It was a little way behind other European countries, but Google has now rolled out its All Access streaming music service in Germany. Announced on Friday, it’s the same service that’s available elsewhere in the continent: unlimited streaming, custom radio channels and a hook into Google’s 20,000-song cloud locker. The service costs €7.99 a month, with the now-familiar 30-day trial. It’s the latest streaming service to launch in Germany, where collecting society GEMA used to be seen as a formidable barrier to new services in this area. And it still is a tough negotiator – particularly for those companies offering free streams as well as paid subscriptions – but most of the large services have now joined local firm Simfy in the market. Google’s premium-only model for All Access would have likely smoothed its path to a German launch, although its YouTube subsidiary’s infamously bad relationship with GEMA may have been an obstacle. It’ll be interesting to see how the streaming competition affects the market dynamics next year in Germany, a market where physical sales are still very important.
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