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Google unveil new music search
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 29 October 2009
Google yesterday confirmed more details about their much touted music search service, at least part of which shall henceforth be known as ‘OneBox’, apparently. As expected, the new service will provide more organised search results for artist or songs searches on a special ‘music’ tab, and offer the facility to preview music directly via the search engine in a Grooveshark/Seeqpod stylee. The new service will also be full of up-sell links, linking people through to relevant streaming services or download platforms.
Google Music will see the search firm enter into a plethora of partnerships with other digital music services. The streaming preview whatnot will be powered by MySpace (via its recent acquisition iLike) and Lala. Which stream a user will be linked to when they search, assuming both have content from the selected artist, will be random. MySpace, though, will also feed video content and tour dates into the player, which will possibly make their preview service more compelling than that of Lala. Which will be a new development, MySpace actually providing a more compelling service than, well, anyone really.
Other partners include Pandora, Imeem and Rhapsody, while Gracenote will power a lyrics search service. The licensing of any content delivered directly through the Google interface will presumably be handled by the relevant music service partner, who will presumably hope to boost their own traffic through their participation.
The more observant among you will notice most of those partners have a definite American bias, because this, people, is initially a service for the US. The music tab should appear on the Google US search engine any time now. But the web firm confirmed yesterday they were in talks to strike similar partnerships elsewhere in the world, and that they hoped to subsequently roll out the Google music flim flam around the globe.
Confirming the new service yesterday, a statement from the Googs said this: “[The new music service] doesn’t just make search better. It also helps people discover new sources of licensed music online while helping artists to discover new generations of fans and reconnect with long time listeners”.
Meanwhile the Product Manger for the new service, who seems to go by the name of RJ, added: “This is pushing search traffic and business opportunities downstream to online partners and artists and labels, so we’re happy to … provide a great music experience and also direct lots of music-seeking traffic … to partners that can take it from there and convert it to great music discovery”.
Some people are very excited about the new Google music search service, while some seem a little underwhelmed by the web giant’s first major music play. I’ve decided to not have an opinion, but look, Universal Music’s Wendy Nussbaum seems happy: “I think this is a game-changing thing Google has done. The key thing for us is you are leading people to legitimate sources of music. Consumers want something easy, and Google gives them that”.
And as for EMI’s Syd Schwartz, well he thinks “it’s amazing”, adding: “Any situation where we can make the process of discovery and helping artist and audience find one another in better ways is something that’s going to help the business”. So that’s all loverly.
