Google Music Restricted to U.S. Use? Apparently Not

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A few days ago Google officially unveiled its own music store and cloud-based music service, simply dubbed Google Music aka the evolved version of Music Beta. During the event Google made it more than clear that Google Music will be available in the U.S. at launch, without specifying launch plans for any other regions.

But apparently Google Music is not as restricted to U.S. usage as we initially believed. In fact there appears to be a way to access the new service outside America, not that we’re surprised to see that it’s possible. Apparently Google only checks your IP when signing up for the service and agreeing to the terms of service. Once you fool Big G into believing in the USA then you’ll be granted access to Google Music, although you’ll be limited to uploading your music to the cloud for now without being able to buy anything from the Android Market music store, or so does Engadget suggest.

Naturally that means probably breaking some of those terms and conditions therefore we’re certainly not encouraging you to go down this path. In case you do want to get into Google Music, then you should make sure you follow the following steps:

1. Download com.google.android.music.4.0.9.apk and save it on yoru computer
2. Download Tor – an app that offers “a network of virtual tunnels that can increase security and anonymity while playing on the internet
3. Run Tor on your computer
4. Find a U.S.-based Exit Node and copy its details (Copy fingerprint)
5. Edit Tor’s config file using the Exit Node details at step 4 (Settings > Advanced > edit torrc file)
6. At the top of the file paste the following lines, replacing XXX with the fingerprint from step 4:
ExitNodes XXX
StrictExitNodes 1
7. Log-in to https://music.google.com with the inbuilt browser
8. Accept Terms of Service for Google Music

Once you’ve completed all those steps you’ll be able to log-in to Google Music from your favorite browser and then manage your music. You’ll need the Google Music manager to actually start uploading files to the cloud, but you probably know that already.

Has anyone used this workaround? Let us know in the comments section how it all works for you!