Google Music – Can it compete with iTunes?
Search engine giants Google have now released their ‘Google Music’ service within the US which has sparked a lot of excitement from evangelists of the brand and has been eagerly awaited by many of the major record labels as a potential high revenue stream. Google has already signed major contracts with the likes of Vivendi Universal Music Group, EMI, and Sony Music Entertainment which shows a huge sign of intent toward making this new service a success. They have also signed deals with some independent labels such as Beggar’s Banquet and Merlin.
The big question on everyone’s lips, however, is can they compete with the likes of Apple and Amazon, and more importantly, are they going to revolutionise the way that we interact with music through our technological devices? The answer it seems is still quite uncertain. A lot of the major companies in the music industry had high hopes that Google Music was going to change everything and open up whole new revenue streams through a cloud-based platform, but it seems that due to some hiccups during the licensing talks near the start of this year, Google decided to really tone down their plans. Due to this, Google Music just seems like just another online music store; yes you can download, store, play and share your music but what’s new? Is this just another alternative to iTunes, and if so, where is the appeal to user for them to change platforms?
Maybe we are just being slightly pessimistic or expecting too much of Google but considering the hype that was surrounding this new service then I think we are all within our rights to be a bit disappointed. I don’t want to write them off just yet because Google always seems to have a trick up their sleeve and hopefully by the time us Brits get to sample the delights of Google’s new gift there will be some new features and it will have passed through the teething stages by then.
Then again, are we being too optimistic…
