Have you purchased any music from the Android Market yet? Google just offered up some free hit tracks from Drake, Maroon 5, and Mary J. Blige in order to promote their Google Music service. Just click the links below to be redirected to the Android Market and add the free music to your library (sorry, [...]]]>

Have you purchased any music from the Android Market yet? Google just offered up some free hit tracks from Drake, Maroon 5, and Mary J. Blige in order to promote their Google Music service. Just click the links below to be redirected to the Android Market and add the free music to your library (sorry, appears to be US only).

• Drake “Take Care (feat. Rihanna)” - http://goo.gl/x1aGw
• Drake “Make Me Proud (feat. Nicki Minaj)” - http://goo.gl/Cb5Ri
• Drake “Fancy” - http://goo.gl/4BzzA
• Maroon 5 “Moves Like Jagger” - http://goo.gl/3Y8Xf
• Maroon 5 “How” - http://goo.gl/OowOP
• Mary J. Blige “Need Someone” - http://goo.gl/ITXH0

These latest free tracks are in addition to the Free Song of the Day and the hundreds of other free tracks. Let us know about your Google Music experiences in the comments below.

Back in late December, Android Developer Andrew Neal revealed some of the new features coming to the CyanogenMod 9 music app that had control freaks everywhere dying for a taste. While the default music app in Android 4.0 isn’t terrible, it does lack much in the way of customization and control. Andrew Neal’s new [...]]]>

Back in late December, Android Developer Andrew Neal revealed some of the new features coming to the CyanogenMod 9 music app that had control freaks everywhere dying for a taste. While the default music app in Android 4.0 isn’t terrible, it does lack much in the way of customization and control. Andrew Neal’s new CyanogenMod music app aims to fix that. Finally, last night, Neal took to his site Seeing Pixels and released an early 1.0 build of the music app for Android 4.0 devices.

At first glance, the CyanogenMod 9 music app (it just appears as Music with a blue icon on your Android device) isn’t all that different from the default music player. The default theme is slightly varied from what comes stock with Ice Cream Sandwich, but you might not even notice if you weren’t looking. The total overhaul comes from the setting menu.

There’s a ton of options and setting under the customization menu option, but that’s only the beginning. There’s some in-depth audio options including a full equalizer with bass boost, shake and flip gesture support and a theme chooser. The music theme template for the app was also released yesterday, along with a Google Music theme. The default theme that comes with the app looks much more native on Android 4.0 than Google Music, but options are what this app is all about.

As much as I like the CyanogenMod 9 music app, I need Google Music. All my music is on Google Music now. And the CyanogenMod 9 music app lacks Google Music support. Because of this, it could never become my go-to music app for Android. I will keep it installed for anything local, but that won’t be much.

To try out the new music app for CyanogenMod 9, head on over to Seeing Pixels now. Be sure to let us know how you like it.

The default music player in Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, leaves much to be desired in the way of customization. There are options to change some of the settings for Google Music and playback, but that’s about as far as customizations go. The fine folks behind CyanogenMod are looking to change that, for rooted and [...]]]>

The default music player in Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, leaves much to be desired in the way of customization. There are options to change some of the settings for Google Music and playback, but that’s about as far as customizations go. The fine folks behind CyanogenMod are looking to change that, for rooted and non-rooted users alike.

Android Developer Andrew Neal recently sat down with The Verge and spilled some details on CyanogenMod 9’s upcoming music application. Among the normal options found throughout the default Android music app, CM9’s music app will feature fully customizable notification area playback options, shake controls, the ability to search the Android Market, options for setting music as ringtones and gesture recognition.

In keeping with the spirit of CyanogenMod ROMs, the music app will eventually come equipped with a full theme engine, allowing users to take total control of their music playback experience.

Fortunately for non-rooted users, the CyanogenMod 9 music app will be made available as a stand-alone download in the Android Market.

Progress on the rest of CyanogenMod 9 is coming along quite nicely. Every day, more and more devices land ports and early alphas of the ROM. The Droid X and Droid 2 Global are just two devices to see their own version of CM9 come out in the last week. Surely, we can expect to see many more devices gain compatibility soon.

Now that the endorphins have worn off and we’ve had a little time to digest Google’s Music Store launch, we can begin to tackle both the good and the bad that result from Google’s Music Service.

One of the most acclaimed additions to the service was the tight integration with Google+. Users can purchase [...]]]>

Now that the endorphins have worn off and we’ve had a little time to digest Google’s Music Store launch, we can begin to tackle both the good and the bad that result from Google’s Music Service.

One of the most acclaimed additions to the service was the tight integration with Google+. Users can purchase songs on the Google Music Store and share their purchases with people in their circles, who in turn receive 1 free listen to the full song you purchased.

While being able to see and hear what your friends and acquaintances are purchasing on Google Music is an awesome addition to the Music service, the tight Google+ integration potentially has at least one significant drawback. If Google’s Music Store takes off, streams are going to be more cluttered. For every person out there who enjoys sharing and receiving shared music, another one doesn’t, and Music shares are automatically shared to the main feed for all who’ve circled you to see.

Google can easily remedy this potential issue by integrating Music similarly to how they integrated Games. Games has its own separate tab on the Google+ home screen, and Games notifications are buried within the Games tab, leaving your main stream clutter free (unless you count the hundreds of animated gifs floating around out there).

This solution would let users who are interested in seeing what others are listening to the ability to quickly and easily find music posts, and would keep streams clean for users who don’t really care about shared music.

We’re aware that launch day is not an accurate projection for how this service will be used in the future after the excitement has died down, but we also recognize that Music sharing has the potential to be big. With over 200 million Android devices out there, and Google heavily pushing their Google+ social networking service into all aspects of their business, we are not likely to see Google+ music sharing fizzle out anytime soon.

What do you guys think? Is building out a separate Music section in Google+ a good idea, or are we making much ado about nothing?

Today Google held their special event to officially announce Google Music, which included a ton of mini-announcements. There was literally so much information that it could turn into a dozen posts, but we captured the hightlights in bullet form after the jump. Read on for all the latest details.

Are you ready to crank the volume up to 11? You’ve seen the event invite and leaked screens. Now it’s time to watch the live show. Google’s special music event goes live in 30 minutes. Tune in at youtube.com/android. Developing…

TechnoDroidVe have gotten their hands on screenshots from the oft-rumored Google Music Store, which we expect Google will launch on November 16 as a sub-store of the Android Market. Though we’ve previously dug up music store icons from deep in the .apk of the Android Market before, TechnoDroidVe have provided the first market screenshots.

Google has just sent out invites to an event centered around Google Music. Unfortunately they aren’t playing any fun games with the invite; it’s just white text on a blue background. So there was a bit more to the invite than we originally believed, check it out in the gallery below. There’s an image [...]]]>

Google has just sent out invites to an event centered around Google Music. Unfortunately they aren’t playing any fun games with the invite; it’s just white text on a blue background. So there was a bit more to the invite than we originally believed, check it out in the gallery below. There’s an image below the text, which contains among other things a T-Mobile logo, so feel free to let that fuel your guesses as to what Google has up their sleeve.

They did elect to title the event “These Go to Eleven,” which is probably my favorite quote from This is Spinal Tap, but I’m not really seeing that as a worthwhile hint. (If you have a favorite quote please share in comments, I love that movie.)

Anyway, when we last tuned in to the Google Music rumor channel in October, we had some mobile browser captures showing an option to “Shop Android Market” for music. This coupled with Andy Rubin’s comments at the All Things D event in China last month point to the unveiling of the Google Music purchasing component. A music service that didn’t let you buy music wasn’t the most logical thing, at least not from a business standpoint, so it’s good to see that Google has finally managed to work things out with the music industry.

And on the plus side, we do still have a degree of mystery involved here. Andy Rubin quite pointedly said that their service “will have a little twist; it will have a little Google in it. It won’t just be selling 99-cent tracks.” The going wisdom is that the twist is a sharing component, possibly integrated with Google +, but there hasn’t been any definitive confirmation.

Next Wednesday at 4:00 PM CST we’ll have our answer. You can watch the livestream at www.YouTube.com/Android. In the meantime what are your guesses for the twist? Do you think it’s a sharing component and do you view that as a potential killer feature for Google Music?

Gallery

Ever since Google Music Beta was launched, the inability able to purchase music has left us feeling that the service was incomplete — at least when compared to similar offerings by others (most notably Amazon).

So why didn’t Google offer this service from the outset? It is widely believed that Google’s negotiations with record labels [...]]]>

Ever since Google Music Beta was launched, the inability able to purchase music has left us feeling that the service was incomplete — at least when compared to similar offerings by others (most notably Amazon).

So why didn’t Google offer this service from the outset? It is widely believed that Google’s negotiations with record labels to provide content to Google Music users were stalled and that Google simply wasn’t able to shore up these deals in time for their desired launch date.

Nearly four months after Google started sending out the first wave of music invites, rumors are now heating up that Google is all set to launch their music store.  We reported last week that Google was in fact launching their music store soon and that it would allow users to share purchased songs with others.

Today’s rumor suggests that the release may be imminent. The rumor comes from Germany-based News on Droid, who pointed their mobile browser to music.google.com and were greeted with the following screen (a larger version can be found in the gallery).

As you can see from the above image, the second bullet point suggests you will soon be able to purchase millions of songs on the Android market. When you click on the shop Android Market button, it takes you to market.android.com/music, which takes you to a not-yet-live page on Google’s site.

Yes, it’s possible that this screenshot could be an elaborate Photoshop job, as I was unable to replicate the page after attempting multiple accounts on multiple devices. That being said, we do believe that a Google Music Store is coming soon and has been in development since at least July when a new set of Music Store icons were found behind the scenes in the newest Android Market build.

All of these rumors point to a release date for Google Music Store on the horizon. As usual, we’ll keep you informed as soon as we receive official word from Google. Stay tuned!

Gallery

Almost a week ago now, on October 13, the New York Times reported that Google was finishing up talks with record labels in final preparation for the launch of their music store. Today, at Asia D, Google’s Andy Rubin confirmed this.

Although no specific date for when the launch would take place was given, [...]]]>

Almost a week ago now, on October 13, the New York Times reported that Google was finishing up talks with record labels in final preparation for the launch of their music store. Today, at Asia D, Google’s Andy Rubin confirmed this.

Although no specific date for when the launch would take place was given, Rubin said, “I think we’re close.” And it’s about time. Google’s music store has been in the works since I/O 2010. Of course since that time, we’ve been able to use Google Music as an online storage locker for music purchased through other services or given away by Google, but a full fledged iTunes competitor has yet to come forward. When it finally does, though, it won’t just be your average run-of-the-mill music store. There’s going to be a twist. Rubin wouldn’t go into details, but he did say Google Music “will have a little twist; it will have a little Google in it. It won’t just be selling 99-cent tracks.”

Now that record labels have moved past looking at Google as a simple search company, it’s only a short matter of time before content starts flowing in. As far as the twist goes, that’s anyone’s guess. Streaming plans, music rental, all you can download subscription service? What do you think Google’s twist will be?