After months of being in beta, Google Music has finally become available to the public. Offering to stream 20,000 of your favorite songs to your phone for free, it could be an enticing alternative to other services, such as Spotify. It also brings a whole ecosystem with it, providing free songs and the ability to purchase songs through Google. With the age of the cloud upon us, Google has a better offer than most, and many will find it to be just what they are looking for.

An app is worthless without a good UI, right? Google Music’s Android app is clean and modern, providing all the features you’ve come to expect from a music app. It almost feels like what Google should have provided the whole time, as most agree that the default Music app is a bit bland. No worries though, as 4.0 should fix all this. All the music already loaded onto your device shows up, as well as all the music you’ve uploaded to Google’s servers. You can now purchase music through the Market, making the process even easier. Prices are standard, ranging from $0.69 to $1.29 US dollars. Songs carry through your Google account, and if you ever switch platforms, rest assured that you should be able to access your purchased music. I had a fairly smooth experience, but as other have noted, upload times for music have been long. I’m sure in a weeks time this issue will be resolved, but in the meantime it is rather annoying. All in all, Google is offering one of the best streaming audio deals to date. Sadly, it’s currently available in the US only, but don’t expect it to stay that way too long.

Description:

Shop music on Android Market and listen instantly using the Google Music app.

Google Music is a cloud-powered music player and storage service that lets you keep your music collection online so you can save space on your Android device.
* All your your music purchases from Android Market automatically appear on Google Music.
* Add up to 20,000 more songs from your personal music collection on your computer for free.
* Access to your entire music library instantly with the Google Music app, and save your favorites for offline playback.
* Share a free full play of the songs you purchased from Android Market with your friends on Google+. 
* Learn more about Google Music at http://music.google.com/about
* Available in the U.S. only.