Users will also be able to create stations based off a specific artist, song, or album.
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While Google’s free tier is much more limited than Spotify’s, Songza has maintained millions of active users thanks to their special mood, activity, and genre-based playlists.
While the world decides whether or not it should ditch Pandora and Spotify for Apple Music which is releasing later this month (June 30), Google today is making sure that people don’t forget it too has a music streaming service.
With all the new music streaming services popping out of the woodwork like there’s no tomorrow, you may have forgotten that Google has their own too.
Google (GOOG – Get Report) (GOOGL) is looking to cut Apple’s (AAPL – Get Report) feet out from under them with playlists sharpened and made pointy by humans. But Google says the free service will inspire users to become paying subscribers.
Songza is still available as a standalone, ad-free service (for now).
The free service operates similarly in that aspect-you can type in the name of a song and play a radio station that offers related tunes. However, it doesn’t go as far as Spotify’s free tier, which lets users pick any song they want when accessing the service via their computer.
Also of interest, Google will allow advertisers in its ad systems to specifically target users of Google Music. Apple Music will launch with a three-month free trial and then cost $9.99 per month after that.
After introducing a new free tier of Play Music radio this morning, Google is now rolling out an update to the Play Music Android app to add support for the feature.
The network will be available on Google’s Android phones as well as rival Apple’s iPhone but – in a sign of the complexity of radio regulations worldwide – it initially will only operate in the United States.
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