Google Adds “Shared With Me” Button to Google Play

Google Play allows users to share purchased songs and albums with friends, a brought over from Google Music. However, it only allows one play-through of the content – for any more it has to be purchased. To better organize and help users plan for that perfect moment to start up a special track, Google today announced a “Shared with me” button for Google Play.

The update announcement came in an post to the Google Play Google+ page, where the look of the feature, which you can see above, was revealed. The button is part of the sidebar for the Google Play “MY MUSIC” page, where users can listen to music they have uploaded or purchased. The “Shared with me” page will list all songs that have been shared with a user, but songs that are not listed in bold have already been played, and can’t be listened to. All of the songs can be sorted in the same ways as purchased or uploaded music (Name, Time, Artist, Album), but also by price or by who shared the song. That sharer’s Google+ picture will appear as a thumbnail next to the content he or she shared, and the prices in the “Price” column can be clicked on to purchase the content.

A small change, yet an interesting way for Google to promote music sales. Google still has a long way to go, though, if they hope to reach their 2010 goals for music sales. What do you think? Do you often share music with friends through Google+? Did you even know that you could? Leave a comment and let me know.