Albums cost around £5.99 for new releases, with plenty of back catalogue classics available for £2.49. Prices are pretty competitive when compared with the other key online music shops. New music bought via Google can still be downloaded to your device, if you'd rather rest safe in the knowledge that you'll be able to listen to your new purchase even when away from Wi-Fi or a decent mobile data connection. One clever aspect to the purchasing process is the way tunes you buy from Google's server are available for streaming instantly, with the songs shuffled into your big list of online music for instant access through the web or streaming app. There's even a 'Shop for artist' option, accessed through the tab inside the player, that automatically performs a Google Play search for available albums and tracks. Opening up the Play Music app on your Android phone gives you two main ways to access your music, selecting either tunes you've physically copied to the phone's SD card or onboard memory, or listing 'All Music' associated with your Google account, meaning it'll show your local MP3s and the archive now floating about up there in the data cloud.Īs well as this, Google's obviously rather keen on selling you new music to add to your existing old collection of 1990s classics, which you can do through the Google Play desktop website or from a link to the Android Play Store app that sits within the Play Music app. You'll have to install Google's Music Manager tool to kick off the process, but it will then let you upload any tracks you have stored on your desktop in iTunes folders and within Windows Media Player, so it's a helpful little tool to use if you're trying to get away from Apple's iTunes world and give Google's music tools a whizz instead.

Signing in with your Google account will initiate the uploading and syncing process, with Google letting users upload 20,000 of their existing tunes to its cloud storage server to be getting on with. Once that's done, the next thing to do is sync up any music you've currently got sitting on your desktop computer.

It still plays music on your SD card like the older players, but with a new interface and the all-important streaming and shopping options built in. This may be a little confusing at first, as Play Music will then exist as a separate player in addition to the standard Android Music app or any other players pre-loaded on your phone by the maker.

This will install the Play Music app on your phone.

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