Google Music Search – One More Thing For Bing To Catch Up On
October 28th, 2009 | Published in wax | 2 Comments
So the rumors were true. As expected, Google announced a new music search service today, partnering with iLike, MySpace, Lala, the big 4 record labels and a venerable “who’s who” list of other internet music services. I’ll give you a quick list of what’s up so you don’t have to power through the dissertations on CNET or RS.
1) Google will not handle any licensing with the big 4 labels since its partners (LaLa, iLike, etc) have already brokered their own deals, and the streaming is funneled through their sites.
2) Google will NOT allow purchases through the search engine, but will push all commerce to its partner sites.
3) Users can stream entire songs within the search engine, as well as watch relevant music VIDEO clips via MySpace (kind of odd since Google OWNS YouTube…)
4) Song lyrics will be provided by GraceNote.
5) Yahoo! had a prepared statement trying to steal some thunder from Google, citing that they’ve had a similar music search for quite some time now.
So now, the RIAA is hoping when you type in “Taylor Swift” into your search bar, you see a music player and options to buy songs rather than a gaggle of torrent links. Let’s all welcome them to the 21st century.
If it’s snappy enough, I think it will be find strong success. iTunes is a slow and tough way to preview and find music since it’s a standalone program. Nobody wants to boot up an entire program to hear a 30-second clip of a song they MIGHT like. Most users always have a browser open, and likely with a Google start page, in which they can quickly look up and listen to entire tracks. Sure this was possible through Google’s partner’s sites earlier, but said sites did not have nearly the massive exposure that the king of search does.
I’m sure Google’s music partners are none too happy to collect the new exposure and potential revenue from added traffic.
How do you find your music? Do you think it will fly?
sources: Steve Knopper | Caroline McCarthy
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October 29th, 2009at 1:19 am(#)
Forgot to say, U.S. only for now too.
October 29th, 2009at 3:25 pm(#)
I think this is an amazing idea. I use lala a lot and like it, but gets a little frustrating at times.
Nothing like taking the best search engine in the world and unleashing that on music. Cannot wait for this to be made available. This will save me a lot of money because can preview before I buy. Great tool.