While Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and other music streaming services tout their expansive music catalog and discovery services, what sets Google Play Music apart from the rest of the pack is the ability to upload already owned music into the service’s cloud for free.
Today Google announced that it is upgrading that song storage from 20,000 songs to 50,000 songs. The kicker is that you don’t even have to sign up for Google’s Play Music All Access subscription service. You can just store the music to stream to your devices without using up storage on all your devices.
If you own music that’s unavailable on music streaming services (i.e. some early hip hop and bootlegs from bands like the Grateful Dead), you can couple this with Google’s $9.99 a-month Play Music All Access for a great way to create playlists with a mixture of music you own with a vast library of tracks available through your subscription.
If you want to start storing your music in the cloud for streaming access nearly anywhere, here’s how:
1. Sign in to Google Play Music with your Google account – Go to your computer and visit play.google.com/music. Sign up if needed.
2. Claim your free storage – If you’d like to try the Google Play music subscription service too, click “Get Started”. Otherwise, click “No Thanks” to continue with the free storage.
3. Add your music collection – The setup process will guide you through adding the Chrome app, which provides seamless uploading. You can choose to simply upload your entire iTunes library or select other music folders. You can upload 50,000 songs for free.
4. Access your music at any time on multiple devices – You can stream or download music to your Android, iPhone, or iPad for easy offline listening. It’s also all available on the web when you’re on your computer.
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