New partnership makes Google Play Music the default on all Samsung devices, with double the storage capacity

Samsung and Google today announced a new partnership that will make Google Play Music the default music player and music service including on new Samsung phone and tablets worldwide, starting with the launch of the Galaxy S8 and S8+. The deal comes with an added bonus for Samsung users – they’ll be able to upload up to 100,000 of their own songs to Google Play Music for free.

This is double the storage capacity typically offered. Currently Google Play Music offers free storage and playback of up to 50,000 songs from a user’s personal collection.

With the deal, new Samsung phones and tablets will come with an included three-month trial of Google Play Music. This subscription includes features competitive with rivals like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora Premium, and others, such as ad-free listening, on-demand access to over 40 million songs, and curated playlists. It also includes access to YouTube Red, for watching ad-free videos across YouTube.

In addition, Google promises that its service will work with Samsung’s own personal assistant software, Bixby, when it launches later in the spring. That means you’ll be able to speak to ask the assistant to do things like play a particular song or even a genre of music.

The partnership follows Samsung’s decision to exit the music business last fall, when it shut down its U.S. mobile music service, Milk Music, after failing to gain traction. The company was also rumored to be acquiring Jay Z’s Tidal music service, but later denied that a deal was in the works.

At the time it announced Milk Music’s closure, Samsung hinted that a deal like this one with Google could be the path it was choosing to take next, saying then that it had “made the strategic decision to invest in a partner model focused on seamlessly integrating the best music services available today into our family of Galaxy devices.”