To some people Google Play Music, Google’s subscription music streaming service, may have gotten lost in a sea of other offerings. But now, just a week before Apple launches its new music streaming platform, Google is reminding you about its own service and sweetening things a bit.
Starting today on the web and soon on iOS and Android, Google is offering a free, ad-supported tier to Play Music.
No, you won’t be able to call up songs on-demand. Much like Pandora or Spotify’s free tier, Google Play Music’s free tier is based around “radio” stations – curated playlists based on specific songs, artists, or moods.
“At any moment in your day, Google Play Music has whatever you need music for—from working, to working out, to working it on the dance floor—and gives you curated radio stations to make whatever you’re doing better. Our team of music experts, including the folks who created Songza, crafts each station song by song so you don’t have to. If you’re looking for something specific, you can browse our curated stations by genre, mood, decade or activity, or you can search for your favorite artist, album or song to instantly create a station of similar music,” says Google Play Music product manager Elias Roman.
Of course, the goal for Google is to get people in the door and hope they decide to upgrade to the paid tier. The company isn’t shy about this.
“We hope you’ll enjoy it so much that you’ll consider subscribing to Google Play Music to play without ads, take your music offline, create your own playlists, and listen to any of the 30 million songs in our library on any device and as much as you’d like,” says Roman.
Another day, another free, ad-supported internet radio. Google is banking on the fact that people will be interested in its “expertly” crafted playlists.
And of course, there’s still this in the pipeline.