The Indian users were waiting for this day from a very, very long time. Finally, their wait is now over. Google’s pre-Diwali gift to India is in the form of Google Play Music launched in India. Yes, that’s right! Google Play Music services have officially started in India.
Google has started the Play Music Store in India without making much noise about it. It has songs as well as complete albums for purchase.
The Play Music Store was earlier rumoured to be launched in July, obviously, that did not really happen. However, the subscription feature, which goes by the name Google Play Music All access, is not a part of the initial service.
The news came out of nowhere after the company’s Tuesday event – Google for India. The company launched a number of apps as well as new features tailor-made for the Indian users. Google India has not yet made any official announcement on its blog yet.
Just as Google Play Music launched in India, it has entered into a competition with Apple’s iTunes and Airtel’s Wynk Music. Currently, the app does not have some chief feature like All Access subscription, streaming songs, radio, podcasts etc in India. All you can do right now is purchase songs and albums.
This is bad news for Google as the likes of Apple Music, Gaana and Saavn do offer streaming service and hence, will leave the new entrant behind.
Now, let us talk about the pricing. An individual song from the genres like Bollywood, Indian Pop, Regional, International etc has a starting price of Rs.15 a song. A complete album of the same will set you back anywhere between Rs.100-Rs.200. You can preview the track(s) and later pay for it using any payment method you find convenient among Debit/Credit card or with Google Play cards.
The web version of Google Play also comes with an option that works with Google Chrome extension. It will come in handy in case the users want a player app.
Surprisingly, the iOS version of Play Music is still letting the users sign-in. This probably means that the service will arrive on iOS later.
One can also upload music with the help of Google Play Music to the internet. All you have to do is simply download the Music Manager app which enables the user to upload music files from computer or Playlists via iTunes as well as Windows Media Player. You will be then able to enjoy your music anywhere, web or Android, after you sign-in.
