Google Music Store is here! | SocialExcerpts

Google Music Store is here! Nov 17

Google launched Google Music Store, partnered with top music groups in the world, yesterday in Los Angeles. Google Inc. would, expectantly, unveil downloads to its cloud music services along with social networking features.

Let’s find out what we can get on Google’s digital music store.

Sony Music Entertainment includes tracks by Sade, Foster the People, Adele and many more. With a handshake agreement between Google and Sony, you can reach all the numbers under the label. Merlin Network and EMI, which collectively owns over 18,000 independent labels and artists, has also signed a deal with the search engine giant. Among others, Universal Music Group was also present in the launch party.

According to Google Blog, Google Music Store will offer a gamut of music, which we will not find anywhere for free. Some of the rare gems include:

• Sharika’s live concert in Paris and her new single Je L’Aime à Mourir are offered free.
• The Rolling Stones’ live concert album, Brussels Affair, including Dancing With Mr. D are there in the store.
• Pearl Jam will release a live album inspired from 9/11/11 concert in Toronto exclusively for Google music store users.

There will be an Artist Hub, where any music artist, with all the legal rights, can distribute his/her music or sound tracks on the platform. The artists can build their pages, upload their songs, set a price, and directly sell the music to their fans. In a way, Google Music Store is opening up a new pavement for new artists, effectively.

The search engine giant invited all the other major music record companies for the grand event, except for one, Warner Music Group. According to the industry sources, talks between Google and the label is still on.

The same sources reveal that Google and Warner Music Group have some fundamental disagreement. While the record label is looking for a iTune competitor, Google seems to be more concerned to offer first class movie and music services to its Android users. On the one hand, the record label is of opinion that Google has all the technical potential, capital, and web visibility to give Apple a run for their money, but Google does not seem to be in a mood for competition at all.

So far, Google’s relationship with record labels has been tense and bitter. For example, Viacom accused Google for copyright issues of $1 billion for allowing the YouTube users to post pirated videos to the site. Google is trying its best to strengthen its relationship with various music companies, according to Google spokesperson. But a recent report says that Google is launching the music services without proper license for a major portion, which could be a good reason to widen the bitterness between Google and various music labels. Who knows, it might determine the fate of the online music store as well?

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