back to article Google's new free music service is classic Google: Take someone's idea and slap ads on it

A week before Apple launches its streaming music service, Google has sneaked out a free-to-use rival. Youtube Video Google's new advert-crammed streaming service won’t cost you a penny to tune into. Be aware, though, that you won’t be able to pick artists directly; instead, you have to stream from playlists (or "stations") …

  1. Harry the Bastard

    curated title

    i see in the blog post they use the c word

    not sure who started it, but every time i see it used in the context of some trivial task such as making a playlist i just want to slap the perpetrator, hard

    1. Unep Eurobats
      Gimp

      Re: curated title

      Don't fight it, dude.

      I curate my shopping lists. (Icon: dressed up for a slapping.)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "you can browse our curated stations by genre, mood, decade or activity"

    ... and it has ads.

    Almost like Internet radio? Surely not.

    1. David 164

      Re: "you can browse our curated stations by genre, mood, decade or activity"

      shhhhhhhhhhhh- let at least pretend this is a brand new innovative product and not just radio over the internet.

  3. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Facepalm

    Eeeeee...

    When I were a lad, we called em radios.

    (Actually, a wireless.)

    1. Lallabalalla

      Re: Eeeeee...

      We used to see what was on The Gramophone in our house. It was usually Family Favourites sending out Nelly The Elephant from "BFPO 40 to my darling Ned".

  4. Fihart

    All we love about Commercial Music Radio.

    On a website. What could go wrong ?

    I guess they won't have nauseous deejays, at least.

    1. iLuddite

      Re: All we love about Commercial Music Radio.

      "On a website. What could go wrong ?"

      The curators could start talking to you.

  5. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Hopefully this'll be as wildly successful as Google+ !

    1. Planty Bronze badge

      I hope so to. It's also my social network of choice, chock full of interesting people discussing interesting things, along with all the private circles you don't see.

      I guess if you were trying to be ironic, then the reality is, Google+ was a ghost town because nobody wanted to be your friend. I would look closer at yourself not the club that didn't want you to be part of it...

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "not the club that didn't want you to be part of it"

        I'll see your sarkey quote and raise you a Groucho Marx.

  6. JP19

    Google account and credit card required?

    So is this some piece of shit tacked onto Google Play Music that just isn't charged for?

    I couldn't find anything free to listen to. A path which looked like it might lead somewhere stopped when it required a credit card for location verification - hell will freeze over before I give google a credit card number even if it is only associated with one of the throw away google accounts I have to keep creating.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Google account and credit card required?

      #fail. Looking at your post history, you are a UK user. This service isn't out in the UK yet.

      Seems you failed at basic understanding.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Songza?

    Almost straight out of a Dabsy ran^Warticle: Songza, Wangka, Nobba and Tossa.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Songza?

      Listen to Tiesto's Musical Onanism[TM] on Wangka!

  8. John Lilburne

    Damn that video's soundtrack is dire. Do people really listen to that plastic cack? Yuck I don't want to hear anything like that again.

  9. Mitoo Bobsworth

    "...crafts each station song by song so you don’t have to..."

    Pure PR cheese. To quote Bill Hicks - "...if you're in marketing or advertising ... kill yourself. No, really..."

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Doesn't look free

    Maybe it's just geo blocks, but where I am, I only see a free trial, no full free service. Back to TuneIn Radio.

    1. Just Enough

      Re: Doesn't look free

      Me neither. Any attempt to reach the free service just loops back around to where you originally came in.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    So...

    ...MixRadio, but with Ad's.

    Can't wait.

  12. Robert Helpmann??
    Pint

    Just for that...

    Have one on me for the phrase, "does anyone other than Axe-doused teenagers really listen to Tiesto's musical onanism?" Cheers!

    1. AbelSoul
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Tiesto's Axe-doused teenagers

      Perhaps that's the target market?

      Paris because.... well... someone said "onanism".... or something.

  13. Squander Two

    I thought one of the strengths of the Internet was that we could get away from this crap.

    you won’t be able to pick artists directly; instead, you have to stream from playlists (or "stations")

    Ah, so it'll be shit, then.

    "Our team of music experts, including the folks who created Songza, crafts each station song by song so you don’t have to,"

    Ah, so it'll be utter shit, then.

  14. Lallabalalla

    All streaming services are for music fashion victims

    You know, people who listen to Katy Perry ad nauseum for a week becuase they're the Best Artist Ever until it's Lady GaGa's turn, or Fleet Foxes or who-the-hell-ever for another five minutes.

    Not for the likes of us.

    We who are actual fans of actual artists and buy their records (CDs, mp3s, whatever) and listen to them over and over for years at a time. I'm still listening to Meddle and Let It Bleed and Magical Mystery Tour.

    1. Zog_but_not_the_first
      Meh

      Re: All streaming services are for music fashion victims

      I've waxed boringly before on how streaming services seem to be just another way of nudging the unsuspecting into renting everything. Guaranteed income stream for the business and easy to control customers.

      Hmmmm "Rent". Where's that old Pet Shop Boys CD.

    2. Matt Piechota

      Re: All streaming services are for music fashion victims

      We who are actual fans of actual artists and buy their records (CDs, mp3s, whatever) and listen to them over and over for years at a time. I'm still listening to Meddle and Let It Bleed and Magical Mystery Tour.

      So what new groups are you listening to these days? I find Pandora (my wife's service of choice) a great way to find new music to listen to (and perhaps buy if it doesn't wear on me after a few days). For that matter, it's also great when I'm in the mood for something out of the ordinary, unless you expect to go curate a pile of Polka, classical, or 80s butt-rock for the few times a year I'm in the mood to listen to it.

    3. JP19

      Re: All streaming services are for music fashion victims

      "people who listen to Katy Perry ad nauseum"

      Spotify is supposed to have 20 million tracks. A library which would cost you $14 million at iTunes rates.

      Claiming that streaming service is only for those listening to the latest 'hits' over and over again is silly.

      I have been pleased and surprised to find on Spotify stuff I last listened to on tape and vinyl decades ago.

      Radio stations and the internet equivalent (which is all google is offering for free) are for people happy with a popular, limited, and often repeated selection of music.

  15. Salacious Crumb

    MixRadio

    Someone's already mentioned MixRadio, but as a Bloom & Blinkbox refugee, I'm a happy camper once again. A big plus is the ability to download mixes for off-line listening.

  16. Robert Grant

    Google copies Apple when Play Music already exists?

    Pre-Renaissance Europe called; it wants its lack of perspective back.

  17. nilfs2

    I use the paid for version of Google Play Music

    It's not bad, artist selection is good, and I do like lots of "uknown" artists, I can find them there. The recomendations are not that good though, Last.fm recommendations where a lot better, service was better too, but it is is no longer available on this side of the woods because some copyright restriction bullshit.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Epic & Debauched Party Mixes," "Clearing Your Inbox: Pumped-Up Hits,"

    Why not just name all the playlists as "Autotuned helium-voiced egomaniac divas whining over tinny Eurobeats"?

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