Apps, Mobile & SMS

Unauthorized Google Music App Now Available On iTunes


Gmusic-133x238By Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

Well, it happened — Apple has approved an iOS app called gMusic that has long allowed the iPhone crowd to access their Google Music locker, and now, as of Wednesday, lets iOS users access Google Play Music All Access from their devices.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, because when we asked Google music chief Paul Joyce about what Google would do if someone made an app like this, he first responded that such an app would violate Google’s terms of service, and that the company would request the developer to take down the app.

A Google spokeswoman later clarified to Evolver.fm that Joyce actually meant, “It’s hard to comment on someone else’s app without seeing it and understanding what it does in detail. That said, our system really isn’t built or optimized for third-party apps right now.”

Now, the new version of gMusic is live in iTunes, so the ball is in Google’s court. As with the beta version we’d been testing, the new version can play subscription music from your Google Play Music All Access subscription, even in the absence of an official iOS app for Google’s music subscription.

On one hand, Google might want to court iOS people — especially because Apple has yet to launch an unlimited music subscription (and because Apple likes to steal Android folks with AirPlay).

On the other, gMusic developer James Clancey makes $2 every time someone buys the app – and about a third of that goes to Apple. None of it goes to Google.

 

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