Google announces free music subscription to US users

To celebrate Chromecast's first birthday, Google has announced a $30-music subscription free to Chromecast users in the US for 90 days, starting from 24 July, The Next Digit weblog reported.

The Google Play Music All Access subscription would be on offer to US users and it would not be applicable to existing Google Play Music all-access subscription.

Google had also cut the price of Chromecast by $5 and users who buy the $35 device by September would receive the $30 worth subscription from Google. A monthly  Google Music subscription costs $9.99.

The internet search company said in a blog post, ''To celebrate Chromecast's birthday, Google is offering  an All Access subscription free for 90 days to anyone with a Chromecast.''

Google added that people had hit the ''cast'' button 400 million times following the launch of  Chromecast. It was announced at the launch of the device, that three months of Netflix subscription were being offered free.

Google had also announced the Android Screen mirroring feature for Chromecast at the I/O conference that would display content from the smartphone into the TV.

The $35 dongle device lets users access internet-based services like YouTube, Netflix and others through the HDMI port on TVs.

According to TechDigest, in terms of pure sales, it was easy to call the Chromecast a success and though it arrived in the UK somewhat late, it was easy to call it a success. Over a million people, including over 100,000 in the UK alone had picked up the £30-dongle as the price was attractive.

Google's stroke of genius lay in realising that it was much easier to use the device that people carried around in their pockets or had on their laps, and to wirelessly beam the content they want to the TV, rather than loading videos and stuff that they wanted to see on the TV screen.

The dongle had made watching videos from YouTube, iPlayer and a bunch of other content providers simple but that was not all, one could even transform one's TV into a second monitor by casting the computer screen, which is absolutely great when showing off photos or display a map without everyone bending over a small screen.

However, despite the huge success, Google had limited success in lining up content providers. While a couple of heavyweights, the BBC and obviously YouTube were on board, others seemed to have given it the miss.

According to Tech Digest the blame must go to Google itself for the extremely tardy pace with which it opened up the Chromecast to third-party developers. It was only recently that Google had granted most developers access to the API, which lets their apps talk to Chromecast.