Google launched its new music service without much fuss or commotion earlier this week.
However, Apple probably have good cause to be alarmed; Google is now offering essentially the same music service that Apple’s “Match” apparently does, except that it’s completely free of charge.
Apple Match allows users to upload all their music to iCloud, meaning they can access all of their music from anywhere with an Internet connection. In the UK, Apple is charging £22 a year for this service.
Google, on the other hand, is offering more or less the same service, for free. However, it has another feature that is making it stand out: its matching abilities. Instead of having to physically upload your music, Google scans your music folder and then matches your songs to their database. If the songs are found, they will be automatically added to your online account.
Users will be able to store up to 20,000 songs that can stream to any device, iOS or Android. This will be particularly helpful for those who don’t keep a well-organised music collection, as it will sweep and scan over all your folders to consolidate a single library, online.
Google also seems to be rivalling Apple in terms of pricing for music downloads.