Hands on look at Google's new Play Music application

During the Google I/O keynote, Google announced several API updates for its core services. this includes Google Maps, Google+, Play Music and Google Talk. Today I will be giving you a look at the new Play Music app that was announced at I/O. The new app comes with some UI changes but the major new feature is Google now offers a streaming music service. Just like Spotify, Pandora or the other countless music streaming apps, you can create your own music playlists as well as listen to preselected ones. The music streaming service, however, isn't free and requires a monthly subscription fee (although you do get the first 30 days for free if you register before June 30th). Also, the streaming service isn't available in every market unfortunately.

So here is a look at the streaming music service part of the app, you can create your own custom radio stations by typing in the name of a song or artist. The app then builds a station around your search criteria  using similar songs and artists as well.

The streaming service also allows you to search and listen to playlists submitted by other users based on genre  or sub genre. The playlists that are available, however, are limited.

After using the streaming music service for a couple weeks now, I have to say I am quite impressed with it, thanks to this service, you can listen to tracks of new albums that have been released without buying them first which I think is an awesome idea because then you can get a feel for whether or not you want to purchase tracks or the whole album itself. I have noticed though that the music selection is not quite on par with other services, perfect example when I tried to search for Led Zeppelin because they are one of my favorite bands, I couldn't find much content available on that particular artist. I would imagine that in due time, the service will improve as more music is added to the catalog. 

In the end, I think its awesome that Google is offering this service but I do wish there were other pricing options available such as offering maybe a free streaming service but include advertising or skip limits like other services offer. As like any application, it will get better in time as new features may be added. ~Mathew