“Google Music will allow a user to type in the name of a band, artist, album or song in the main Google search bar special, and results will appear at the top, accompanied by icons of music notes, said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google,” Elinor Mills reports for CNET News. “Items that can be purchased will have links to merchants for online ordering or downloading, she said. Initial merchant partners include Apple Computer’s iTunes service, RealNetworks Rhapsody, eMusic and Amazon.com.”
“‘We aren’t building out a music store,’ Mayer said. ‘We are getting people to the iTunes store’ and others,” Mills reports.
Full article here.
An example of Apple’s iTunes Music Store being linked to a Google search for “U2” is here: http://www.google.com/musicl?lid=HWZlDZ6iktF
Funniest bit? The “and others” addendum. The iTunes Music Store steamroller continues.
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While SOME see this as leveling Apple’s domination, note that iTunes music store is the first link!
More freedom of choice and better info about artist and their music.
This will only enhance what is already there. The Itunes music store!
Cool!
This is truly excellent. The more Google works with Apple and visa-versa the better in my opinion. They both stand out at the top of their respective fields…
Pity – it says “The music you have selected is not available in the UK iTunes store.”
Does this mean that if I start the aaaaMusic Store, my link will appear in before the iTunes link? If you look at the example page, it appears the store listings are in alphabetical order. If so, someone’s going to adopt the old Yellow Pages strategy to spoof Google.
me: Notice though that iTMS is listed first among “equals”.
Brother 1984’s comment about the alphabetical ordering is particularly cogent.
I like how Marissa says it. At least, it sounds like she says it:
“We are getting people to the iTunes store . . . err, and uh, umm . . . and others.
Yaah. Yaah, that’s the ticket. And others.”
*** INTERESTING INFORMATION ***
The STANDARD would be to list in alpha sequence, but in fact they don’t. Using the MDN U2 example link above, I clicked the “show all 10 stores” link (http://www.google.com/musiclp?lid=HWZlDZ6iktF) and what is interesting is that they are in no particular order. Refresh the page over and over and the order changes at random — with the exception that iTunes is alway son the top!!!!
Perhaps this is the remnant of that rumored Apple/Google deal???
“If you look at the example page, it appears the store listings are in alphabetical order.”
Yes! My new music store, “Aardvark Music”, will totally dominate the music industry! And I will release the AardPod and rule the world! Mwahahaha!
My guess is that iTunes is listed first because “i” comes before “R” (Real).
And “N” (Napster). And “W” (Walmart). And “M” (Musicmatch, MSN Music, MTV). Unless some one starts the “AAA Music Shoppe”, it looks like iTMS has the first slot sewn up.
iTunes is probably listed first because it sells more music than all of its competitors combined.
I’m a big fan of iTunes and buy music from there quite frequently, but I think it’s a little insulting to just say all other services suck because they aren’t apple. I am a subscriber to eMusic for 3 years now and although it doesn’t have the same big name artist selection of iTunes, it does have a ton of indie and alternative artists, the pricing model is a better deal than iTunes and the whole site is very professional and makes it easy to find artists. The files are mp3 and work fine on an iPod, and if you lose them for whatever reason, you can download them again months/years later for no extra charge.
Even though I am a huge mac snob myself, if I can find a better deal and it still works with my iPod, then that’s what I’m going to do. eMusic is a great site, I urge others to check it out.
How come there isn’t a price listed for iTunes?
Quevar–
I was just about to ask that very question. I wonder what’s up…
Everyone who is saying that the music stores are listed alphabetically should check again. iTunes Music Store is always listed first – ahead of Buy.com and eMusic.
The comments from “me” above support this. Refresh the list or research for a song or album and iTunes is always listed first with others behind them. This must be part of the rumored Apple/Google deal.