The surprise Google Play Music Gift service has now gone live with gifts now able to be sent from within the Google Play Music app, as well as through the Gifts website.
The ‘send gift’ option in Settings within Google Play Music appears to have gone live due to a server side switch, as the app version – v6.0.2005S – hasn’t changed since we first tried the service out on Wednesday. The Send Gift links to the play.google.com/music/gift where you’ll be presented with the splash screen above.
If you’ve decided to gift a recipient with Google Play Music All Access for 1, 3 or 6 months, you then need to know their Email address and you can send an optional message which will be sent in an email to their account that contains the redemption code, and a ‘Redeem Gift’ button that they click.
If the recipient already has All Access already they won’t pay for the gifted period of time, or if they are a new user they get that period, at the end of which they will have to enter their own payment method to continue service.
The send form contains a link to the Google Play Gifts Terms of Service which contains some interesting little tidbits. For a start the recipient has to be in the same country as you to receive the gift, i.e I can’t gift my AU Google account from my US account and you can only accrue a total of five years of subscriptions at any one time. There’s also a note for any user who is currently using YouTube Music Key, with Google advising:
Current subscribers of YouTube Music Key will not be able to redeem gifts of Google Play Music subscriptions
There’s also the Support Page for Google Play Gifts as well if you’re wanting more information on gifting.
If you want to try it out now, the service appears to be live for everyone – at least it worked on the 4 accounts I tried it on (US and AU). To access Gifts from the app, open Google Play Music and go to Settings, then select ‘Gift Music’ or if you’re on the web, go to play.google.com/music/gift – I`m happily accepting donations ([email protected]) if you want to try it out ;).
