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Sunday, June 19, 2011

[BREAKING] Google gets serious about selling music (and why I'll say: told you so)

Lets go back a few weeks...
Two days before the Google IO, I noticed some odd little code in the Google Market website.
I got all excited and stuff and blogged about it:
New news or no news? Why Google music and YouTube Rentals for Android devices are obviously ready to roll
But well, I was right.. With Google Music and YouTube rentals, but while I was waiting for the Beta Invite for Google Music, I totally forgot an important little fact that was missing:
Music sales.

Yeah, you heard right (if you are surprised now and didn't read the post I linked not even 3 seconds ago)
Google will sell music.

I didn't think of it until today, but I rechecked and the code is still there:





there is just one tab missing next to apps, movies and books...



So what is Google waiting for? Are you really asking that? Uh, no that was me.. uhm, but I can answer the question you didn't ask for you and stuff.
Google is still wrestling with the Music Labels that are all mad about Google Music and that Google doesn't want to prostitute itself for them.

The music industry is somewhat spoiled by success and just loves to exert their influence.

They want either:

  • a ton of money
  • or a software that uses cloud services to hunt down people who pirated music
Google offered a ton of money, but... the music industry might want both.

So, here we are, waiting patiently for the big G succeeding in negotiating with these nice people.
EDIT: Google won't start with their sales until they have at least one major label under contract, that's why they postponed the launch.

It might still take a while, but at least now you know Google's intentions.

I really hope Google won't kick my ass for uncovering that.. I love you guys, really I do :D And as a fanboy, I just can't help myself... It is an actual disease (totally, I swear!) :D So please be kind and don't kick me :-/

By the way... notice the "confidential" text in the code... it belongs to a hidden Google Buzz button.

Cheers

Discuss on Buzz

4 comments:

hrohrweck said...

I like the "Google doesn't negotiate with terrorists [...]" part

Enzi said...

"... their daughter for the negative STD"

Lol, thanks for the good laugh :D
Nice find, it's interesting if they manage to get everything settled. Watch some youtube video and buy the album afterwards? Hey, why not?

A lot of the typical "piracy" thinking has shifted. Valve/Steam is one of the best examples were it works pretty well. With convenient systems users tend to pirate less. It's still a problem with music but that has more to do with pricing and having a really fragmented market.

The retail market is dying and there seems no end to it.
In the case of disc based sales where the artist only sees a small percentage of the money, many realized that this is not the right way to treat an artist who actually made the product and why should I pay money for the multi million dollar music label when the musician just gets fucked? As much as it hearts, but I think iTunes is a step in the right direction but there the music is still overpriced and with their archaic DRM I don't buy music from them. When I own the music I want to listen to it on every device that I have!

Enzi said...

Oh my, I meant: "As much as it hurts..." ^^

NoName said...

@enzi: You're totally right on that :)

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