Google Play Music: All Access Launches Today

Google today (May 15) announced a new streaming music service, Google Play Music All Access, during its sixth annual I/O developer conference for software programmers in San Francisco.

Expected to compete with rapidly growing music companies including Pandora and Spotify, the pay-by-month service allows users to blend their current music collections with its licensed library of songs from major labels UMG, Sony and Warner. Additionally, customers can create radio stations based on any song or artist, browse recommendations from an expert music team or explore by genre. Free storage for up to 20,000 songs is available in the cloud for listening alongside the All Access catalog.

The new service will be available in the U.S. on smartphones, tablets and Web browsers with a free 30-day trial, then for $9.99 a month for millions of songs on demand. Trials beginning by June 30 will pay only $7.99 a month.

Google Play is the company’s online media hub, which already includes a download store and storage locker.

Additional announcements at today’s roll-out include tools for developers to monetize apps in the Google Play download store, a new Samsung Galaxy S4 exclusively for Google Play, a tablet program for educators, a new web platform payment feature for Chrome, and a standalone app for “Hangouts.”