Google Starts Rolling Out Improved Version Of Google Play Music

It was a long wait for fans of Google Play Music, but finally, Google is starting the deployment of a new and improved version of its music streaming service. The tech giant has announced this week that it is in the midst of introducing new updates to its Android, iOS and Web offerings, bringing an enhanced user interface that takes full advantage of machine learning to offer music that is most relevant to the user at any particular moment. For instance, Google has made use of artificial intelligence driven algorithms that will detect the user’s location and current activity, consider the weather, and then offer playlists or suggest songs that are in tune with the user’s mood.

Moreover, refreshing the new home screen will have the effect of bringing up a number of playlists that are relevant to the user’s listening history and tendencies. For example, if the user is fond of exploring new songs on Thursdays, Google Play Music will automatically serve song recommendations on that day, and the tracks suggested will be patterned after what the user was looking for in the past. Another new feature of the Google Play Music streaming service is the ability to ascertain if the user is connected online or not. If indeed the user is without connectivity, Google Play Music will offer an offline playlist, also based on the user’s past listening habits.

Competition in the music streaming business is tough, with providers often pushing for more personalization in their respective services. Spotify for instance offers customized playlists every week by way of its Just For You and Discover Weekly features. Not to be outdone, Apple Music also has its For You section, which serves up new compilations of tracks that should appeal to the user’s particular tastes in music. 

Of course, Google wants to join in on the fun, and is certainly quite capable of holding its own in that regard. Google is looking to deploy the new features in the next few days to the 62 countries where the Google Play Music streaming service is made available.

Google Play Music is just one of many services that have benefited from Google’s efforts in optimizing machine learning for various purposes. The last few years have certainly seen the tech giant continuously improve on its algorithms in order to recognize, index, and then provide captions for images. More recently, machine learning was used in automatically getting rid of spam from users’ Gmail accounts.