Google Music to feature a la carte digital download store and subscription-based cloud-based locker

16 years ago

“Google is circulating a proposal among major record labels for a long-anticipated music service that would include an a la carte digital download store and a subscription-based cloud-based locker, according to industry sources,” Ed Christman reports for Billboard. “The search giant has proposed charging consumers about $25 a year to store songs in the locker, from which they could access their music on an Internet-connected device by either streaming or downloading. “Google’s download store would operate like a conventional digital retailer, giving the consumers the ability to purchase individual tracks and digital albums.”

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“But Google locker subscribers would have the additional option of having their purchases transferred directly to their cloud-based account,” Christman reports. “And the company is seeking the right to provide each customer with the ability to listen to a full-track stream of every song once — as Lala.com did before it was acquired in December by Apple — after which the customer would be limited to a 30-second sample of that song.”

Christman reports, “Google is seeking an initial three-year licensing agreement from the labels for each territory it launches its music service, although sources say they don’t know where — or when — the service will be launched first. The final form of a Google music service is bound to change from this initial proposal, which the company has detailed in a term sheet and in meetings with label executives. Some sources say that Google’s proposals represent ‘a good start,” but others say they will meet plenty of resistance, particularly on issues of compensation.'”