Google Music Launches

Seems pretty well integrated with Android. No Warner Music, but they’ve got the other three majors, and exclusive content from The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Busta Rhymes, Shakira, Pearl Jam, and Dave Matthews Band.

I bought this exclusive Stones album, and it went pretty well until it came time to download the album to my Mac. There’s no way to just download the whole album — you’ve got to do it one song a time, three clicks per song. 45 mouse clicks just to download the 15 songs I just bought. (Pretty clear they want you to keep your music on their servers, not on your computer.) Good concert, though.

Update: Apparently it’s a lot simpler to download multiple tracks/entire albums if you install the (arguably misnamed) Google Music Uploader app. Fair enough, given that you can’t buy music from iTunes without installing the iTunes app. But if Google is going to let you buy albums via the website, it seems obvious they should let you download the whole album from the website, no?

Update 2: Google Music is U.S.-only, believe it or not.

★ Wednesday, 16 November 2011