**Disclaimer: This article is how to get music uploaded from an OSX device to Google Music and then stream it on your iOS device. You are not going to be able to use the Google Music service on your iPhone like you do iTunes to browse the marketplace and download songs. Only Android phones have got it that good.**
Here an issue that is bothering audiophiles worldwide: “How can I get my iPhone and my Google Music account to work well with one another?”
In short, you can, but it’s not exactly easy and it’s not flawless. In this article I will delve in to all the gritty details from my experience running tests with various Apps and getting the less-than-friendly Google Music Manager to work with my MacBook Pro. So let’s jump right in and first take a look at Google Music.
Google Music is amazing. This was not my initial assessment, but after having spent this last week working with it and testing it in every way I can think of, I have come to the conclusion that it rules. It is absolutely astounding how much music Google will let you upload to their cloud. 20,000 songs!!! To put that in perspective, I have 75GB of music on my computer and that is about 12,500 songs. You can probably upload about 100GB of music if you’re using 320kbs mp3 encoding. Yes, that is fantastic. I challenge you to find me anywhere else that lets you upload 100GB of music to a cloud FOR FREE. Seriously, if it wasn’t Google I would think it was a scam.
You’re probably thinking, “Well sure it’s free now, but they’ll probably start charging me once they get me hooked.” This is certainly a possibility, but I actually don’t think they will. Here’s why. Google Music wants to compete with iTunes. That task is nearly impossibly. iTunes has built itself up for years as the #1 online music store and has even surpassed every retail seller. How can Google possibly compete? Oh, here’s an idea, build a music store and cloud system specifically designed for the #1 smartphone operating system in the world: Android. But is that enough? Nope. So let’s give our users an UNBELIEVABLE amount of cloud space for free to combat Apple’s measly 5GB. Now we’re talkin’. I still don’t think Google Music will ever be able to come close to touching iTunes iron grip on music sales, but they would dumb to start charging for their cloud service. In my opinion, it’s the best thing they have going for them.
But I digress. Let’s get back to it.
STEP 1: Google Music Manager. Tips, Tricks, and a lot of Bullshit.
Google Music Manager is cool…. in theory. And maybe it’s better in Windows, but I spent a full day pulling my hair out trying to get it to work like I wanted. It still doesn’t work exactly how I want, but at least it works. Let me save you the headache and give you the steps to uploading success.
First off, download the Music Manager. Head over to music.google.com, log in to Google, and you should see an empty music player with Music Manager download link staring you in the face. Once you have it installed, go ahead and open it up and log in with your Google account. You will be met with the question, “Where do you keep your music collection?” Mine, like that of almost every other Mac user, is in iTunes. Press “Continue.” The Music Manager should just take a few seconds to scan your iTunes and let you know how many songs you have. It will present you with two options: “Upload all songs” or “Select songs by playlist.”
A word of advice. If you are anything like me and have a fairly grandiose music collection, do not upload all your songs. But you say, “Why? I mean, I have 14,000 songs and Google Music will hold 20,000. Shouldn’t I just upload them all?” I would advise against this. Uploading music to a cloud is not fast. 12-14 thousand songs could take you 3-4 days straight of uploading. If you have a desktop that is always on and connected to the webernets, sure thing, go for it. Most of us do not have that kind of set-up (I have a MacBook Pro that is constantly traveling around with me). I decided to go a different route.
What I did is make a playlist in iTunes simply called “Google Music.” From there, I browsed through my iTunes and thought, “Which of this stuff do I want to have cloud accessible at all times?” I narrowed in down to a few thousand tracks. I think you will find that you have a lot of random crap that doesn’t really need to be in your cloud. And hey, you can always add more later. But if your music collection is only 2,000 songs to begin with, well, go ahead and do the whole thing.
<<Quick Tip! Get your metadata (album art, artist names, etc.) in shape. It’s a lot easier to do it now than it is on the cloud.>>
After you hit “Select songs to upload by playlist,” you will be met with a screen that shows all your iTunes playlists. Select what you want to upload. The Music Manager will then ask you if you want to “Automatically upload songs that are added to iTunes.” I’ll leave that up to you. I, personally, do not. The Music Manager will then start uploading.
The Music Manager will close and an icon will appear in your menu bar. Clicking on this icon will give you a drop-down that shows your upload progress. This thing is pretty much retarded. If you tell it to upload 725 songs it might say that it’s uploading “1 of 600″ or something like that. Don’t worry, it will upload all of them. It’s just awful at math.
All that was simple, right? Here’s where things get cooky. Let’s say that you add more songs to your Google Music playlist and want to upload them. Should be simple, right? Nope. Here’s what you do. Click on the icon in the menu bar and press “Preferences.” Click the “Advanced” tab. Click the “Change” link by the words “Location of my music collection.” Don’t let it scare you away by telling you that your “current settings will be lost.” Click “Continue” and set it up all over again. PAIN. IN. THE. ASS. But hey, at least it’s a solution.
Step 2: Wi-Fi vs 3G. Good luck with that 3G thing….
Let’s make this part short. No matter what app you use, streaming from your cloud over 3G is going to be unreliable. Sometimes I would make it through a whole album without any problems, other times I couldn’t make it through 5 seconds of a song. On the other hand, streaming over Wi-Fi is a dream.
Step 3: The Apps. Well, the free ones at least.
There was no way that I was going to drop money on an app to stream my music, so I didn’t try any of the ones you have to pay for. None of them really have great reviews anyway. Here are the best of your free options.
#1) GoMusic
My favorite. BUT, I just checked the iTunes store it looks like it has a $0.99 price tag??? Weird, when I downloaded it a week ago it was free.
The Good: The interface in GoMusic is super easy to navigate and has more functions than any other app of its kind. You can easily navigate your music collection by artist, album, genre, songs, etc. I really haven’t been able to find a way that it is inferior to the music player on the iPhone.
What really sets GoMusic ahead of the pack is the “Offline” function. You can download any song from your cloud to your offline GoMusic library and then use the app without an internet connection. Let’s say you’re going on a road trip and want a few albums to pass the time. Hit download on the albums you want before you head out the door (it only take a few seconds on Wi-Fi) and then listen to them in the car. Once you get to your destination you can remove the songs from your offline folder so they don’t keep taking up space on your phone. SO. COOL.
There is also a neat little “thumbs up” feature. You can give any song playing a thumbs up or thumbs down. All your “thumbs up” songs are put in a “Thumbs Up” playlist. Pretty fun. You can also fully customize your navigation, placing your links to “Artists”, “Albums”, etc, in whatever order you wish in the bottom bar.
Best of all, no ads.
The Bad: The App seems to have one glitch. When playing, the play icon appears in your menu bar by your battery info. When you pause a song and then back out of the app, that play icon will keep flicking every 4 seconds or so. It’s kind of annoying and it makes me think that it’s sucking my battery life (although I have no proof). So what I do is completely shut down the app after I stop using it. It only takes a second. The bad is not so bad.
#2) Google Music Website
Tricked ya! This isn’t actually an app, but it sure acts like one. Just open Safari on your phone and go to music.google.com. It automatically switches to a super slick mobile interface.
The Good: This thing is sexy! Easy to navigate interface that works great in both portrait and landscape mode. It sports almost all the essential functions of a music player. No ads.
The Bad: No playlist creation inside app. No customization. No download function for offline listening. It’s a good-looking streamer, but it’s not an app and it doesn’t give you any of the cool functions you can get in an app.
#3) Melodies
The Good: Really good-looking interface with all the necessities. Honestly, this app would be my favorite if it had the functionality of GoMusic. It looks great and performs really nicely.
The Bad: Ads. No one likes ads. No playlist creation. No customization. No download function.
Conclusion.
I have been loving having my music collection cloud-accessible via my iPhone. From sitting in coffee shops to making food in the kitchen, I use it all the time. If you’re an iPhone user and a music lover like me, I hope this article has helped you out. If you have any questions for me or experiences to share, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!
Tags: Google Music, iPhone, troubleshooting
