It seems Google is being particularly generous towards India. After a slew of services including the introductory YouTube Go and free Wi-Fi at stations, Google is now entering India’s music market. At long last, the company has released its music store in the country and it is now live and running for Indian customers on Google Play.
First launched in the U.S. in 2011, Google Play Music store has taken a really long time to make its way to India. It took five years, but it’s here finally!
Users in India will be able to see the Music section in Play Store and within the Play Music app. Besides the latest music releases and Bollywood chartbusters, Google is also offering indie and regional albums and also international albums and single tracks.
When it comes to the pricing (as you can see in the screenshot), they are selling a single track for Rs 15, whereas a music album can be bought for around Rs 90.
However, Google hasn’t introduced its Play Music Access All service and there’s no radio or podcasts yet, so you will have to purchase each song. That’s a dampener, but hopefully those will roll out eventually. But yes, it allows you to upload up to 50,000 songs stored on your desktop via Chrome, so you can stream them from the app.
It will be interesting to see if Google Play Music can beat the likes of Saavn, Gaana, Apple Music, Wynk Music which are dominant players when it comes to the music.