Interesting article making a fairly reasoned case for a Windows and OSX deskt...

Julian Bond - 2013-11-17 08:36:05+0000 - Updated: 2013-11-17 08:36:05+0000

Interesting article making a fairly reasoned case for a Windows and OSX desktop client for Google Music. There's an Android and iOS client, so why not a Windows and OSX client?

http://features.en.softonic.com/why-google-play-music-needs-a-desktop-client

BTW. Music Manager is still cr*p!

Why Google Play Music needs a desktop client | In depth | Softonic

Sean Leach - 2013-11-17 14:09:52+0000

The Web client has always worked fine for me. The fact that I don't have to install a program like Spotify is one reason I prefer Google Music. I like to stay in the cloud if possible.

Julian Bond - 2013-11-17 22:45:25+0000

The catch is if you already have a big collection of music. Particularly if it''s bigger than the Google cloud limits. Like, say, 30k tracks and 300Gb. It's already sitting on a local NAS drive, so why should you have to copy it up to Google's cloud just so you can stream it back down again. Even if you can stay inside Google's limits. Then, a Chromebook can't access the NAS share either.

Android has a local player that can play music offline that is sitting on the android device. If that makes sense for an Android device, why doesn't it make sense for a laptop? And note again that Android can't use that NAS share either.

There are benefits to having everything in the cloud. But there are limitations too.

Sean Leach - 2013-11-17 23:46:15+0000

Check out Pogoplug. You can stream local music collections with their app. It's decent.

Julian Bond - 2013-11-20 08:30:40+0000

+Sean Leach Which bit of the Pogoplug system would help me? Since I already have the music collection sitting on a NAS, why would I want another NAS? And why would I want to stream it when it's already on my local network?

Julian Bond - 2013-11-20 08:35:22+0000

I suppose the question is "What is Google's solution and approach to playing a local music (and other media) file collection across all their platforms?" Just as with Google Plus and Play, that means Desktop (Windows/OSX/Linux), Desktop Web, Mobile web, Android, iOS, Chromebook. Like it or not, we've now got 6 (or is that 8) major platforms that need supporting.

Michael Chamberland - 2013-11-22 19:17:56+0000

I would favor just opening the API up so people can develop plugins and support for it. MediaMonkey + Google Music support would definately get me to subscribe.