Anyways...
When I was setting up this blog and its accompanying Google+ profile, I thought I would utilize Google Play as well for some of my music. No need to risk copyright infringement notices by uploading favorite songs to YouTube. I'd just use Google Play, a free service, and upload my favorite songs from CDs I have ripped THAT I OWN. Well, I'm progressing through the intro screens, blah blah blah, until I get to this one.
Are. You. Kidding. Me.
So... I still have to have a "form of payment" on file to use a free service? To verify my country of residence. Because of Google's "music deals," whatever the hell they are. Look, conspiracy theories aside (or not - a topic for another post), I know Google uses cookies to track my IP address. Why can't my country be verified from that? It's not like I'm using the Tor browser. And why do "music rights" (which I assume refer to copyright and proliferation of ripped content) matter for what is supposed to be a personal service that is NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OF SAID CONTENT? And what if something is uploaded that Google has a problem with? Well, the fines will certainly be easy to levy. Because they already have my payment information on file.
There is, apparently, some kind of premium service for Google Play that costs $9.99 a month. I don't know what it is. I beta-tested Google Play when it was invite-only (on my alternate profile), and there was no talk of a premium level of the service then. But I do know Google tried to click-trick me into agreeing to a 30-day trial of it. I can just see myself receiving some email in the future, notifying me of some change in the Terms of Use for Google Play (Terms of use stuff usually defaults to TL:DR), and suddenly I'm being charged money to even use the service - because they already have my payment information.
I don't blame Google for trying to make money off of their service. But there is no need for me to enter payment information for a free service. Sheesh.
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