“Google Music’s May 10 launch was driven in part by competition (Amazon, Apple) and indecision, including the dollar figure labels were demanding as an upfront advance,” Antony Bruno reports for Billboard.
“Google’s decision to launch a music locker service was a big topic of discussion on the sidelines of the NARM conference in Los Angeles this week,” Bruno reports. “The reaction from the more veteran music industry attendees is simply anger. ‘People are pissed,’ said one source from a major record label in attendance.”
Bruno reports, “Google ultimately went live with what it did for two reasons. First, it had completed work on its new music player app for Android devices six weeks prior to the music locker launch. Google wanted to get that app into the marketplace. Another motivating factor was Amazon’s recent launch of the Cloud Drive. And finally Apple’s upcoming launch that many expect to happen by late spring or early summer.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Google Music Beta is a kludgey, Adobe Flash-based, glorified network-capable backup drive that doesn’t sell music and is no threat whatsoever to Apple. Google and Amazon, with their own kludgey glorified network-capable backup drive, can duke it out over Apple’s table scraps this time while Android settlers, as they’re so accustomed to doing, settle once again, this time for an inferior music experience, a situation with which they’re already intimately familiar.
Related articles:
VentureBeat: Google’s Music Beta is a miserable, frustrating experience – May 11, 2011
Music labels: Apple’s cloud music service to make Amazon’s and Google’s efforts look shabby – May 11, 2011
Without music labels, Google’s music locker will look like Apple’s ugly sibling – again – May 10, 2011
Google to launch ‘Music Beta by Google’ without licensing from music labels – May 10, 2011