iTunes Match users: It might be time to switch to Google Play Music

By

It might be time to switch to Google Play Music. Photo: Cult of Mac
It might be time to switch to Google Play Music. Photo: Cult of Mac

It’s not often that Google incontrovertibly one-ups Apple on anything but search, but the company just scored a small but sizable advantage over Cupertino in at least one regard: music storage space.

Google expanded its Google Play Music service Wednesday to match, store and stream 50,000 tracks, twice what Apple allows iTunes Match paid users. Even better for listeners with large libraries? Google Play Music is free.

Like iTunes Match, Google Play Music allows you to store music in the cloud. Songs have to be uploaded from a computer first, but once they’re up there, they are available for streaming on any device, including the iPhone and iPad, for which there is an official app. Like iTunes Match, Google Play Music also has radio stations.

For anyone who isn’t locked into Apple’s ecosystem, Google Play Music is a heck of a deal. Unlike iTunes Match, which costs $24.99 a year, Google Play Music is free for up to 50,000 songs. Compare that to iTunes Match’s unexpandable 25,000-song limit, and Apple seems pretty stingy.

None of this compares to Amazon’s music-matching service, which allows users to import up to 250,000 songs for $24.99 a year. To my mind, Amazon Music is a lot less polished than either Google Play Music or iTunes Match, but if you have a monster load of tracks you want to keep in the cloud, it’s a strong option.

Google Play Music can be downloaded for free from the link below for iPhone and iPad.

Source: iTunes

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.