Google launches 'Magnifier' music site

Search giant Google launched on Thursday (Manila time) its new music site "Magnifier," which allows users to discover new music they might like. Google Music Beta product manager Paul Joyce said the site aims to help users' collection grow by featuring "great music and the people who make it." "(Magnifier is) a new music discovery site that will keep your collection growing. Magnifier will feature great music and the people who make it, including videos of live performances, interviews with artists, explorations of different musical genres and free songs that you can add to your Music Beta collection," he said in a blog post. Joyce said this was one step further from Google Music Beta, a service that allows users to upload their personal music collection to the cloud and listen to it on the Web or on Android phones or tablets. "Since the beginning, our goal has been to help you fall in love with your music all over again, and now we’re taking that idea one step further," he said. This week's featured artist on Magnifier was Grammy-nominated indie rock band My Morning Jacket. Joyce said they were giving away two of their tracks to Music Beta users, one of which is an exclusive to Magnifier - a live performance of "The Day is Coming." Tech site TheNextWeb added the site will also feature videos, live performances, interviews. "The process seems pretty seamless though and once you click on a track it is instantly available in your Google Music account, with no downloading time whatsoever. Hopefully this is a look at what purchasing music from Google Music will look like," it said. — RSJ, GMA News