Everyone loves a good clash of digital titans (Microsoft vs. Apple, Amazon vs. Apple, the print and music industries vs. Apple). A new bout has been added to this card with today’s launch of Music Beta by Google (currently only available in the U.S.). With Apple’s iTunes currently holding the heavyweight title in this arena and Amazon already in the chase, what chance does Google have?
Here’s the chatter on Music Beta by Google.
Elizabeth Flock @ The Washington Post
“Google will launch its long-awaited music program Tuesday at Google I/O, the company’s developers’ conference in San Francisco… Like Amazon, Google doesn’t have the cooperation of record labels, despite a considerable amount of time and effort spent trying to negotiate for rights. This means that users of Google’s new “Music Beta” won’t be able share or purchase music. Music Beta will instead act simply as a personal online storage locker, from where users can stream and download files to Internet connected devices.”
Thomas Ricker @ Engadget
“Google will launch its music service with the ability to store up to 20,000 of your own uploaded songs for free which you can then stream over the web to your desktop or Android phone or tablet – any device that supports Flash (don’t worry iOS users, your time will come). Amazon’s service, by comparison, offers just 5GB of free storage for about 1,200 songs stored at a mediocre bitrate. Google will also best Amazon with a feature that automatically creates playlists.”
Antony Bruno @ Billboard
“This is virtually identical to Amazon’s Cloud Drive, with a few differences. Most notably, the service is available on a limited, invite-only basis limited to U.S. users. Those wanting to use the service will have to request an invite at Google.Music.com, with priority given to those with the Motorola Xoom tablet and to attendees of the I/O conference [where the service was announced]… The service is free while in beta, and the company would not comment on what future pricing options it may have planned. Clearly, this is not the music service Google wanted to offer. And Google director of content partnerships Zahavah Levine — who led the company’s negotiations with the major labels — made it clear who she feels is to blame. ‘We’ve been in negotiations with the industry for a different set of features, with mixed results,’ she told Billboard the night before the announcement was made. ‘[But] a couple of major labels were less focused on innovation and more on demanding unreasonable and unsustainable business terms.'”
