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NEWS: Who'll be the casualties of Google Music?

Dan Sung — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:32:59 +0000

The winners and losers of the big G's latest venture

Not content with crashing down hard on the satnav industry yesterday, today Google put the willies up the music industry too with the launch of a Google music search feature. Just before you go diving off to try it, it's only available in the US at the moment, but so far it's not that extensive anyway. Currently, you can enter a song, a band, a lyric or anything that pertains to music and the engine will come up with a section of music results at the top as it might do with images or videos. The links include streamed previews, music discovery services and, indirectly, mp3 sales too. So, in its current form and even looking to the future, just whose toes are getting trodden and which sites and services will manage to come out okay?
?

imeem

As one of the music discovery services that Google promotes in the music links, imeem should receive a boost when the service goes global. It's already a popular site but being thrust to the top of the rankings will certainly do it the power of good. There's always new users waiting to be signed up. Even this development from Google is a long way off the kind of niche that imeem occupies, so the company should be pretty pleased about it all.
Verdict - Winner

iTunes

Plenty of music purchases start with an internet search to find out what an artist, album or song is called and if there's a link to buy the track straight away, this being the case it could take some business away fro Apple. At the moment, the links to buy are only there on certain tracks and only once the user has already clicked through to one of Google's partner sites. The other issue is that the Google offering could develop into a streaming service and prove a threat to iTunes on that front. Whatever it means, it's not good news for Apple but you'd think that Jobs Inc has something clever up their sleeves what with the wind of change in the music industry anyway. Apple ditched DRM when it realised it had to and doubtless the company will look to streaming or another change in model soon anyway.
Verdict - Short term loser

Pandora

As one of Google's partners for this venture it's generally quids in for Pandora. A link straight to the top of the rankings without having to battle the SEO gods saves a lot of time, stress and effort and should win the service even more users than it already has. Opening out beyond the US would probably do them more favours though.
Verdict - Winner

MySpace

The vintage social network already does surprisingly well out of Google's ventures with the odd music video popping up far higher in search results than the site's waning popularity would suggest. Hard to tell whether the service is on an endless slope to destruction or if it'll reach an eventual plateau of loyal users, but the music feature from Google will certainly provide a brief stay of execution. In the long run though, it could just keep actual traffic away from the MySpace site with just its content being streamed to Google's pages. No ad impressions for them there.
Verdict - Short term winner

iLike

On the other hand, MySpace's recent acquisition of the ex-Facebook app iLike could prove to help a whole lot more. Firstly, the site has a far more modern offering than its buyer, and more importantly, it's one of the click throughs for Google where you can buy the track you've just searched for. Nice business unless, of course, Google decides to sell the tracks itself.?
Verdict - Winner

Spotify

No real problems at present. Yes, there's a degree of streaming you can do with the Google music feature but it doesn't compare to the entire Spotify platform and its tidal wave of good will support. If Google really wanted to, there's no doubt the engineers could build themselves an equally impressive model with even further reach. Daniel Ek won't be losing any sleep over this one but it might sit at the back of the Spotify supremos mind
Verdict - Long term niggle

Record shops

The damage was done here a long time ago. As Pocket-lint's resident expert on digital music put only too succinctly, "went into Fopp the other day. Made a mental note to check out a few things on Spotify. Bought nothing". Most high street retailers will be too busy looking across at the empty Zavi stores to have noticed what Google has just announced.
Verdict - Already lost

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has done a fantastic job of romping its way up the searching rankings for absolutely everything, including music. Having Google plonk its music feature at the top of the list along with links to the companies partners with all the information you could possibly want on a band or a song is something of a party pooper. Naturally, this isn't Wikipedia's sole business but what happens when Google has a feature of its own for just about everything?
Verdict - Loser

Amazon mp3

Like Wikipedia, Amazon has enjoyed top billing on the Google rankings and having its mp3 downloads service trumped by something of Google's very own is both frustrating and simply insurmountable. As it stands, it's an irritant, but if Google takes the time to put a Buy Now button next to their results that go straight to Google check, then there's a problem. Fortunately, mp3 sales aren't the core of Amazon's business, the company will still do fine with them all the same through deferred sales within their own network and as much consumer trust as any e-tailer can have.
Verdict - Loser

YouTube

Bit of a strange one seeing as it belongs to Google anyway but the music results will not only cannibalise some of YouTube's traffic but also divert it elsewhere too. Listening to tracks on the world's favourite video service is big business for the Tube and if you can do that straight from search, then they could lose out quite a lot. Again, it's not the only thing on YouTube but what with the public tiring somewhat of sneezing pandas, it's probably a bigger issue than you'd think.
Verdict - Loser

Last.fm

Like Pandora, it's the excellent nature of Last.fm's music recommendation system that sets it above all the rest and, at present, that's not something that Google has on the roadmap. Naturally, if the search giant wanted to, it could put the resources into making something similar. What it does have to its advantage is the enormous database on the subject but it doesn't seem like a logical step for the company. What is a slight concern for Last.fm is that Pandora has been chosen as a partner, but, seeing as that service only works in the US, it's not such a problem at the moment.
Verdict - No bother

NEWS: MySpace hits next phase of music offering

Amy-Mae Elliott — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:38:35 +0100

New video experience, "Artist Dashboard" and iTunes purchases

MySpace has announced what it says is "the next phase" of its music offering with a wave of new products and tools now available to artists and fans.

As well as allowing users to buy music on iTunes in addition to Amazon MP3, the global rollout of a new "MySpace Music Video" experience has begun, while the "MySpace Artist Dashboard" - a free data and analytics tool for artists - has hit beta.

MySpace Music Videos launches with the boast of being one of the most comprehensive online collections of music videos available anywhere.

The MySpace Artist Dashboard offers detailed analytics about artist's content within the MySpace community offering trending data and info on song plays, profile views, friend count, and profile visitors.

Tags: Software Online Websites MySpace Social networking Audio Video on demand iTunes Amazon MP3

MySpace hits next phase of music offering originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:38:35 +0100

NEWS: Which is the best online music service?

Dan Sung — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:50:20 +0100

Streaming and downloads, ad-funded or subscription based - which is yours?

With Sky's announcement of the company's upcoming service, Sky Songs, we finally have proof that every man and his dog is getting in on the music scene. As a consumer, though, the picture just gets that little bit more complicated.

If you want all the music in the world for free, then that's still possible - just not necessarily legal. So, if you've a conscience and you're looking to listen to whatever you want and even keep it, then here's a run down of a few of the options open to you.

Sky Songs

Year launched: 2009
Catalogue: 4 million
Streaming: ?6.49/month for ad-free, unlimited service
Downloads: Same ?6.49/?7.49 buys 10/15 tracks/month
DRM: No
Music Quality: Unknown
File available: MP3

Announced just today, the Sky service seems to have simplicity at its heart for a subscription model. There are just two options both of which provide an advert free unlimited stream of whatever music you choose plus the bonus of either 10 or 15 tracks to download and keep as MP3s each month. No mention of the level of quality but expect it to be around 256kbps with no choice on the matter.

Verdict - With all four majors on board and a low monthly payment, it's a very good option. If the catalogue can back it up, the "free" downloads act as a very nice bonus.

Spotify

Year launched: 2008
Catalogue: 8 million
Streaming: Free, ad-funded streaming or ?9.99/month for non-ad premium service
Downloads: courtesy of 7digital
DRM: n/a
Music Quality: 160kbps (free service) 320 kbps (premium)
File available: n/a

The current people's champion, Spotify is both social and free which massive pluses to the public. Yes, the ads can be annoying, yes the catalogue does have a few gaping holes and yes, the audio quality of the basic stream is relatively low, but then you can always sign up for the ?10 per month and get it on your smartphone too.

Verdict - Still the best offering for the majority of people. Perhaps not for those looking to build a library of tracks.

eMusic

Year launched: 1998
Catalogue: 6 million
Streaming: No
Downloads: 24/35/50 tracks for ?9.99/?13.99/?17.99 per month
DRM: No
Music Quality: 192kbps on average
File available: MP3

At the other end of the spectrum eMusic provides a series of subscription packages and no music for free whatsoever. The structure is fairly rigid and unlike all good mobile phone plans of days gone by, the unused credits do not roll over to the next month. That said, it's one of the oldest, most successful services out there, has built up an excellent catalogue of independent labels and more obscure, hard to find tracks.

Verdict - Great option for collectors but the audio quality can vary quite a lot.

We7

Year launched: 2007
Catalogue: 3.5 million
Streaming: free, ad-funded streaming
Downloads: pay-per-track & free ad funded versions
DRM: No
Music Quality: 256 & 320kbps paid; 192kbps free
File available: MP3

The most interesting thing about We7 as opposed to the others is that they do offer tracks to download and keep for free. The downside to this is that each contains a small piece of advertising, known as ablipvert, which plays every time with the track. You can pay to remove it and also for a higher bit-rate version too. A free streaming service is also available, so overall users get a lot of choice here.

Verdict - Good universal platform. Not such a large catalogue and slightly on the ad-heavy side.

7digital

Year launched: 2004
Catalogue: 8 million
Streaming: No
Downloads: pay-per-track
DRM: No
Music Quality: 192, 256, 320kbps
File available: MP3/AAC/WMA/FLAC

7digital is a simple one on the outside - no streaming, no subscriptions, all downloads and all paid for. However, there's an excellent degree of flexibility once you start shopping. As with all the pay-per-track services, the songs are reasonably priced but what you get with 7digital is the option of how you'd like them downloaded. It's the only service which allows users to select both the audio quality and the file-type they'd like as well with the lossless FLAC, a noticeable intrigue.

Verdict - Good flexibility, good choice but could do with a few more tracks and some kind of free option too.

Amazon MP3

Year launched: 2008
Catalogue: 9 million
Streaming: No
Downloads: pay-per-track from 29p
DRM: No
Music Quality: 256kbps
File available: MP3

With downloads starting at just 29p, a catalogue of over 9 million songs and each of them at an excellent level of audio quality, it's hard to ignore Amazon's recent step into the music world - especially as it's somewhere many of us do our online shopping in the first place.

Verdict - Very good value pick and chose option.

iTunes Store

Year launched: 2003
Catalogue: 10 million
Streaming: No
Downloads: pay-per-track: $0.69, $0.99, or $1.29
DRM: No
Music Quality: 256kbps
File available: AAC

If AAC files are your thing, then the iTunes Store is the place to be. Over the air access via iPhones and iPod touches play a large part in its success as well as iTunes being the default music player for anyone with any kind of Apple PMP. Certainly not the cheapest but it's a tidy piece of software with a great catalogue and so much more palatable ever since they ditched the DRM.

Verdict - Expensive but very convenient.

Napster

Year launched: 2003
Catalogue: 8 million
Streaming: Unlimited, ad-free for ?5/month to PC or ?14.95 to portables too
Downloads: pay-per-track
DRM: No
Music Quality: 128kbps streamed, 256kbps downloads
File available: MP3/WMA

So many years and so many changes, Napster will always be associated with the hay day of the Web and the way this place has changed over all these years. The new version of the service is slightly over-complicated compared to all the others, but once people get over the bitter taste that still surrounds the original site's shutdown, they might discover that the streaming service is wonderfully cheap - just not free.

Verdict - Great value streaming from a broad catalogue. Portable version much pricier.