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