Google I/O: Home speaker, Assistant AI, VR plans and more

Yesterday was the first day of Google's annual I/O developer conference: its equivalent of Apple's WWDC in terms of revealing new products and services for the year ahead. While there were no direct news about the music aspects of Google Play and YouTube, there was plenty for the music industry to think about in Google's other announcements. Starting with Google Home, a connected speaker controlled by its owner's voice, which will compete directly with Amazon's Echo. The speaker will use the Google Cast technology to stream music, which means that services like Spotify will be supported alongside Google Play Music. Amazon's speaker has been a big hit in the US, and Google is training its sights squarely on the device.