Exciting! Now you can share full songs from Google Music with others on Google+, like no other service allows. That's how I heard the pitch watching the Google Music event today. The reality is much different. Nice, but still disappointing in ways. Google Music Vs. Android Market Google Music is Google's cloud-based music service. Until today, you could listen to a few songs it had in there already offered for free, or anything that you uploaded from your own computer, but you couldn't buy new music to put into your "locker" directly. That was part of today's big news. Now you can buy mus [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: General | Google: Music

To virtually no one's surprise, Google today announced the launch of a digital music store that integrates with its existing cloud-based music storage locker. And that locker service is officially out of beta with today's announcement. The Google Music Store exists in the Android Market alongside app, book and movie stores. It's available in the US only. On the surface, it looks and seems to function much like Apple's iTunes Music Store and Amazon's MP3 store: Songs are priced from 99 cents to $1.29, there's biographical info about artists and reviews from listeners. Purchased son [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Music | Top News

Last week speculation arose about a new cloud based Google Music Store that could compete against Amazon and Apple.  This week more news broke including the social integration that the Google Music Store may bring. The Wall Street Journal reported that Google Music will tie in closely with the Google+ social network.   Users will reportedly be able to recommend songs from their Google Music account directly to Google+.  These songs will be able to be shared with circles, as friends will be able to listen to a  recommendation once for free.  Song would need to be purchased for ad [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Google+ | Google: Music

In May Google launched Google Music, a cloud-based streaming music app that allows for music backups and streaming to phones and other devices. Rumors have been swirling that Google will use this product to create an online MP3 store to compete against Apple and Amazon. The WSJ reports that Google has been in licensing talks with all of the major record labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Group. While Google has been in talks, not all have sounded fruitful. If a Google Music store is launched, it may not have the ability to offer music from the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Music

As widely expected Google launched its Music beta today at the Google developer conference, I/O. Right now the service is US only and invitation only. Users can store 20,000 songs and the service is free (for the time being). By implication Google Music will become a paid-service at some point in the future. No Music Store, Google Still Hopeful There is no music store associated with the new Google Music beta. However Google made clear that it's still trying to strike agreements with record labels and that it's optimisitic that it will be able to do so in the future. Google made a point to s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Features: General | Google: Android | Google: I/O | Google: Mobile | Google: Music | Google: YouTube & Video

It was almost exactly a year ago that Google briefly demo'd a cloud-based music service for Android that also allowed users to stream their iTunes libraries to Android handsets (see video below). That service was supposed to launch before holiday 2010. However there have been numerous stories chronicling setbacks in Google's efforts to launch its music service, most notably its protracted and apparently unsuccessful negotiations with record labels. Now, without the labels, Google Music (or whatever it's actually called) is set to launch either tomorrow or Wednesday at Google I/O. Ahea [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Music | Top News

Google's Music Search, which launched with tremendous fanfare in October 2009, has been taken offline. But the company is suggesting that it's not completely dead. A Google spokesperson tells Search Engine Land: The music search feature introduced in 2009 is currently unavailable while we make some updates to the user experience. Google's Music Search put songs, albums and artists front and center above Google's regular search results. Google suggested it would help the music industry by making it easier for searchers to "find and discover" music, and to find sites to "preview and pur [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Music | Top News

It would appear that Amazon is becoming Google's best frenemy. The company launched its well designed Android app store last week and yesterday surprised a lot of people by introducing Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player. No, it apparently doesn't work on Apple devices. Beating Google Music to market it offers music storage and streaming via PC and Android devices. There's 5 GB of free storage (more if you buy music from Amazon) and inexpensive storage plans beyond that, starting at $20. As with iTunes users can upload and store their music collection. It also allows hosting of docume [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Android | Google: Mobile | Google: Music

Google's streaming-from-the-cloud-to-any-device music service was supposed to launch at the end of last year. Vic Gundotra demonstrated it at the 2010 Google developer conference. However music-rights and licensing issues have so far delayed it according to several reports. This, despite Google offering boatloads of cash to music labels. Now several outlets are reporting that the Google music service it may launch as early as "next month." The key word is "may." While the labels are hungry for an iTunes competitor, Business Insider speculates that Google's service might never launch accordi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Music

Last week Google acquired Angstro. The site has been described as a way to discover and organize information about individuals across various professional networks. Here's how Angstro describes itself: Ångströ represents the ability to hone in on highly focused, relevant news across professional networks. Where search engines such as Google and other news aggregator services have immense infrastructures that return a huge array of random results, Ångströ analyses a wide breadth of information from multiple data sources to deliver very few, yet very intelligent results. The pundit consens [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Google: General | Google: Gmail | Google: Groups | Google: iGoogle | Google: Mobile | Google: Music | Google: OpenSocial | Google: Orkut | Google: Other | Google: Product Search | Google: Social Search

With Apple-owned Lala closing in a month, what happens to Google Music Search, which has used Lala clips as part of its service? We'll see, says Google -- noting there are variety of alternatives out there? When you do a music-related search on Google, you often get special Music OneBox that appears at the top of its results, like this for 21st century breakdown: The music preview links next to the song's thumbnail all lead to Lala, where a short clip of the song can be heard. What happens when Lala goes away? "They're one of multiple services that we work with to get music clips [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Music

Google announced they have made enhancements to their movie search feature. The enhancements include: Detailed movie pagesGenre filtersNew map viewEnhanced movie portal page Here are some screen shots of the new movie results from Google: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Music

The expected Google Music Search is real, and our Google Music Search 2.0 Launches With Musical "OneBox" story provides the play-by-play of how it works. Be sure to read that! From me, the color commentary out of today's launch event at Capitol Records in Hollywood. I'll be live blogging the news. We're expecting some musical stars, including guests from OneRepublic, Dead By Sunrise, Linkin Park and Mos Def. I'll do my best to keep up, given my lack of popular musical culture makes me the butt of jokes to those who know me well. Have mercy, OK? And it's 4:04pm, with loud music playin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: General | Google: Music

Saying that it wants to bring music fans "closer to your favorite artists," Google has added a new Music Search OneBox to its search results. The new OneBox includes content from partner sites such as MySpace, Pandora, Lala and others, and lets searchers listen to song clips right from Google's search results page. Searchers should begin to see the new OneBox in the next 24 hours. Google has had a music OneBox before, but it disappeared some time ago, perhaps in preparation for the launch of this new Music Search 2.0, as we're calling it. There's also a deeper search function that only surf [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Music | Google: OneBox, Plus Box & Direct Answers | Top News

Google is reportedly about to launch a new music service in partnership with LaLa and iLike (MySpace). --- Update, October 28, 2009: This is now live. See our story, Google Music Search 2.0 Launches With Musical "OneBox" for more. --- According to TechCrunch, users will access the Google music service through search: Users will be able to stream songs directly from Google via partners iLike and LaLa. Additional information around the music query will be provided to users as well (presumably any relevant results from YouTube as well as information already available in Google’s exist [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Google: Music | Google: Partnerships | Top News

Music 2.0 has shared detailed screen captures and commentary on the launch of Google China Music Search. I personally cannot get to this site ("Sorry, Google is not your region provide you with the services they need" message appears"), but Music 2.0 does have screen captures and calls this Google service "more impressive" then many of the international counterparts. Google China Music Search ranks music on the home page by some form of popularity metric. You can clearly search by artist name and other criteria. You can even download the DRM-free music in mp3 format at a rate of 192kbps. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Music | Google: Outside US | Search Engines: Audio Search Engines | Search Engines: Baidu | Search Engines: China Search Engines

One of the key weaknesses Google has seemed to face in growing market share in China has been the fact that many people turn to Baidu to download music. Now the company may be fixing this, reports the Wall Street Journal: Two years after Google Inc. began a big push in China, Baidu.com Inc. continues to dominate the country's Internet search market, thanks in significant part to a controversial and legally risky offering: searches for free, unlicensed music downloads. Now, Google is preparing a counterstrike, according to people close to the situation. The U.S. search giant is in the late [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Music | Google: Outside US | Google: Partnerships | Search Engines: Baidu | Search Engines: China Search Engines