Magnifier Reminds You Google Music Beta is a Thing, Highlights its Flaws

Remember Google Music? Well, then it seems like Magnifier has done one of its jobs. Magnifier, a new blog recently launched to work in tandem with the Google Music Beta, aims to bring tunes to your attention, tunes that you can then add to your Google Music collection, along with all the songs in there that you already own, uploaded and have presumably heard. The blog explains itself like this:

Well, when I was in junior high school, I had a friend whose older cousin lived in England, and that cousin would always send my friend great new records we usually knew nothing about, except that if the cousin liked them there was a very good chance we would, too…So, Magnifier is basically Music Beta’s cousin who lives in England

So, basically Magnifier will recommend you music based on the opinion of its team (made up of people who you probably don’t know) and allow you a free download. That’s all well and good, but not quite anything worth doing the Sid Vicious pogo about.

First of all, Magnifier serves as the best way for you to get new and interesting music into your Google Music. Unfortunately, it calls attention to the fact that Magnifier serves as pretty much the only way for you to get new and interesting music into your Google Music. Now that things like Spotify are taking the world by storm, this deficiency is all the more glaring. The other caveat here is that, while Magnifier strives to be your “older cousin who lives in England,” it might as well be “that guy down the street who plays the bagpipes at midnight;” you don’t really know who these Magnifier guys are or what they dig. Music recommendation tends to be a pretty personal process, even the algorithms that do it (like Pandora) need to get to know you a little bit before they hit their groove. Granted, the Magnifier guys might be right up your alley, but it’s just as likely that they aren’t. Also, they still have to get the rights to actually give these tracks away for free (not just stream them), so that might limit the breadth of their selection.

All in all, free music is free music and judging by the tracks so far, it isn’t the “free music from the guy who’s practically throwing his demo CD at you on the street” kind of free music. Still, whether it’s anything new to you or anything you have any interest in is a toss up. Still, if you’re into trying to beef up your Google Music with new music you didn’t upload yourself, this is the only way to do it.

(via TechCrunch)