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Google Music Store Inches Closer?
smallguy78 writes "Forbes is once again reporting on Google plans to launch its own competitor to iTunes, a Google music store. From the article: 'The music industry is broadly unhappy with the fixed pricing and lack of subscription options at the market-leading iTunes Music Store and likely to support alternative services.'" We have touched on this subject previously. This most recent report would seem to indicate the launch will happen sooner rather than later.
If Google launched their own player along with the store, I could envision a pricing model that based the price of the songs on the number of plays it was receiving from its purchasers.
Over time, the cost of this track would become less and less and all of the "filler" tracks would slide fairly rapidly.
Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/ -- Exercise for the rest of us.
Of course there's no mention of file format. Since the audio players out there generally play some combination of MP3, AAC, and WMA, it's only reasonable to assume that the store will sell in one of those formats. Since we know it will need DRM to make the labels happy, that pretty much narrows it down to PlaysForSure WMA. If that's the case, there're already plenty of competitors out there. What will make this store different from Rhapsody, Yahoo, Napsters, etc?
This guy's the limit!
How does the music store interact with players, especially the iPod?
Can users easily manage their music libraries?
What kind of file formats will be available?
Overall, the article makes it sound like Google is very focused on the music industry. I understand this to a point, but Google's users won't be too happy if the music industry seems like it is in too much control. Users are willing to pay, but they expect a certain level of freedom and choice. The user experience is at least as crucial as buy in from the music industry. Or, in other words, Google needs to consider both supply and demand.
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I think most consumers will simply see this as another place where you can download music. The prices and file formats will be different, but that's about it.
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what is it with the childlike obsession wih the "do no evil" credo? It's kind of absurd.
... and it's a pretty good integrated suite, a bit better than google offers... already, and Live is in true beta - like less than a year beta as opposed to fifth year senior beta.
if you have a gmail account, they're probably doing evil with your consumer preferences right now.
re: a music store. Oooooooooooh, a shiny new music store. How innovative, Google. They're like eight years too late with that.
It's a misstep for google to be opening a music store.
As of yet, they don't have a million subscribers for gmail. if they do, they've passed that threshold so recently that there is little info on it. they haven't passed a million subscribers to gtalk either. they haven't shown any uptake for any of their products other than google, which means the general audience is either unaware of their consumer efforts and/or uninterested.
I've used Microsoft Live
looking at the world through google glasses is to obscure the reality. YouTube is eating Google Video's lunch. they only hold the search engine market - and deeper pocket will continue to assial them from all sides.
In your parlance, they'll need to do boatloads of evil just to SURVIVE.
Google = fairy tales for adults. They're just some guys who turned a graduate project into some cash folks. Relax.
un burrito me trampeó.
I hope that Google does this, and does so with the same standards and aplomb that they have used for all of the other Google services. I like Google, not because of the do no evil clause, but because their services work, they work well, and the costs are... well, affordable.
If MS or the RIAA could find a company that works as well as ITMS or that works better than ITMS, they would have done so. Clearly, they are in need of a partner company that has both the technology know-how and the backbone to make it work. Google definitely fits in that category. I hope that if such a bargain is struck, that the *AA finds themselves holding on for dear life to the tail of a very BIG tiger....
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I have a comment though. I am actually not not happy with the iTunes concept of single pricing. I think 1$ per song is waayyyy too expensive for a song. Second, I don't give a damn about contemporary mainstream music. My preferences are better served by a variable price store. If you're into mainstream and actually think that "A" song is worth 1$... feel free to feed the beast. But at that's the kind of price per song that I would only pay to live performers, not recording. Wheter they are street performers, or theatre performers, I'm willing to pay them more than a lousy recording.
You mean like http://www.savethemusicfan.com/, founded by the Nettwerk Music Group CEO Terry McBride?
With artists like Sarah McLachlan, Delerium, BT, Avril Lavigne, Bare Naked Ladies, and MC Lars, they're not exactly a small label. (But no, they're not Sony-BMG either)
And they are doing their absolute best to give the RIAA the middle finger--not only by founding this not-for-profit (and picking up families' RIAA legal costs and any possible fines), but by selling decent quality NON-DRM'ed music at their own download store.
Moderation is for Monks!
No, they will both have less. This is what the RIAA wants, at least two significant players that they can play off of each other. Apple won't agree to higher prices? Then the RIAA can take their ball and go home, because they no longer need Apple, they can sell everything through Google. Google won't raise prices higher than Apple? I guess Apple will get all of the business. This is the same thing they've done with copyright law.
"Oh, now the European Union has longer copyrights. The U.S. has to have parity."
"Oh, now the U.S. has longer copyrights. The E.U. has to have parity."
Oh look, now coprights are the life of the creator plus 100 years. Etc., etc.
Basically, we need a Good Guy (TM) with deep pockets to raise a middle finger to the majors.
That's Apple. Remember when the RIAA wanted to raise prices? Apple stood their ground and took the battle public. They've got the least amount of DRM that the RIAA will allow. This does benefit Apple due to lock-in, but FairPlay is the only leverage Apple has over the RIAA. If they open that up, the RIAA no longer needs Apple. This is the problem with our current media system. As long as there is no competition amongst publishers, than competition amongst distributors doesn't benefit consumers, only publishers. The real problem is that publishers aren't competing for consumers' entertainment dollars. Until they do, competing at the distributor level is pointless and only reinforces the current system by providing even larger profits to publishers.
This is sort of a delicious irony because I remember in the 90's the big question about any computer system was "Will it run MS Office?"
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
"It's the same dogmatism that strikes down ID swiftly and flames anyone who espouse religious affiliation to oblivion"
It's sad that the Creationists still can't conceive that evolutionary Christians are the majority of believers worldwide, and even in the United States. They lack the critical thinking skills to delineate "God did it and I don't question him!" from "God did it, and this is *how*!"