Google Play Music All Access - The Final Verdict

I'm not going to rehash my previous comments about GPMAA, (if you want the details head here).  Instead I'll focus on the latest experiences and how greater knowledge of its workings has helped my experience.

After spending a few days with a hybrid collection of my own tunes on an external SD card with the GPMAA tunes living on the internal memory of my phone I realised that I was not really giving it the best try out.  After deleting my tunes and going through a pretty simple process to remove the subscription tracks I rebuilt my listening library purely from Google Music, taking care not to wildly add stuff an max out the memory again.  Browsing albums on my phone I decided that I only wanted a few tracks from a particular album...  and discovered I could only download full albums.  I tried making a playlist to see if I could flag it for offline play... nope, still need to download the full album.  Why Google, why?

Since I had a bunch of full albums I decided to set it up to listen continuously in album order.  No chance.  The only way you can listen continuously is by playing all songs in name order or by shuffling all music on the phone.  Now I have no issue taking a moment to select the next album while at work, but it is just not practical while driving or trying to complete important tasks.  The shine is definitely dwindling.

Okay, so I am happily listening to tunes at work and occasionally managing the GPMAA player when it's time for a new album when I notice some songs cut off part way through.  This happened a few times and I believe the cause may have been downloads being interrupted as I moved in and out of my Wi-Fi area.  What we have here is the music app resuming downloads by seeing what is on the phone, rather than checking that the most recent file downloaded correctly.  Since individual tracks can't be downloaded your only option is to remove and redownload the full album.  Considering how long the ability to resume partial downloads has been around this is a major failing.

So I'm afraid that the last week has only added to the cons.  At this stage I will not be continuing my subscription which is a shame.  The GPMAA app is certainly the most stable I have used when compared to other streaming services and the presentation and ease of use is wonderful.  It is brought down by lack of flexibility when selecting music for offline play and limited playback options especially if you are looking for continuous listening.  Not being able to use an external SD card is a major failing.  I am lucky enough to have 16GB of internal memory on my phone, but that needs to be shared with app data, photos and videos which is why I have a dedicated external SD card for storing my mobile audio and visual entertainment.  If your phone doesn't have much in the way of internal storage then this service is not for you.

You have piqued my interest Google and I will be keeping an eye out for updates and improvements as GPMAA matures and grows, but for the time being I'm going to have to go back to the old fashioned method of using my own music collection.

Google Play Music All Access - The First Week

Okay, so I've dived head first into GPMAA and been trying to survive on nothing else. If you want a run down on the Aussie launch head here.  So how is it shaping up?

First up the web based computer client is definitely easy to use. The search function is very speedy and intuitive with the ability to play full albums or create a radio station just a quick click away. The radio is definitely a highlight due to the playlist being made available to view and edit. Pandora take note. The player seems to be a little temperamental at times with occasional interruptions when opening other applications and having issues when sharing bandwidth. I also spent an afternoon where it simply disconnected and no amount of poking could get it to play again.

So how does the mobile app shape up I hear you ask. Well it is nearly a complete copy of the desktop version with all features available. A quick dive into the settings gives you tick boxes to restrict downloads and streaming to Wi-Fi only which is great given that Australia is not really up with mobile quotas and speed. The search works much the same, if a little slower, on the phone. Oh and it's Android only at this stage but there are rumours of an iDevice version. You can search and flag stuff for offline play on the go and it will automatically download one you're hooked back into the Wi-Fi.

I have headphones with a remote button as well as a Bluetooth compatible car audio system and GPMAA dealt with both smoothly.

I managed to amass a considerable library of tunes within a couple of days, including an impressive amount of Aussie content, and then the first cracks began to show.

I hopped in the car on Sunday morning and it wouldn't play leaving me stuck with the radio like some primitive barbarian. I investigated when I got home and the error was that there was insufficient space available to play music. I checked the storage and sure enough I had filled up the internal SD card on my phone. Since I have a large external card for media I investigated the options for using the big space left after I had removed the music that was previously living there... only to find out there are no options short of rooting my phone and doing some serious tinkering with the file system.

As I wanted internal source for other apps to use I removed a stack of the offline stuff and put some of my own music back on the external card. GPMAA picked it up and I could seamlessly use both the subscription and my own music easily, until the default android player started trying to muscle in when I used my headphone controls.

Enough rambling, if you are skimming this then stop and pay attention now!  It's time for some pros and cons.

Pros

• Big library of music that is easy to manage
• The ability to upload your own music (up to 20,000 songs) if some of the tunes you like are missing
• Being able to see a playlist of upcoming songs on the radio feature
• Android app almost identical to desktop client
• Integrates well with various remote control devices
• A simple tick box to restrict downloads/streaming to Wi-Fi only
• The ability to queue up music out an about and have it automatically download when you get back home
• 1 month free trial

Cons

• No option to use external SD card for storage
• App can have conflict with the native Android music player
• No remote managing of phone files, ie being able to send songs to a registered mobile from the desktop client
• No option to leave a certain amount of storage space free, especially an issue since it won't play if your card is full
• Does not obtain artwork if it is missing on your personal music
• No way to specify what folders it should watch on your phone, so if you have games that use mp3 files then expect that stuff to show up in your playlist
• Horrible name

Overall I do like GPMAA and with a few improvements it would definitely be a much more appealing option. I shall persevere and dig deeper to see if I can resolve some of the cons before my free month runs out.