Google Play Music, a rival option to streaming services like Spotify and Rdio, is now available for iOS, six months after launching on the web and Android-based devices.
The service comes in two flavors: A free version, which lets users upload up to 20,000 songs to the cloud that can be accessed on the Web, Android, and now iOS; and Google Play Music All Access, which costs $9.99 a month and lets users purchase and listen to unlimited songs, create custom radio stations, and receive song recommendations.
Songs cannot be purchased, however, using the new iOS app.
The service, in the spirit of Google, is designed to surface a wide range of music. In addition to its algorithmic-based recommendations, Google Play Music also offers handcrafted playlists from the company’s “music experts,” according to its description in the iTunes Store.
Google Play Music is available in roughly 20 countries, including the U.K., New Zealand, Mexico, and Spain, in addition to the U.S.
Apple competition
The service was originally unveiled at Google’s I/O conference for developers in May, as a way for users to store their music in the cloud and explore new music. The software presents users with playlists based on their personal music library, as well as “radio stations,” which are subscriber-editable playlists of songs based on the one playing.
Since then Google competitor Apple has launched its own iTunes Radio product, which gives users custom playlists of songs based on their listening habits.
Google’s Play Store offers millions of songs available for download.