Print
iTunes killer. We're not saying Google is or is not an iTunes killer, but now that the sultan of search has removed the beta label from its Google Music platform and opened its disco doors to the public, we wanted to throw those two words out there so you can get used to seeing them. Google Music is officially open for business and you can bet there will be lots of comparisons to iTunes. So, were the rumors and speculation right on the money?
Google Music is a locker service. It's also a music store. One of the coolest things about Google Music from a social standpoint is that you can share songs with Google Plus users for free, another reason to hop aboard that social networking train.
The locker service is still free and you can upload as many as 20,000 songs and stream them to your desktop and devices. You can also spend money buying music from the Android Market or the desktop store. Pricing, as speculated, runs $0.99 to $1.29 per track, roughly the same as iTunes. Google inked deals with three of the four major music labels, including Universal Music Group, EMI, and Sony. The lone holdout is Warner, which means no Frank Sinatra or Green Day, among others. While Google continues to negotiate with Warner, users have access to more than 13 million tracks on day one.
There's also this thing called an "Artist hub" for budding music artists.
"Whether you’re on a label or the do-it-yourself variety, artists are at the heart of Google Music. With the Google Music artist hub, any artist who has all the necessary rights can distribute his or her own music on our platform, and use the artist hub interface to build an artist page, upload original tracks, set prices and sell content directly to fans—essentially becoming the manager of their own far-reaching music store," Google said in a blog post. "This goes for new artists as well as established independent artists, like Tiesto, who debuts a new single on Google Music today."
And so there you have it. Google Music is live, it has both free and paid portions, and you can check it out now right here.
Comments are closed on this article
gmvolk
November 17, 2011 at 9:48pm
Thought this would be worth checking out. So far nah. Why would I need to give Google credit card information to download free songs. Free means no money, so what's the deal? Not about to upload my 20K plus songs, I can already access them just about anywhere with Orb. Right now, I download lots through Amazon so probably won't use Google Music much, if at all.
teh 1337 haxxor
November 17, 2011 at 3:44pm
One Question: Can I download the music I purchase as FLAC?
Tankren
November 17, 2011 at 8:24am
FYI - Open for business except for everywhere else other then the US. Us canadians should be expecting this by now... Still hurts though.
Engelsstaub
November 17, 2011 at 10:20am
That's one of the reasons Zune killed itself (other than MS being idiots in its marketing:) it was basically limited to the US. Google should know better. I'm an iTunes-user but I welcome competition. End-users never benefit from monopolies.
iTunes is the biggest legal distributor of music right now. I doubt that will change but I would like to see Google and others succeed as well. I believe they could get enough marketshare to keep us all happy. It will also keep Apple from becoming complacent...which means I get more features and stuff.
There's no reason IMO that Canadians should be left out of anything the US isn't. Seriously. It's BS.
iheartpcs
November 17, 2011 at 8:10am
We're sorry. Google Music is currently only available in the United States
Ridnarhtim
November 17, 2011 at 2:47pm
There are other places? Sometimes, I find that hard to believe....
