Development for Google Play Music and Music Manager has been quiet for some time. Users, like myself, have been living with the 20,000 song upload limit and beta features from Google Play Music Labs, which features options like Desktop Notifications and HTML5 Audio playback.
Today Google announced that Google Play Music will now offer a music scanning and match feature that will first affect new uploads and will roll-out to scan previously uploaded files.
The matching feature will scan the songs you have selected to upload and check if they exist on the Google Play Music store. If these songs are available, they are added directly without having to upload the track. Songs that can’t be found will be uploaded to your library like before.
Google is stepping into the same area as Apple’s and Amazon’s matching services now. Apple’s iTunes Match costs $24.99 per year with storage for 25,000 tracks, but you cannot stream over a data or Wi-Fi connection. Amazon’s Cloud Player is also $24.99 per year and allows you to store 250,000 songs online.
It is free for Google Play Music. While it may not offer the same amount of storage as Amazon and Apple, the zero charge is welcome and the rescan of your library could result in a better quality library.
One thing Google hasn’t mentioned is if the matched songs already in your library will lower the overall count of your uploaded tracks since they are pulled from the Google Play Music store. If the new songs pulled from Google Play Music lower your overall track number, your library could move past the 20,000 limit of personal tracks because “music added from the Google Play Store doesn’t count towards the limit.”
You can stream your Google Play Music library on up to 10 connected Android devices and download songs for offline playback. Downloaded songs will be high quality 320kbps MP3s. The feature is live and the rescan of your previously uploaded library will happen over the next few months.
Here are some helpful tutorials if you’re new to Google Play Music.
How to setup Google Play Music.
How to enable HTML5 in Google Play Music
