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.

Comments

So who are they going to buy?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Will it take over your system?

[ElmoGonzo]

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.

Re:Will it take over your system?

[plover]

gTewns also needs to alter the GUI to follow some other platform's specs, including non-standard key bindings and unlabeled controls. It should store all of its settings in a hidden folder somewhere on your drive that you won't accidentally find. It should take copies of your existing music files, rename them to random characters, and stick them in a different folder so you can double your backup space requirements. It should also upload periodic updates to your Android phone, just in case it got accidentally hacked. For that matter, it should install a tool to update itself that helps fill the system tray with extra useless icons, and that tool should always reinstall itself just in case you accidentally disabled it.

Re:Will it take over your system?

[aitan]

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.

Lets not forget automatically loading programs on startup even though you specifically disabled them. OOO and also constantly pestering you to download the latest version of your worthless browser every time there is an update. Yeah @$%#%$^ you Apple.

Google is already quite good at pushing their browser as a side-install along with many unrelated products even of third party companies and you'll be lucky if you can get through the day without visiting some sites (as long as you're not using AdBlock Plus) and being offered to speed at greater speed thanks to Chrome.

And it will inject another plugin into Firefox just in case you did found out how to remove the previous one.

Re:Will it take over your system?

[the_other_chewey]

I knew someone would object and bring up gtkpod/libgpod. I had a paragraph
about that in my reply's first draft, but replaced all of it with the word "reliable".

Yes, libgpod works well on the devices it supports.

It took ages (close to two years) for gtkpod to support the 5th gen nano, for example.
The 6th gen nano is still unsupported today, nearly 14 months after its launch.

So, go on, tell people they have to wait for over a year if they want to use their shiny
new iThing without iTunes. Good luck.

Probably US-only

[JohnnyBGod]

It's probably US-only, so I'm unable to care.

How many music services do we need?

[msobkow]

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?