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Google To Take On iTunes?

Posted by samzenpus on from the battle-of-the-bands dept.

An anonymous reader writes 'Multiple sources say Google is preparing to launch Google Audio. According to people familiar with the matter, Google has been securing content from record companies. Is Google about to go head-to-head with Apple's iTunes?'

21 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Google did a few years ago... by iCantSpell · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ... It's called songbird http://www.getsongbird.com/ = (mozilla+google)

    1. Re:Google did a few years ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Songbird doesn't even have global hotkeys for mac or linux yet.

    2. Re:Google did a few years ago... by hazydave · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Profits on the iTunes store are decent (iTunes store revenue was $1.018 billion in Apple's fourth quarter.. this also includes licensing fees for iPod/iPhone accessories from third parties, they don't break it down any more), but also irrelevant. The existence of the tightly coupled iTunes store and iTunes player drives the sales of the very, very, very successful iPhone ($2.3 billion in the fourth quarter) and somewhat less successful, these days, iPod (apparently, people are buying iPhones instead... only 10.2 million iPhones sold that quarter, versus nearly 7.4 way more profitable iPhones).

      Apple won the MP3 player market by delivering content, back when no one else had brokered any reasonable deal to do similarly with their player. Most still haven't done as well, though with DRM dead (for music, anyway), this matters much less than it once did. But take away the iTunes store, and then Apple's competing on a very even basis with everyone else. Sales would suffer, soon enough.

      To really be successful against Apple, this kind of online point-of-sales won't hurt at all... there are plenty of users who can figure out other ways to download, sync, and install apps or music, but enough who can't, or simply don't want to be bothered.

      Now, invent the mechanism, but make it non-exclusive, and you really have something. If I can shop for Android apps (and other stuff, like music and video.. might as well, once I'm there, eh) at the Google Store, the Verizon Store, the Amazon Store... well, then we've fixed one of the fundamental problems with Apple's model -- no competition. As a computer savvy person, I know I can get music from Amazon or a CD just as easily as from the iTunes store, but you need some knowledge for that.. most users take the easy way out. So Apple doesn't really have to compete with Amazon on prices for music. And it's way more complex for video or apps. Thus, no incentive to lower prices... they have a captive market. There's a big potential in retaining that ease of use, but also adding the market competition inherent in non-virtual consumer products.

      --
      -Dave Haynie
  2. What about the player? by scottblascocomposer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd be thrilled if Google could do a music player analogue of Picasa. I've always hated iPhoto, and Picasa is great. A similar product to displace iTunes would be incredibly welcome (and yes, I've tried Songbird; maybe someday, but it's not there yet).

    --
    To reign is to serve.
    1. Re:What about the player? by slifox · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Music Player Daemon (mpd) has the right idea: separate the playing backend and the user interface. The result is an easily-interfaceable (many, many clients for all platforms, web, etc) and reliable player that rarely (never for me) crashes, and will continue to play even if X dies (which makes repairing X a little more enjoyable).

      My favorite client is QMPDClient, which is cross-platform and has a good user interface for easily switching between the Library view (3-section Artist/Album/Songs), the Directories view (which shows the Music directory as a folder tree), and the Playlist view (for saving or loading playlists). The directory view is the big selling point for me, because I have my music folder well organized by genre, artist, album, but not necessarily well organized as far as ID3 tags go.

      Here's a screenshot: http://dump.bitcheese.net/images/batidij/qmpdclient-win32.png

      It's definitely worth a try...

      MPD: http://mpd.wikia.com/
      QMPDClient: http://bitcheese.net/wiki/QMPDClient
      Other MPD Clients: http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients

    2. Re:What about the player? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Also UberView is a great little piece of software that was/is a win32 app but he is now developing a cross-platform version. Nix version can act a mpd frontend. It is focused around the album covers, is small and fast and does not rely on tags in any way.

      The Nix version is mentioned at the Arch forums [url]http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=61660[/url].
      Latest source is here [url]http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=22508[/url]

    3. Re:What about the player? by N1AK · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Picasa is one of the few pieces of software that impresses me, and continues to impress me more with each revision. From the way it imports and sorts, through the quality of its automated colour/light fixing to features like face recognition, online gallery integration and tagging it makes organising 'home' photos a pleasent experience rather than a task.

      Maybe better software exists, and it probably isn't as useful to serious photographers but everyone I've shown it to from Grandparents to early teens have become loyal users.

  3. Its a Fractal by NETHED · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This, if true, will only hasten the divide between the two tech darlings Google and Apple.

    Apple has a vested interest in maintaining their defacto monopoly on online music sales though their vertical product pipeline. The Zune is no real threat, as Microsoft does not have the mindshare. Google, with Android, have significant clout, and potentially enough mass to unseat Apple from the head of the online music sales table.

    Apple has done very well with the iPhone, but if history is our guide, they did very well with the original Macintosh. Fast-forward a few years to now, and the story is being repeated. Apple is dominant with their iPhone platform, but Steve Jobs is too obsessed with removing buttons from mice to loosen his grip on the brand. This has help Apple survive, but it ultimatly leads to Apple's cyclical demise.

    Anyway, Google launching a music app will cause Apple to remove Google maps, and Youtube integration from their products. In the end, Google (openness) will win over the closed Apple system. Yes, the Apple devices will be pretty, but the Google stuff will work well enough, be less expensive, and have 95%+ of market share. (Its like we've seen that before somewhere....)

    --
    --sig fault--
    1. Re:Its a Fractal by NETHED · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why not?

      Apple and Steve Jobs historically hate being tied/dependent on anyone else.
      iWork is a beautiful example of Jobs wanting to no longer have to deal with Microsoft. On paper, it makes sense, but in the cold hard truth of reality, Pages.app is no where near the sophistication of Word for Mac. But Jobs wants it to be pretty, and functional enough.
      Either way, Apple hates being tied to vendors, and I see Google being divorced sooner than later.

      --
      --sig fault--
    2. Re:Its a Fractal by mjwx · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Apple iPhone released in 2007, in the midst of the current recession.

      The recession didn't start in 2007, it started in late 2008. For Australia the height hit in feb/mar 2009 and is practically over now.

      2007 was when economies were booming.

      As for you GP post I agree, it will be Apple's pathological need for control that will be its downfall, it's all happened before. Google is positioning itself to take advantage of Apple's fall, especially since most of Google's ties to Apple have been severed.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    3. Re:Its a Fractal by Saint+Fnordius · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think the real reason Apple is so reluctant to allow apps on the iPhone is fear that one malicious app could destroy the ecosystem. That's why they first decided to not allow apps, at least not until they had the store set up.

      I personally think Apple needs to have two delivery methods to the iPhone: the app store, where Apple can act as your gatekeeper, and through the developer environment, where you compile from source code and assume all responsibility for whatever bugs are in the software. Thus the only way to distribute outside of the app store would be to give away the source code. (The same thing goes for Android: either trust the app store tied to your phone or compile the code yourself)

    4. Re:Its a Fractal by biovoid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's certainly not a monopoly in the legal sense, but it is in the practical sense.

      No it isn't. A monopoly in the practical sense would mean that people have no choice but Apple. In reality, they have plenty of choices. Your point is merely that people aren't aware of the alternatives, but that doesn't make it a monopoly in a legal, or practical sense.

    5. Re:Its a Fractal by koiransuklaa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Probably not, but you are one of the 500 million people who are allowed to use amazon MP3 store. The rest of us can't.

      Buying DRM-free music online is pretty damn hard without itunes here...

    6. Re:Its a Fractal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Also, Ipod has this retarded wheel, which totally makes it hard for you to navigate as you often overshoot/undershoot the selection you want. On top of that, you can't use the wheel with the ipod in the pocket; you have to always see the screen. Contrast to most players that have buttons for everything; seperate volume buttons and track buttons from which you can press easily (digitally) in your pocket as you walk. Easy as cake and you don't have to pull the whole damn thing out of your pocket.

      This whole paragraph makes you sound like an absolute moron. First, you adjust the speed of scrolling through a list with the speed you move your thumb/finger. It sounds like you never figured this bit out. As for having to take the iPod out of your pocket to change tracks or adjust the volume, you're wrong again. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you press on "this" side of the block that it will skip forward a track, or if you press on "that" side of the block that you'll skip back a track. As for volume, the capacitance worked through every shirt I ever tried it with.

  4. It's a music search feature by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    According to TechCrunch, it's a music search with the option to do limited streaming. So you can search for music, preview them, then either use those services to buy or use iTunes/Amazon to buy it.

  5. Lala by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I hope it's not a crappy knock-off, like when they launched Google Video.

    Even the goodwill of their name couldn't save that horrible site.

    No wonder a couple months later they bought YouTube.

    This time maybe they'll buy Lala.com.

    If you want a good browser-based iTunes store, that's it.
     

  6. No by mr100percent · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is Google about to go head to head with iTunes? No, but they are about to go head-to-head with Amazon.

  7. A little sample of what's to come by clem · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Google audio (BETA)

    Lyric Search: Carry a laser down the road that I must travel

    Did you mean: Kyrie eleison down the road that I must travel?

    --
    Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
  8. Why audio? by MahariBalzitch · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Why doesn't Google stop delving into all these other markets and just stick to what it knows?: SEARCH. I can just see the day in the near future that Google is disliked as much as Microsoft because it was being a monopoly. Good things never last unfortunately...

    --
    Kickass Cheap Web Hosting
  9. amen! lol by Weezul · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Except Apple has always been fashion darling, not a tech darling. Indeed, Apple's technology is always fairly far behind, but Jobs' 1-button obsession does create fashion conscious products. Apple will always find users who'll pay more for fewer features when existing features are presented more fashionably.

    I dislike the closed source culture surrounding Apple's computers and strongly dislike the iPhone's restrictions, but Apple's fashion awareness has helped many people. Just look how Apple made incremental back up fashionable. Can you imagine how much time and how many irreplaceable family photo albums that move has saved?

    --
    The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
  10. Re:Spotify not ITunes will be the big competitor by manekineko2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As someone without access to Spotify, what's the benefit of Spotify versus the all-you-can-eat style music subscriptions like Rhapsody or Napster?