Google's Music Service Unofficially Up & Running
Google's music locker for storing and streaming music is unofficially up and running for Honeycomb devices.
An Android hacker has discovered that Google's music streaming service is currently up and running, allowing users to store their music in the cloud and then stream the tracks back to an Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" device.
According to a post on the XDA-Dev forum, member WhiteWidows "shoehorned" Honeycomb's new Music app from the Motorola XOOM tablet and then installed it onto his rooted phone, replacing the default stock music player. Once he loaded up the app, he entered into the Settings menu and discovered the unannounced "Sync Music" feature sandwiched between Google Reader and Picasa Web Albums synchronization settings.
"I was prompted with several permissions request and accepted them all," he said. "Syncing then started and I checked that under that under Account and Sync notice Music was syncing. This synced overnight."
When he checked the phone the next morning, all 785 files had synced from his phone’s SD card to a Google server somewhere in the cloud. The music played back without any problems. He then inserted a new, blank SD card and was able to pull all the files back down to his phone. Other XDA-Dev members were also able to sync and retrieve their music as well.
Rumors of a Google-based music service have been around for some time. Originally the service was slated to be a full-fledged shop where customers could purchase singles and albums, or pay a monthly subscription fee to stream unlimited tracks.
But the idea was reportedly put on hold due to delays in agreements with record labels, thus pushing Google to launch a "music locker" first. This service would be similar to mSpot, allowing users to store the files in the cloud and then re-download them again on Android devices.
Recent;y Google's music service was accidentally verified by Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha. "If you look at Google Mobile services today, there's a video service, there's a music service-- that is, there will be a music service."
An actual music store provided by Google is expected to launch at a later date when details have been ironed out with music labels. Although the current "music locker" service is a start, Google needs a full-fledged music store to better compete with Apple's iOS and iTunes.
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Streaming this, streaming that until.... "Dear Subscriber, Last month you exceeded your bandwidth cap. If you exceed your cap this month we will bend you over and ream you a new one".
Notch another one for Android. My Nexus One is the first phone I have ever got that has run faster than when I first bought it a year ago. The new 2.3.3 update simply takes my breath away. It's like getting a new phone. Can't wait to get my hands on the Xoom and Honeycomb!
@octacon72
The streaming isn't necessary. Think of it this way. The golden copy is in "the cloud" (Google's servers). The cached copy is on your device. It would only need to "stream" the songs you don't have on your device. Then, it can keep them there for future playback.
Let's say your device has 16 GB of storage. You could store 50 GB of music in "the cloud", keep 2 GB of your most often listened to music on your device (no streaming would be necessary), and you'd still have 14 GB to spare for apps and other things. Want to listen to a song that's not in the 2 GB of music on your device? No problem. You'll still see the song as if it is there (via the cloud)... play it... it streams... then is stored on your device. The next time you play it, it won't need to stream. If your device gets dropped and run over by a bus, you just buy a new one, login to your account, and you're back in business... all of your apps, music, etc... are fully restored.
To assume that this is all about storing information in the cloud, then streaming every time you want to access the information really misses the flexibility of technology.
@octacon72
The streaming isn't necessary. Think of it this way. The golden copy is in "the cloud" (Google's servers). The cached copy is on your device. It would only need to "stream" the songs you don't have on your device. Then, it can keep them there for future playback.
It would be interesting to do this on a desktop computer
I'm with Octacon. A high quality mp3 is 10mB. If you have a 2GB plan, that's 200 songs. That's not really that much. And that's also assuming you never use the data for anything.
As far as using 2gb and storing the rest on cloud, it really comes down to practicality. I'd say it's fair to assume most people with that much music have that much because they love variety, and because they listen all the time. So you'll be replacing the music on the thing every week - annoying and time consuming. So you're paying $30 for the data and have to spend all the time to mess with it.
Or you could pay an extra $200 for the model that has enough space and probably save that and more getting the smaller data plan.
I officially ordain it to be called the semicolon splice!
How is this different from Orb? Or any similar service? I can use the Orb app on my iPhone to stream any song from my home computer. What's the advantage of Google's service? Other than I don't have to have my home PC turned on when i'm out?
Surely that's quite a major advantage (unless you live in some area where either the computer being on is useful as heating and/or electricity is freely available)?
The data usage level seems to be more the problem, as everyone else has flagged up.
I'm already streaming with SugarSync, mostly because Google didn't have this capability yet.
@octacon72The streaming isn't necessary. Think of it this way. The golden copy is in "the cloud" (Google's servers). The cached copy is on your device. It would only need to "stream" the songs you don't have on your device. Then, it can keep them there for future playback.
it's a nice idea but while you are streaming that one song i can pop in a 32gb sdcard full of them before you're even half way done streaming that one song, not to mention i do not have to pay any penalty for going over my bandwidth cap. and when you're in an area with little or no service all day the only thing in the cloud is that tall ominous dark thunderhead looming over your purplish red face.
my cloud is my pc where no one can change or delete my content due to some damn artists/record label feels their rights are vilated because the music/movie has been modified to my liking.
remember where there are clouds, lightning can strike as often as it wants.
Who is going to pay all of bandwidth needed for the cloud? How is the cloud going to clog up the tubes?
The locker/streaming idea is quite cool as it frees precious storage, but I fear our technology is outstripping bandwidth allotted by carriers...