Get a New Google Home? This Is Why You Should Ditch Spotify in Favor of Google Play Music
Google announced a ton of new products yesterday, from a couple of Google Home voice assistant options to the new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones. These new voice assistants, like the $ 49 Google Home Mini and the $ 399 Google Home Max, make it easy to play music throughout your home, so you’ll want to connect to a music streaming service. Google Play wants to be the preferred streaming service for all Google devices. With additional features designed to appeal to Google Home, Chromecast and Android users, that’s why it’s worth your attention over other services like Spotify.
Spotify is platform agnostic, but the service doesn’t benefit from integrations, which can be found in combinations like iOS and Apple Music or Android and Google Play Music. Of course, it works with voice assistants like Google Home and Amazon Echo, as well as other connected speakers from companies like Sonos. It also works better with Android devices than a service like Apple Music. But Google’s integration with its own products and services brings with it even more convenience for the same $ 9.99 a month as Spotify’s premium service.
Integration with Google Play Store is convenient
In addition to managing your streaming and personal music collection, Google Play Music makes it easy to purchase and use other forms of media that you can enjoy on your devices, such as movies, podcasts, and e-books. Spotify only has videos that are related to its own original content, content you probably aren’t actively looking for (unless you’re into Green Day documentaries).
Get YouTube Red for Free
Google Play Music combines YouTube Red with subscriptions, making it a great option for video lovers who hate ads. YouTube Red also makes your Google Play Music service more functional. If you are listening to a song with an accompanying music video, you can select the video option and watch it non-stop. Since you can easily watch any video (including YouTube Red Originals) you like, this makes the subscription ideal for Chromecast users too.
Google Play Music has more imported songs
Where Google Play Music shines is in offline playback. While Spotify allows you to store songs offline, you can only import over 10,000 songs, and from Google Play, you can listen to up to 50,000 of your own songs. As someone with an iTunes library full of weird video game soundtracks and little-known jazz albums, I love the idea of having access to my personal music library that wouldn’t otherwise be available online.
According to their advertisements, Google Play Music also contains several more songs than Spotify. You don’t have to worry too much about albums that are exclusive to any service , as Spotify has said it is moving away from tactics deemed harmful to the music industry. Spotify claims to have “over 30 million songs” in its library, while Google Play Music says it has “over 40 million” tracks to choose from. Google Play Music also has a few more podcasts compared to Spotify ( two of my favorite podcasts were not available on Spotify).
There is no reason you shouldn’t even consider changing your music services, especially if your new choice allows you to bring your favorite songs from the past. Whether or not you enjoy the vibrant visual style of Google Play Music is down to your personal preference, but the benefits seem to outweigh the learning curve and initial growth difficulties associated with switching versus the next best option.