The cloud wars have begun. Google’s worst kept secret of all time is in full beta mode, and invites are now being sent out faster than ever before. The average wait for an invite is down to about a week. Similarly, Apple has announced their much anticipated iCloud service for their Apple products. So which is better for the user? Let’s take a look, shall we?
Google Music (Beta)
When Google announced their beta program people were amazed. 20,000 songs? For free?! Even though Google has stated it won’t stay free, that is still one heck of a deal for the time being (and the general consensus is that Google will offer something like 5 gigs free and you’d pay for more). What then happens is you install the Google Music helper, tell it where all of your music is at, and it uploads everything.
Pros
- Can be used on any device with a browser
- Allows you to upload your entire library
- Incredibly large amount of space for free
- Streaming music, or download if you prefer
Cons
- Incredibly slow upload process
- Can’t buy new songs
- M4A and M4P type files are not currently supported
- Not as polished
Apple’s Music iCloud
Apple users expected a swift response to the outside world’s growing dependency on “the cloud” and they were not disappointed. Apple announced their massive iCloud service, and with that their music part of the iCloud service. Rather than use Google’s shotgun-upload-everything method, Apple has elected to go with a scan and match method. Your device would be scanned and all of the files you’ve bought from iTunes would be essentially just “appear” in the iCloud service for your use. If you want to match music not bought from iTunes however, you’ll need to pony up $25 a year in order to do so. Everything that iTunes can’t match on your computer will just be uploaded similar to what Google Music does.
Pros
- No need for long upload process
- Easy to use
- Can buy new music and it’s instantly added
Cons
- Only available on Apple products
- No streaming of music
- Only music bought on iTunes is free
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So there’s the outline of both services. Where does that leave us standing? Well, as an Android user you don’t have the option to use Apple’s iCloud so your decision is pretty easy. For those of you still deciding on which camp you want to belong in your choices get a little more interesting.
The biggest complaint about Google Music is how long it takes to upload music; I can attest that it does indeed take a long time. My computer was uploading music for nearly two days straight but that’s the price I pay for having nearly 4,000 songs. Of those 4,000 songs, a little under 60 weren’t able to be uploaded because of the file type (all my files were uploaded from iTunes). I converted those to MP3′s and then uploaded again so it’s all good now. You also can’t buy music from Google’s service. This may be annoying to some people, but I get the impression most people don’t care. First, most people will still use whatever they normally do to listen to/manage music on their main computer. I’ll still use iTunes on my Mac because of how it’s integrated with the computer. Second, while I’m in no way encouraging it, the amount of piracy going on in the music world now a days leads me to believe that not having the ability to buy new songs will probably sway few people from using the Google Music Beta. The smallest complaint about Google Music is that it feels a little unpolished. It’s not as speedy as native music apps yet and it doesn’t support multi touch (however, most services don’t).
Apple’s Music iCloud, as expected, doesn’t get off so easily once you leave the Apple-centered world (aka all of your devices are Apple products). If all you own are Apple products then iCloud will be perfect for your music needs. the problem is that most people don’t own only Apple products. In fact, the only non Apple device it’ll work with is a PC equipped with iTunes and we all know how well that runs. On top of that, only music you’ve physically bought from iTunes will sync for free. If you’re like me and much of your iTunes account is from uploaded CD’s you’ll have to pay the $25 charge to do that. Personally, I think that that’s stupid. I can understand paying for extra space, new songs, or even if you’re not using an Apple device (because hey, it took some extra work from programmers to figure out how to do that), but why should you have to pay for songs you already paid for? Apple’s usually pretty good at keeping its customers happy, but this silly nickel and dime approach makes me wonder what’s going on. However, none of these compare to the biggest complaint people have with this service: No streaming music. In order to listen to a song on your iDevice, you’ll have to download the song. This means that for those who want to use Cloud services as a way to listen to large libraries without having to spend the money on big memory expansions, you’ll need to constantly manage downloading and deleting songs. That’s incredibly unApple, and I can’t help but think that’s going to have to change in the future.
So where should this leave you, the user? A lot of the complaints pointed at Google can simply be replied to with “it’s still in Beta.” The other big complaint is that it takes a long time to upload songs. All of these are fair criticisms, but they all seem like tiny problems to me. Yes, it took me forever to upload my music, but I didn’t have to physically be there watching it. I let the upload manager do its thing and I went on to play some Team Fortress 2. The long process is the price you pay for making sure you can actually upload your entire library. It’s that and the inability to stream music that will keep me from recommending Apple’s service over Google’s barring Google doesn’t require some outrageous fee to use it when it comes out of beta. Apple enthusiasts are quick to point out that Google did mention that the service will reduce the quality of the music if data speeds slow in order to keep it playing, and that native MP3′s sound better. I’ve been listening to the music on my phone for nearly 4 days straight now, and even in areas of low strength I was unable to hear a degradation in sound quality. This is coming from somebody with nearly 10 years of playing in music ensembles, a trained music ear, and a large appreciation for Classical music (where a poor sound quality is the most apparent). Yes, I’m not a professional, but I think I’m pretty well qualified to say that the music was borderline indistinguishable to its MP3 counterpart. I pulled out my expensive Bose headphones and listened to Tchaikovsky’s powerful 1812 Overture, Beethoven’s beautiful 7th Symphony, Modest Mussorgsky’s rendition of Pictures at an Exhibition, and Hindemith’s famous Symphony in Bb on both my iPod and on my phone. I’ve had enough experience with these pieces that I know nearly every single note of every single piece (including the complex chords in the Hindemith Symphony) My phone had a full 3G connection (not even wifi or 4G) and when compared with my iPod the two sounded identical. Even better for users of CM7, the DSP manager on your phone gives you even better control of the sound than on an iPod (something I’m hoping Google will release once the service comes out of beta). This tells me that an untrained ear probably won’t even notice a different unless there is an absolutely terrible connection. And if you’re picky about your music and know you live/work in an area with poor strength you can just download the music and listen to it “offline” (however, you’re forced to download album’s and not just songs. Annoying, but still useful).
Unsurprisingly, this leads to the typical Android vs Apple debate: Options and flaws or reliability and strict rules. I have no doubt that Apple’s product will work flawlessly when it is finally released. The UI will probably be perfect and the overall experience will be nothing short of what we’ve come to expect from Apple. But in order to get that you have to be wiling to play by Apple’s rules. This means that you need to be an avid iTunes user and have all of your devices be iDevices. You also don’t have the option to upload your non iTunes purchases without paying or stream music if you don’t want to download it. And that’s what this cloud battle will come down to: Will people be willing to put up with Apple’s demands for their quality service? Or will they be satisfied with Google’s free and (currently) slightly buggy service? Something tells me Google will continue to corner non Apple users. It’s just not worth switching all of your technology to Apple in order to use their service. I expect Google’s tried and true method of allowing people to use their services from wherever they want (yes, even on an iPhone) will allow them to “come out on top” again. Apple’s iCloud will be wildly successful, don’t get me wrong. But I can’t help but feel Google will corner the market again with this one.
What are your thoughts? How many of you have used Google’s Music Beta? Any of you waiting on an invite still? Let us know in the comments below!