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Google Working To Launch Music Store Soon
afabbro writes with news that Google is working to follow up its cloud music service with an MP3 store capable of competing with Amazon and Apple. The NY Times reports that "According to numerous music executives, Google is eager to open the store in the next several weeks," but it's unclear "whether Google would be able to close the necessary deals with labels and music publishers in time to open a full-service store." The Wall Street Journal confirms in its own (paywalled) report that negotiations with Warner, Universal, and Sony are still a long way from resulting a deal.
Shouldn't they just team up with ubuntu and build a proper shop, as opposed to just adding to the confusion out there? http://xkcd.com/927/
Any guesses as to which company they buy and just relabel it as google music?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google
It won't be a complete competitor with iToons unless it requires you to install the Google Music Player, the Google Video Player, and grabs all the file associations in your system.
I hope people are smarter than this. Don't fall for this, please.
Support those who were on the scene first, not mighty Google coming in for the steal.
The market usually supports those who provide the best product to the consumer. "Seniority" carries little weight.
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
Apple has proven this multiple times and failed as many times.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
HA! Just kidding. We all know the answer to that one.
PSA: Avoid Google Apps at all costs.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Seriously unless the music is DRM free and just plain old quality MP3s then forget it. I'd be too concerned they'll shut it down in a year or two.
A small trend I've noticed is that Google seems to struggle in the areas of music and TV a lot more than say... Apple. Why is that? Is it because they attempt to approach the licensing and royalties in a completely different way? Or is it that Apple, keen to sell hardware, are willing to take such a small slice of money per song / movie / TV show that the studios and labels are taking near 100% of the receipts?
Google TV seems to have gone nowhere. I can't see why, since it works very nicely on paper. Apple on the other hand seem to have zero problems in getting all the latest TV shows onto iTunes.
Have I missed something really obvious? Or are Google too inexperienced in this area to build a good case for using their services?
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
Look at Google+ and their attempt to push Facebook and others out of business because they have "the name". Thankfully, it doesn't seem like it's working
What "others"? For Social Media, what are the real competitors in the market right now? Facebook, Google+, and...uh....Twitter? Is Twitter considered a real Facebook competitor? Is Myspace still considered a competitor, or just a joke? Personally, I know a lot of hardcore Facebook users that are glad that G+ came around, if only to force Facebook to make some concessions in security. You think Zuck & Co. would have made these changes independently on their own? Even with strong consumer demand they still pretty much told people to take it or leave it...until G+, and they've only got what, 40 million users now? A lot of influence for such a tiny marketshare.
I'm all for Google getting into the music business. The more online services there are, the more they will compete for our business. I can only hope that Google's arrival to the market will have the same effect on iTunes as G+ did for FB. It may not be as good for Apple, but it will be good for consumers, and as I don't have a vested interest in any of these companies, that is my number one concern.
I've been using Google Music for about a month and a half now, and I've been quite happy with it (although uploading all of my 18,000 tracks took weeks). It's still got it's bugs, but all in all I've had good experiences. If Google can place a market on top of that without shoving it down our throats with a billion pop-ups and click-throughs, or annoyware, than I think they can take their place alongside Amazon and iTunes, and that will be better for us music consumers.
Honestly, how many people would be using iTunes if the iDevices didn't require it? Would their market share be anywhere near what it is today? I doubt it. Bring on the competition.
Google is scrambling for something good and all they can think of doing is what everyone else is doing, with a slight twist.
So, what is wrong with competition? Do you really think there should be One True Provider of every product and that's it? If Google thinks they can do better, then so be it. Let them try.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Seriously give those that are in their mid 30's or older and who don't have time to explore 100's of sites to find new and fresh music and nice easy way of previewing and buying music.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
This is a good thing!
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Yes, that's what I was alluding to. You'll notice I used several conditionals in my statements, and no absolutes. My primary point was that it's silly to assume that "first one there" should be the de facto leader/winner/whatever. :)
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
We don't need another MP3 store, what we need is a mainstream site that offers lossless downloads of new music. In this internet age I shouldn't have to order the CD in order to get lossless audio, I should be able to download FLAC files of a new release direct from a legal content provider.
And that is the reason no one is migrating to Android â" NO APPS.
Uh, are we talking about the same Android that is number one worldwide in smartphones, is the fastest growing OS percentagewise period, and has an app store brimming with hundreds of thousands of applications in addition to the other many thousands of applications that aren't in the regular Google Market? That's the one you are saying has "NO APPS"? How is the weather on whatever planet you live on?
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
It's probably US-only, so I'm unable to care.
Google typical user is not used to pay for any services or software, this will follow last google products trend, an epic fail.
Indeed... we should discourage competition. No company should ever endeavour to do something that has already been done.
And doesn't Apple already have some exclusive deals? iTunes accounted for 28% of all US Music sales May 2010, more than Walmart, and that number is likely higher now.
Walmart use to weld significant influence over the music industry, telling them to lower prices and even forcing artists to change lyrics that Walmart found "objectionable" and that was when Walmart sold only 20% of the nation's music. With iTunes at 28% they have even more power, and I imagine if Apple said "do not put your music on Google's music store" how can you say no to the company responsible for 28% of your income? If Apple was smart they would have put in their TOS long ago something that says if you sell your music on iTunes you can not sell it by any other digital distribution method.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
That's the stupidest idea ever, especially if you don't want to be convicted of being a monopolist. Apple doesn't care about digital music sales. It doesn't make them very much money, but they needed to ensure that people could easily get music on their iPods, which did make Apple a lot of money. Now that digital music is sold DRM-free pretty much everywhere, there's no real need for Apple to keep their online music store around, but it makes them a small bit of money on the side and provides a convenient way for iOS users to get music.
As far as digital music goes, Apple has generally acted in the consumers interest far more than they've acted in their own.
All these different music services, competing for the same catalogues of music, trying to get exclusives whenever they can.
At what point is the market deemed "saturated"?
And what good are all these services when they're only available in certain regions of the world (primarily US and UK.)? What about everyone else? Is Apple the only one who can negotiate international sales and streaming rights?
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I agree with the sibling AC's suggestion of bandcamp, many of my favorite modern indie acts put their stuff on bandcamp and make FLAC downloads available.
I haven't used https://www.hdtracks.com/ ; they seem to focus on classic reissues and jazz/classical/opera/etc. (They also have a lot of above-CD-quality FLACs)
Nevertheless, more FLAC availability would be good.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
It's called The Pirate Bay.
And it carries movies, books, games, pretty much anything that can be digitized.
Oh ya, I can't beat the price.
The more money people spend keeping the music & movie industry going, the more crappy laws and stupid ass DRM shit we are going to get.
Bankrupt them, and we won't have to listen to them anymore.
Be seeing you...
"afabbro writes with news that Google is working to follow up its cloud music service with an MP3 store capable of competing with Amazon and Apple and Ubuntu One."
FTFY. I use Ubuntu One more than I use the other two.