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June 23, 2011

A Chrome Extension for Google Music

While there's no official extension for Google Music and not even an app in the Chrome Web Store, you can install a really cool third-party extension called "Better Music Beta". The extension adds a button that shows information about the currently playing song, lets you pause the song, go to the next song, add a thumbs up or a thumbs down. There's also a notification that shows up every time the song changes.

My favorite feature is the Last.fm integration: if you enable it, Better Music Beta scrobbles your songs and lets you publicly show that you love a song by clicking the "heart" icon.

The downside is that you still have to open Google Music in a tab, since the music stops playing if you close the tab. Converting the extension into a "background app" would solve this problem.


Google Music requires an invitation and it's supposed to be US-only, but it works even if you're not in the US. Google only checks your location when you request an invitation and you can always use a US proxy for this one-time action. Another interesting thing is that, even though Google Music lists Flash as a requirement, the service works pretty well on an iPad.
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15 comments:

  1. MilanJune 23, 2011 at 5:06 AM

    hi Alex , are there any proxy softwares i can use if i am using chrome os ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex ChituJune 23, 2011 at 5:27 AM

    Well, you can manually change proxy settings. Chrome has an experimental API that allows extensions to change proxy settings and hopefully we'll see extensions like FoxyProxy ported to Chrome. You can always install extensions like Hide My Ass that use a Web interface.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 23, 2011 at 5:31 AM

    Even with US proxies, they ask for Google account, and detect its origin somehow.
    Any ideas how to hide it?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alex ChituJune 23, 2011 at 5:42 AM

    Nope. I'm not in the US and Google Music works well without using a special proxy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownJune 23, 2011 at 5:48 AM

    @Alex, how did you get past the login page?? I tried HideMyAss, logged in successfully but then immediately got the msg that my browser has cookies disabled and that I should enable that...

    Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 23, 2011 at 5:51 AM

    I never used a proxy and I got an invitation for Google Music Beta few days ago.
    The only problem was it detects my phone location and prevents from installing the music app from the market. But some APK are available on the internet =)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Alex ChituJune 23, 2011 at 5:59 AM

    This service has a free 3-days trial, but I'm sure you can find others.

    ReplyDelete
  8. barnuxJune 23, 2011 at 6:37 AM

    I just received my invitation today, here in Paris, France. On my Mac I had to use Hotspot Shield to have a US IP address, open an incognito window in Chrome or Safari, disable Google tracking (Hotspot asks this when googling something) and not allowing browser geolocation.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousJune 23, 2011 at 6:38 AM

    As anon said, there is a problem with downloading the app from market. Can anyone give me that latest version of the market app, that would make it easier to find an .apk

    ReplyDelete
  10. JeremyJune 23, 2011 at 9:37 AM

    @Kalleguld : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.music

    "CURRENT VERSION: 3.0.1"

    ReplyDelete
  11. Suchmaschinen OptimierungJune 23, 2011 at 11:09 AM

    Google Chrome is one of the best Browser and i am also using Google chrome in my system. thanks for sharing this useful information with us.

    ReplyDelete
  12. J WashburnJune 23, 2011 at 4:25 PM

    I really prefer these two nifty extensions: (they give you a play and skip button as easy access...

    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lblkffdkmmemjagfanapkgkogilikbad

    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lfpilffkipfhpoccjdiebpdjbdmfpefg

    ReplyDelete
  13. UnknownJune 24, 2011 at 2:56 AM

    i will give a try thanxx for this info Πώληση και διαχείριση ακινήτων κατασκευαστική
    τεχνική εταιρεία Novalis Terra Θάσος.

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousJune 24, 2011 at 9:35 PM

    I just love Google Music! I also like the way I had a choice of 5 different app icons on the Google Music app for Chrome. I got it from www.chrome-apps.info . Also, if they don't have the icon you want Google Music or any other app to have, you can just request a different app and provide a URL. Then, that very same day they make an app with the special Google Music icon you wanted included!

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousJanuary 1, 2012 at 9:40 AM

    LOL @ Matias... If you're going to pretend to not be related to a website, you should make sure it doesn't have your domain name in your name :-P

    ReplyDelete

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