Chris Velazco / Engadget
Samsung has historically been guilty of loading up its smartphones with apps that duplicate features already found in Android. The company's software game has definitely improved over the years, though, and Samsung appears to be focusing more on what it does best and leaving the software to others. To that end, Google just announced that its own Play Music service will be the default music player for the just-launched Galaxy S8. That's a smart move, as most customers will be better off with Google's player than things like the Milk Music service Samsung tried (and ultimately failed) to get Galaxy smartphone owners to use.
Furthermore, Galaxy S8 owners will get some exclusive benefits to using Google Play Music. Google is letting S8 users upload a total of 100,000 songs to their personal music locker for free -- that's double what everyone else gets. The Galaxy S8 will also come with a three-month free trial of Play Music's subscription streaming service, which includes access to more than 40 million songs and thousands of curated playlists. That subscription also includes access to ad-free YouTube Red (unfortunately, only new subscribers will get free access.)
Lastly, Google Play Music will be integrated into Samsung's new virtual assistant Bixby when it launches later this spring. When you ask Bixby to start playing music, it'll default to Google's app. Whether or not you'll be able to modify this based on your own preferred music service is as of yet unclear, but we'll check on that when Bixby is ready to go.
It's something of a no-brainer for Google to offer up all this storage space -- all but the most insanely die-hard music collectors aren't going to hit Play Music's 50,000 song upload limit, let alone this expanded 100,000 song offer. And it's a better use of Samsung's time to focus on where it can actually provide value in the S8's software rather than duplicating apps that Google has already built. Of course, many S8 buyers will probably have throw in their lot with Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, Rhapsody or another of the many music streaming services out there -- but if they haven't, they'll get a few extra benefits for choosing Google.