Google Play Music has continued to evolve, ever since it was announced in 2011. Last year at Google I/O, Google announced Material Design, which they planned to not just bring to Android but also to the web. Which we’ve seen bits of pieces of it make it to the web, but now we’re seeing a pretty big overhaul on the Play Music website. The screenshots here are from The Verge, who got the exclusive scoop from Google. Basically, it’s just the Android App blown up to fit your monitor.
In the redesign you’ll see there’s big album art, we also have the artists pictures in circles now. Google says the reason for this is to match their other apps on Android and iOS. They are trying to differentiate people from elements and other things. And making their pictures round helps with that. It does look like a really nice redesign, but there’s nothing extra here compared to just using the app on your smartphone or tablet these days.
“We’re moving towards making the web feel more like an app and less like a series of web pages strung together by links,” said Google UX designer Bryan Rea to The Verge via email. “The new header, the slick transition as you scroll, the collapsible nav, new animations, these all feel like things you expect in an app not on the web.” The transitions and fonts, feel much smoother compared to what we’ve had in the past with Google Play Music on the web.
The update to Google Play Music should be appearing on the web any minute now. Google is rolling out slowly today and everyone should have it by the end of the day. Google Play Music does still offer the ability to upload music to the cloud – up to 50,000 songs – as well as being able to listen to music on demand through Play Music Unlimited, which costs $9.99 per month. That’s a big differentiator for a lot of people and helps keep Google Play Music away from its competitors. As some others have decided to clone their competitors, but we won’t mention any names.
