The user interface is very straightforward. Your music is organized by "New and Recent" (which continuously refreshes as your library is added to the cloud), Songs, Artists, Albums, and Genres. Album art is displayed when it is available, but aesthetically, the user interface is nowhere near as pretty as iTunes or the even better looking Zune player. I did not like that the player doesn't display full-sized album art when you're in song playing mode.

There's a section called Auto Playlists which is broken into "Thumbs Up," "Recently Added," and "Free Songs." My library was still pretty barren (seriously folks, it takes a long time to add your library), but I found it interesting that, under "Thumbs Up," it listed a certain Milemarker song I had played 18 times on iTunes. I guess "Thumbs Up" automatically loads all the songs you listen to way too much. You can then add more songs to it by giving songs thumbs up (or down if you hate it!) in the Rating column when you're viewing your library by song.

Instant Mix is Google's version of the iTunes Genius Playlist. It automatically creates a playlist of songs that go well together. Again, I didn't have enough music to create any real playlists so I'll have to revisit this feature once my whole library is uploaded.

Sound quality was pretty good, but when I tried to stream music using an open Wi-Fi connection at a local cafe, the weakness of a cloud-based player shined through: My songs stuttered frequently or wouldn't play when I wanted them to. My experience on my faster home connection was much more pleasant.

Streaming Music on Your Android Phone