While it was conceived in 2011, Google Play Music is just making its way toward India.
While it was conceived in 2011, Google Play Music is just making its way toward India.o
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Google has finally launched its Play Music store in India.
The announcement was left out of a press conference Wednesday that revealed the new products being rolled out in India. Nevertheless, a number of eagle-eyed Google fans in India noticed that the service came online for them today — Google later confirmed the launch in a statement.
While the Play Music store has been launched, there are some caveats. It doesn’t come equipped with the Spotify-esque ‘All-Access’ streaming service and there are no podcasts or radio services yet available. Mashable reported that content is priced from 15 INR ($0.22) per track and 90 INR ($1.35) per album.
Google Play Music Store was first launched in the U.S. in 2011, and while its taken awhile to find its way to India, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who was born in the country himself, said in a recent op-ed that further development is a key focus of the company. Not only is India tipped to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, but its internet revolution is in its early days — just 300 million of its estimated 1.3 billion population go online now. That represents plenty of growth opportunities and scope for innovation to help things evolve faster. Also, unlike China, Google isn’t locked out of the market so it stands to reason that India could develop into a lucrative market for the search giant.
Earlier this year, Google added carrier billing for content, allowing consumers to make payment via their mobile operator without the need for card. That hasn’t been enabled for Google Play Music purchases yet, but Google hinted that it will be added soon.
“Now you can download your favorite local and global music on Google Play in India, plus get free storage for up to 50,000 songs from your music collection. Currently these services are only available to users with international credit cards, but we’ll be expanding soon to additional forms of payment,” a spokesperson said.
