Google Music
As you can see, we are doing a bit of a companion review, one on Amazon Cloud player, and one on Google Music. Before we start, let me warn you that I mainly use Google Music on my Android phone, so most of the review is based on that. I have not used the computer version heavily since Google Music was still in beta. Also note that Google Music is now part of the "Play" suite that Google has changed everything to, but I will still refer to it as Google Music.
Now onto the review-
Similar to Amazon Cloud player, when you buy music in the Play store on an Android device, the music is automatically added to your Google Music library. You can then access it from your phone, tablet, or computer. You can also then go on to download your music onto your device for offline listening. This is a wonderful convenience for people like me who like to buy music and have everything done on the phone. There is currently a 20,000 song limit on your music library, with a maximum of 250 Mb per song.
For the computer version of Google Music, there is a program that will automatically update your Google Music library by syncing it with a specified folder or set of folders on your computer. The first time you sync, it will likely take hours, but after that, assuming you haven't added large quantities of music, the syncing takes almost no time at all. The program also works in reverse, you can back up your entire Google Music library (including purchases) onto a computer.
The Android app is great, I actually prefer it over the standard music player in Android, though it does have some flaws. I honestly do not like the way the shuffle and queue features work. Basically when you tell a song to play, and then set it to shuffle, the app then arranges all the songs randomly into a queue, and the song you start off with often ends up being in the middle of the queue. Because of this, I have songs in my library that I don't hear. Also if you decide to play the same song again, the queue is not cleared, so you just get the same songs, in the same order as before. There is a way to fix this, you press the "Settings" button on the phone and hit "Clear Queue". This solves the problem, but I feel like a new queue should be generated each time a new song is played.
Overall, I love Google Music. It's great for me because I go on the Play store, buy an album, and suddenly its available for me to listen and download! Its also great because sometimes they have ridiculous deals (example: I just bought 50 classical music songs for $2). Its pretty easy to use, though it does have its bugs. Its a great program, and I would recommend it to anyone with an Android device.
Though if you don't want to take my word for it, you can look at the companion Amazon Cloud Player review.
Original Article