Newsletter
Announced at their fall event in September, Google has finally made the family plan for Play Music official. Not much has changed here, though. We’re looking at 6 users having access for just $15/month. That’s only $5 more than the regular price and you get 5 family members that can be on the account. Family plans have started to become pretty popular with music streaming services this year after Apple launched it with their Apple Music service earlier this year. Along with Google Play Music, all six members included on the plan also get access to YouTube Red. Google’s new service for YouTube that gives users ad-free video as well as some exclusive content that free users won’t get. Not to mention the background downloading.
Plans are now official, however you can’t yet sign up for a family plan. Google says you will be able to in the coming days, however. Google also notes that their family plan will be available in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France and Germany in the next few days. And that other countries will be on the way soon. Of course, YouTube Red only applies to families in the US for now, as it is only available in the US at this point.
The biggest feature, perhaps, of this family plan is that now your wife, mom, dad, daughter, sister, or whatever can have their own music library instead of sharing it with everyone. So if your sister likes Taylor Swift, and you can’t stand her, now you won’t see her in your library. As each person has their own library, their own radio stations and their own recommendations. For just $14.99/month, it’s pretty tough to beat that, to be honest. Google Play Music has over 35 million songs available for streaming, and with Songza integration, there will be plenty of great playlists available for you. And these playlists that are from Songza are curated by actual people and not algorithms, making them that much better.
While the Family Plans aren’t available just yet, we will be sure to let everyone know when they are available for signing up.