Google Music: Fast syncing, free songs

With the unveiling of its new online music store Wednesday, Google upped the ante in its ongoing battle against Apple and Amazon's cloud-based music services, but it still has some minor kinks that prevent it from that instant wow factor.

For instance, I've been using on Music Beta by Google for awhile now, which was previously only available by invitation starting this past summer. It's been decent, especially in being able to sync between the desktop player and the Music app on my Android phone. There was also a lot of free music, although much of it was so-so, but some stood out: "Champagne supernova" by Oasis, "Brick" by Ben Folds Five and "Gravity rides everything" by Modest Mouse.

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

In its newest iteration, Google Music offered some new free music, which I grabbed immediately: "I don't want to know," by The Swell Season. While it showed up immediately in the desktop version, I waited for about a half hour for it to show up on my phone, and only after I had downloaded the 4.0.9 update that came out yesterday. 

I'm guessing the lag time can be attributed to having to install the newest version and processing that, because once installed, subsequent additions kicked in super fast. I "bought" the free song, "Palomino" by Mates of State and within a minute later, it was on my phone. Hubba, hubba! I could get used to this. Now, I can see the wow.

Here's Google's intro to its Music app, which you can find on Android Market for free:

Another perk for friends: if you share the purchase — or in my case, the free additions — then anyone you share it with on Google+ will be able to listen to it for free too, once. 

I also took advantage of another Google Music feature: pinning favorites amongst my phone library of music for offline playback. (It got annoying when it only let me play music I bought and not any of the freebies.) 

Google Music also allows users to upload 20,000 of their own songs to it. I haven't added that many yet, but it won't take long to do so. Or, buy music on Android Market. It'll show up in the Google Music app, both on your desktop and phone(s).

Take our poll and let us know what you're using to listen to your music.

More stories:

• Google adds music store to cloud service
• Google music download store may be 'unexciting'
• iTunes Match review: Not made in heaven

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.