Google intends to jump into the music services market as well by launching its own MP3 music store which will likely compete with Apple’s iTunes and the Amazon.com MP3. Google is also reported to be talking with record labels for the music rights. This is now the latest attempt from Google to catch up with the dominance established by Apple with its iTunes store.
The Google’s Music beta already allows users to upload up to 20,000 MP3 tracks owned by them and stream it later through all their Internet connected devices. At the time of launch of Google’s Music Beta, the company had clarified that it was in talks with the record labels for about one year, but had not secured licensing deals for the same.
The talks are still on and Google is aiming for extensive licensing arrangements with the record labels. Google’s music services will allow MP3 files for download also, and not only for the streaming purposes. The record companies are not anyway happy with the Google’s Music Beta because they are not getting their share on that service whereas the new service will offer peace of mind to the users as they won’t have to deal with any music piracy issues.
The New York Times in its report said that Google “may be hoping to announce its store before Apple opens its cloud music program, iTunes Match, which was unveiled in June and is expected to be operational by the end of October.”
The reason why Google is launching this service now is probably due to the launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, a tablet which makes full use of its own content ecosystem. Just the way Apple’s iOS devices work with iTunes and iCloud at the centre, Google also needs to work more like a media company where users can get all the content they need. Google is also coming out with the new Android version Ice Cream Sandwich to unify its operating system for both tablet and smartphones, though users are looking for more — they want easier access to content, and the music store probably would do just that.