I browsed to gMusic this morning to try and find something in my library and I was greeted with an authorization for future monthly billing after a free trial period.
Note that as a matter of usual practice I would stop at this point. But, since this is Google, I proceeded after a brief moment of reflection. Simply put, I trust Google. They don't always do things right, but they tell me what they are doing and always provide a method to go back or get more information.
If this had been a Microsoft or Facebook product, I would have not only stopped but I also would have deleted my cache and cookies immediately afterwards. Neither company has been informed I even have a credit card, not by me anyway. I intend to keep it that way. I do not trust Microsoft or Facebook.
So, I gave Google permission to set me up and went on the mercifully brief tour of the new web app. I then found precisely what I was originally looking for on my first try. Wow.
I browsed around a bit after that, found a forgotten old playlist and started listening. I had to leave the house, so I switched to my phone, opened the app, and the music was paused right where I left it on the web app, even though this was the first time I had opened it on my phone. Cool. One button, I downloaded the entire playlist to my phone while I was walking to the subway. It did not duplicate the songs in that playlist that were already on my SD card.
I spontaneously raised my arms to the sky (in want my kundalini yoga teacher calls the "compassion pose," which sort of resembles a touchdown signal in football) and said "Thank you, Google" as if there was something that is Google to which one can offer gratitude, and that this something could somehow hear my whispered prayers on 118th street.
Google has assumed a mythic identity in my pysche, just as Apple computer did before Steve Jobs died. One must be careful when one begins to internally address companies as if they are beings.
Also, this moment of joy, the technical orgasm of delight because a new system not only worked for me, but worked exactly as it would if I had designed it, and I don't have to look at advertisements to use it, this high of highs must inevitably be followed by a crashing defeat. Oh how will Google stumble? What will it be? An outage? Data loss?
Who knows. The day will come. We will know soon enough. Right now, it is very satisfying to have my music organized the way Google does it. Bravo.
