Google Music Beta LogoAs more of the applications we use move to the cloud, we grow more and more dependent on our Web browsers. Now that you can put your entire music collection in the cloud, you should be able to control song play from your browser without flipping back to the same tab or browser window.

We have previously written a complete overview about the Google Music Beta service where you can get an initial impression about how the service actually works and what can we expect in the future.

If you’re lucky enough to have access to Google Music Beta, the Better Music Chrome Plugin will allow you to control your music from both inside and outside of the browser.

Installation and Use

Like most Chrome plugins, it is exceedingly easy to install the Better Music plugin. Once you’ve installed the plugin, the Google Music logo appears as an icon along the other plugins you have installed.

Google Music Beta Extension

After you’ve installed the plugin, log into Google Music Beta. When you start playing a song from your Google Music collection, the Better Music plugin will recognize it, and load the song info. When you click on the plugin’s icon, you will see the Artist, Title, and cover art (if available).

You also have basic controls allowing you to pause/play, fast forward, rewind, shuffle, and repeat. From here you can also give a song thumbs up or thumbs down, and click the heart icon to indicate that you love the song.

Google Music Beta Extension Controls

If you are a last.fm user, click on the Connect to Last.fm link. Once you allow the Google Music Beta plugin access to your last.fm account, the songs you play will appear in your Recently Listened Tracks.

Last.fm Scrobbling Option

Controlling Google Music Outside of Your Browser

The Better Music player has a Miniplayer that allows you to control your music player from outside of the browser window. Click on the Options link, click Open Miniplayer, and by default the Miniplayer opens in the upper right corner of your screen.

Music Beta extension options

The Miniplayer window displays the song and artist information, along with all of the same controls available from within the browser. While you work in other applications, you can always see what’s playing and control the flow of music without having to go back to the browser and find the right tab.

If you need to stop the playback quickly, like when the phone is ringing, you do not have to scramble through all of your open windows to stop the song.

If you click on the small wrench icon in the upper right corner of the Miniplayer, you can Disable the plugin, access the Settings, or Choose position. The Settings link takes you to the Chrome browser settings. The Disable link disables the Google Music Beta plugin immediately.

Final Impression

The functionality in the Google Music Beta plugin is relatively limited, but the plugin has potential. Right now, you cannot close the browser window that you’ve opened the Google Music site in. When you do that, playback stops, which is a major limitation.

Aside from that there are also some issues with the plugin that we discovered:

  • Sometimes the plugin stops communicating with Google Music, and you have to close the site and re-open it to restore communication.
  • At times you may need to close and re-open the entire browser to restore communication between Google Music and the plugin.
  • The Miniplayer and the player within the browser are sometimes not in sync. The Miniplayer will think a song is playing, while the player in the plugin will think that nothing is playing.
  • The Miniplayer occasionally starts to close and reopen every few seconds. Sometimes two or three instances of it appear on the screen at the same time.
  • If the player in the browser thinks that nothing is playing, and the Miniplayer thinks that a song is playing, clicking on the Open Miniplayer link from the plugin opens another Miniplayer instance that also thinks that nothing is playing. The two Miniplayer windows that do not agree will alternate appearing on the screen. This also happens when you click on the plugin icon in Chrome.

The Google Music Beta Chrome plugin is off to a fine start. The issues we discovered should not cause any problems in your browser. While they are annoying, the usefulness of the plugin makes up for it. Hopefully, there will be more cool features and site integrations in the future for this plugin, but it is definitely worth a try right now.

Get Better Music Beta Chrome Extension.

See Also: