GOOGLE RELAUNCHES MUSIC APP

That Big Brother who was watching you? Google has turned him into a DJ. Google Play Music relaunched today with a service that takes into consideration the time, weather, activity and location, location, location.

Through artificial intelligence, Google Play Music is delivering playlists through device sensors to provide playlists appropriate for the setting. Even with similar tastes in music, the guy tailgating at the Raiders game is getting a different collection of songs than the couple sipping wine and reading on their porch in Austin even though both are ostensibly hanging out with a cold beverage on a Sunday afternoon.

The relaunch includes a 60-day free offer prior going to $9.99 per month for an ad-free service that also allows a user to watch YouTube videos without ads and to stream up to 50,000 songs from a user’s computer.

Google Play Music used the New York team that created Songza, an app of playlists based on users’ moods and activities. Google created algorithms based on user information to make the song selections automatic. Unlike Spotify and Pandora, which place a premium on music discovery, Google Play Music’s ambition is provide music that is familiar on some level to the listener.