In a challenge to Apple, Amazon, and dozens of music startups,
Google has launched Google Music, an online music platform that
combines the company's cloud-based streaming service with Google+
and Android Market.
In May, Google introduced a preview version of its music streaming
offering, Music Beta by Google, an effort that has been
overshadowed by Facebook's recent partnership with a more popular
music streaming service, Spotify.
At a press event Wednesday in Los Angeles, Jamie Rosenberg,
director of digital content for Google, said that service, now
called Google Music, is available to everyone in the United States.
He described it as an effort to improve the digital music
experience.
Here's what you need to know:
1. The most notable improvement is that Google Music allows users
to upload and store songs they've already purchased at no charge.
Apple, the dominant digital music seller, charges USD 25 annually
for uploading and storing music not purchased through iTunes.
Amazon charges USD 20 annually to store digital music not acquired
from Amazon's MP3 Store.
"Other cloud services think you have to pay to listen to music you
already own," said Rosenberg. "We don't."
2. Google Music brings with it the ability to share music through
Google+. Recipients of shared songs can play them once in their
entirety, at no charge.
3. Google Music also brings with it Android Market integration: You
can purchase songs from the new music section in Android Market
using a computer or, soon, a mobile device--Google says its Android
Market music store will be accessible to U.S. users of Android 2.2+
devices in a few days.
4. As an added incentive to sign up for Google Music, Google has
made available some exclusive recordings, many of which are free,
from the Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Busta Rhymes, Pearl Jam,
Shakira, Dave Matthews Band, and Tiesto.
5. Google is offering independent musicians what it offers Android
developers: a market for their content. The Google Music artist hub
allows musicians to set up Android Market pages to sell their own
music.
6. Owners of iOS devices can partake of Google Music if they wish:
In September, Google introduced an HTML5 mobile Web app that can be
accessed by visiting music.google.com using a mobile browser.
Google also has a Music Manager desktop app for Mac OS X, Linux,
and Windows.
7. To listen to music stored in Google Music when offline, songs
need to be "pinned," which is to say designated for local storage
with a pin marker.
Google's Android Market music store will be competing directly with
Apple's iTunes Store, which began selling digital songs in 2003 and
has since expanded to include apps, books, podcasts, and video.
iTunes generated almost USD 1.5 billion in revenue for Apple during
is Q4 2011 quarter.
Apple's dominance in the digital download market has already led to
one prominent casualty: Over the summer, Wal-Mart closed its
eight-year-old Music Download Store, having failed to win market
share despite undercutting Apple on price.
Google also will also have to contend with Amazon's MP3 Store, not
to mention other sellers of digital music and anemic demand for
digital songs.
In a report earlier this year, research firm Forrester noted that
only 10 percent of European online consumers buy digital music and
only 18 percent of US online consumers do so, one percent less than
in 2009.
Google itself appears at least partially to blame for the hurdles
facing the company's digital music store: According to Forrester,
Google's YouTube has emerged as the most widely adopted music
service.
"No other music service has achieved the reach or usage of
YouTube," wrote Forrester analyst Mark Mulligan in January. "While
successive music startups have failed--and online video's momentum
has gone to midform destinations like Hulu--YouTube has
consolidated its role as the Web's No. 1 music destination."
Compounding the problem are the divergent ways in which different
age groups listen to and acquire music, with adults skewing toward
CDs and radio, young adults favoring iTunes and BitTorrent, and
teens preferring mobile music services and YouTube.
But given its ownership of Google Music, Android, Google+, and
YouTube, Google may just have cobbled together a music experience
that offers something for everyone.