Fortunately, it was relatively easy to workaround this if you have access to US-based VPN or proxy. You can get easily get a 5GB package for US$5 from AlwaysVPN which is really useful for stuff like this and is probably a much safer option than some dodgy public proxy.

On your computer

1. Connect through a US-based VPN or proxy and sign up for an invite at Google Music.
2. Wait for invite. I signed up after IO and got it just today, making it about a 3-week wait.
3. Sign up for the service through the invite link (no vpn/proxy required).
4. Follow through the sign up instructions and download Music Manager. Launch Music Manager, sign in and select music from your computer for upload.
5. Let Music Manager do its thing, and when it’s done, go to http://music.google.com, and hey presto, start streaming your music (and about 150 complimentary tracks from Google)!

If you have an Android phone, things get better. Install the latest beta version of Music (I have v3.0.1.339) and you will be able to stream music directly on your phone.

On your Android phone

1. Intall Market Enabler (free, search for “market enabler”).
2. Use Market Enabler to change the Market to a US telco (e.g. T-Mobile / AT&T / Verizon)
3. Install Music from the Android Market (free, search for “google music”).
4. The music app automatically picks up the music already in your phone and the music you have in the cloud for streaming. Enjoy!

Impressions

I’ve always hated managing playlists on the phone so I really really welcome the ability to be able to create and edit them in the browser and have them synced transparently to the phone. The beta Music app in the Android is an improvement on the existing version, but it’s still a little fiddly. For example, you cannot “pin” songs for offline listening from the song list view or from the “Now playing” screen. However, if you have a decent connection on the phone, the streaming works pretty darn well.

The Music Manager, in its present incarnation, is really just a glorified sync/upload client. It really doesn’t do much else. While I’m grateful that it is not a bloated beast like iTunes, I wonder if why it’s needed in the first place. Why can’t I just drop my music for upload through the browser, like how attachments are done in Gmail?

Google provides some useful help online, which also gives you a good idea of what the service can do.

1. Music Beta on your computer
2. Music Beta on your Android device

There’s a number of rough edges on the service but overall, a competent start to storing and accessing your music on the cloud. I only hope it doesn’t go the way of Wave before it gets a chance to get better. :p

I got a Google Wave Sandbox account a little while back and started a small side project (which, as too many others did, fell wayside). Admittedly, it was rather confusing at the start and you really need to have a real-life network on the same platform for it to deliver on the value it promises.

If you haven’t lived under a rock in the last week, you would have heard about the opening up of Google Wave for limited preview. Those already on the Sandbox got invites, and I decided to pop in for a look. The preview instance feels definitely more stable compared to Sandbox. However, being logged on to both instances at the same time on Firefox 3.5, for some reason really slowed things down.

The word is that Wave runs best on Chrome, so I took the chance to check out Google Chrome on Ubuntu. Chrome is currently officially supported on Windows only but an early access version is available for Ubuntu (32/64-bit) and Debian (32-bit only). This version (my current installed build: 4.0.220.1) is a wee bit rough around the edges but generally worked well for me so far.

Wave, both Sandbox and Preview, felt snappier and more stable on Chrome. If not for the relative lack of extensions for Chrome (compared to Firefox), I would seriously consider switching browsers permanently. This is a seriously speedy browser.

Back to the Wave, if you want to give it spin and prepared for a little beta chaos, request for an invitation here.

Update: Found this nice short video on why you might want to use Wave.