Google Music Beta–Not Better

Google Music Beta–Not Better

So the experiment started a few days ago... Sunday 8/7 about 4:00 in the afternoon. My Dell XPS420 was acting up (the video kernel broke and the XPS has a rare BSOD). So, to protect my music library and try the "store one place, use anywhere" concept, I decided to take advantage of the free Google Music service that came with my Toshiba Thrive.

Application Install

The Google Music app came pre-loaded on Android, and a small application was downloaded and installed on Win7 without any setup issues. The app restarts with Windows and has a very basic set of user options.

Music Upload

The key limitation to the service appears to be internet upload speed. I have Time-Warner Cable (Roadrunner) with TurboBoost which has tested well for upload and download speeds. The network meter is pinned to max-upload and my quad-core CPU running at ~30% across all four cores. Yes, I can cook a pork chop on my Dell.


When you compare the upload process to the Apple iCloud "No Upload" process, Google Music is a clunker. And, when you consider that Google is expert at identifying and classifying data, this process makes even less sense. Apple made the correct (legal) moves to get their process right. I suspect that a full 90% of my collection would not have to be transferred when using the Apple model.


As of Friday 8/12 at 9:30am only 8160 songs and 612 albums have transferred. Only 3000 more songs and 200 more albums to go! 
 

Library Features

My library has plenty of Punk-Rock imports. Neither Apple nor Microsoft seemed to be able to make and assign the proper ID and cleaning up duplicates requires a PhD in Math, (I'm only a lowly MBA). Google Music Beta has done a good job identifying my albums, assigning album art, and has a quick fix for those hard to match items (directly changing the album META data).

Invitations

Yes, I have a couple of Invites left. Google Music might be worth the wait - since it is free. Additional comments on Library management, playlist, and streaming capability will follow. Ping me if you want one (don't blame me afterwards).
Now, if I can just convince myself to spend money to try the Apple service.


Xolo