Google’s music streaming service Google Play Music is getting a boost through a new deal with Samsung.
On Friday, Google and Samsung announced that Play Music would be the default music player on all Samsung mobile phones and tablets, starting with the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ phones.
This doesn’t mean that customers can’t use other music streaming apps on their Samsung phones. Samsung users can always download their own music streaming service such as Spotify or Pandora. But Google (“GOOG”) and Samsung (“SSNLF”) are trying to incentivize users to choose Google Music by offering “special features” for Samsung users.
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For example, Samsung phone users can upload and stream up to 100,000 of their own songs to Google Play Music for free, which is twice as much storage capacity than for non-Samsung users. Google Music usually only offers the ability to store 50,000 of a user’s own songs on its service.
Every phone will come with a three-month free trial of Google Play Music, which costs $9.99 per month. Samsung is also promising integrations of Play Music with its new virtual personal assistant, Bixby, and access to YouTube Red, the ad-free version of online video site YouTube.
Samsung tried to launch its own music service in 2014, called Milk, but shut it down in 2016. The electronics giant had also been rumored to be interested in buying rapper Jay Z’s streaming music service Tidal, but a deal was never made.
