Apple’s iTunes Match service is about to go up against some stiff competition. Google has recently launched a new music matching service that definitely won’t break the bank. Can Google grab a hold of iTunes Match users with this new service?
From the Google Play blog:
Traveling this season and want to make sure your music goes with you? Add up to 20,000 songs from your music collection to Google Play and stream it to your Android devices and your computer, anywhere you go.
Our new music matching feature gets your songs into your online music library on Google Play much faster. We’ll scan your collection and quickly rebuild it in the cloud – all for free. And we’ll stream your music back to you at up to 320 kbps.
This feature is live today for people in the US, following our European launch last month. Check it out: http://goo.gl/Hehq6! It’ll be music to your ears.
It’ll be interesting to see how Apple goes up against Google. Currently, iTunes Match is $24.99 a year for up to 25,000 songs. Google’s new service is 100 percent free for 20,000 songs, but you lose the built-in iCloud support on iOS devices. That doesn’t mean much though as you can still use third-party apps to stream your songs from Google’s new music service.
Will Apple ever make its service free to compete with Google?
Source: MacRumors via Google Play
