed by Vodafone!

Get a free Vodafone sim, top it up by €10 every month and save yourself €4!

So this in a way allows you to pay for Spotify with your Vodafone credit and Google Play Music All Access (they really need a shorter name!) With your Three credit!

Both great services.

Raoul

Tony H wrote: »

Google music is great for me . it has a lot of Irish trad music including a lot of old Gael Linn stuff from the 70's
And even better I use my payg credit from 3 to pay for it every month.

How do you do that???? :eek:

Turtwig

Raoul wrote: »

How do you do that???? :eek:

You have to ensure you're connected through mobile data. Then when you use google play store you have the option of buying stuff using your My 3 account, which is effectively your prepaid call credit. It's incredibly handy. Especially if you have chromecast.

Raoul

Cheers. I was paying through debit card. Cancelled that and will sign up now with prepay credit when this month is over.

BionicRasher

Buddy Holly wrote: »

Who wants to cast music to a tv?

Bluetooth it to a sound system!!

I find the Chromecast support for GPMAA great. I don't have a Bluetooth sound system but do have a surround system attached to the TV and an FM transmitter also attached to the TV. So I can turn on the TV and the various sound systems with radios around the house and even out in the garden and control the whole lot from my phone or tablet.

That and the fact that we share a family account and have all my old crappy albums stored in GPMAA are the winners for me

flazio

Have both. Spotify through my Vodafone plan, and Google Play just normal. I find the browse/discover feature for playlists much better on Spotify. I like how they try to match the time of day with the type of playlists people look for.

00sully

Turtwig wrote: »

You have to ensure you're connected through mobile data. Then when you use google play store you have the option of buying stuff using your My 3 account, which is effectively your prepaid call credit. It's incredibly handy. Especially if you have chromecast.

Is it automated or do you need do it each month? Three told me this wasn't possible!

Girlfriend has Spotify, I prefer gmusic for sonos integration. Neither is better really just depends on your own ecosystem.

poeticmakaveli

i just tried 'deezer' and wow, 6 months free and the very same as spotify and Google music!! I've used both them and im not into mainstream music so i always go to artists I'm into myself and all three now are def sharing the very same source, just different layouts and whatever suits you! but I'm after getting 6 months free with deezer! wonder what the catch is!!

Ludo

poeticmakaveli wrote: »

i just tried 'deezer' and wow, 6 months free and the very same as spotify and Google music!! I've used both them and im not into mainstream music so i always go to artists I'm into myself and all three now are def sharing the very same source, just different layouts and whatever suits you! but I'm after getting 6 months free with deezer! wonder what the catch is!!

How'd you get 6 months? I get offered 15 days only.

You using a Samsung s5 by any chance?

Flaccus

6 months free on Deezer is a samsung gift for note 4 buyers.

Flaccus

moonboy52 wrote: »

So even if one selects mobile network stream quality to low, it changes to high on its own? That is not good at all

If you untick cache during playback it still caches?

I must look into it.

Yep. Lots of story's out there about network stream quality. Google want the user to have the best experience so will override your settings if the network can support the bandwidth. Hence lots of people forcing their phones to 2g. LOL.

Here is the official line
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1391343?hl=en

But this is really what happens
http://www.androidcentral.com/don-t-hit-your-cap-few-tweaks-cut-down-google-play-music-data-usage

"By default, Play Music will now select the quality of music that is appropriate for the speed of your connection in order to keep the music flowing even if your connection is slow. This also means that there's no way to force the app to keep a lower quality music stream to cut down on data usage"

Regarding the caching, you can disable it no problem by unticking cache. The issue is if you have it enabled, the full song will cache in the background even if you only listen to a few seconds and get bored and move on. The logic is it caches only once so when you replay the song it will play it from local storage. Handy for when you move into a poor reception area or if wifi goes out. Not so handy if you are flicking through playlists like me. Of course I did not realize this at the time. What I should have been doing is turn off caching, and use pinning only for the tracks I want downloaded in the background. With Spotify I use about 500megs a week. On Google play I used that in a day because I did not know how caching worked!!!

Lucas Hood

Anyone wanting to try Google Play Music can get a 90 day trial through this link http://g.co/GoogleFriends

mossie

I've been with Spotify since it launched but recently tried Deezer and All Access on Google Play Music and I'm now back to Spotify. It's all down to personal preference but I find Spotify best for music discovery / playlists. Deezer would be next then Play Music. I also like that Spotify has a desktop app. I will probably try the others again but right now Spotify is best for me.

listermint

If there was a poll id vote.

I used Spotify first for a few months, I then used Google for 3 months.

I have to say spotify wins hands down for their music collections. They appear to tailor it far more intelligently that google do, the UI is nicer and everything feels like a better experience.

Which is surprising as Google have my entire back catalogue on google music drive. so they should be able to select my tastes with far more intelligence.

So in short Spotify is better, google music is great for storing your music.

mossie

listermint wrote: »

If there was a poll id vote.

I used Spotify first for a few months, I then used Google for 3 months.

I have to say spotify wins hands down for their music collections. They appear to tailor it far more intelligently that google do, the UI is nicer and everything feels like a better experience.

Which is surprising as Google have my entire back catalogue on google music drive. so they should be able to select my tastes with far more intelligence.

So in short Spotify is better, google music is great for storing your music.

That's pretty much what I find too. I've uploaded thousands of tracks to Google but their suggestions don't seem to take those into account. The "I'm feeling lucky radio" bears little resemblance to my collection. The featured playlists under "explore" never change and there's only a limited number of those.

The ad free videos with youtube music key would be nice but not enough for me to switch permanently. For me both the service and the app need a lot of work first.

Technophobe

listermint wrote: »

If there was a poll id vote.

I used Spotify first for a few months, I then used Google for 3 months.

I have to say spotify wins hands down for their music collections. They appear to tailor it far more intelligently that google do, the UI is nicer and everything feels like a better experience.

Which is surprising as Google have my entire back catalogue on google music drive. so they should be able to select my tastes with far more intelligence.

So in short Spotify is better, google music is great for storing your music.

Says it all imo..

moonboy52

Whilst not as polished as Spotify, i have high hopes that with the Songza integration, personalisation will improve.

hmmm

If I only wanted a music service, I'd go with Spotify.

However, I use a Chromecast & love it. Google Music has this integration and it's a killer feature for me.

Lucas Hood

hmmm wrote: »

If I only wanted a music service, I'd go with Spotify.

However, I use a Chromecast & love it. Google Music has this integration and it's a killer feature for me.

Spoticast works well enough.

Raoul

Couple of things I wished Google had....being able to add an artist to your library from the explore (and not having to add a particular album) and better playlists like spotify based on mood/what you are doing. And also update their playlists too. The featured playlists have been the same for months.

poeticmakaveli

Ludo wrote:

You using a Samsung s5 by any chance?

i am actually! how did you know that?

Daith

Google Play but only because I can pay using 3 credit. I think Spoitify is the better app though.

DublinBeaker

Hi there, OP here. Still persisting with Google Play Music. Just wondering can you share you details with more than 1 device.
E.g - have a phone and tablet using the same account details ?
Suppose I could just google it aswell
Thx.

MuppetCheck

I use it on more than one device without issue.