Google Is In Talks With Big Music Labels To Launch A Streaming Service
Google has been talking with the major music labels about a possible streaming music service. The Financial Times report said that “it is expected that the streaming service will offer a subscription model as well as free unlimited access to songs, supported by advertising, mirroring models adopted by Spotify and Deezer.”
While Google already has a music download service and also YouTube, building out its own music streaming service would be new. It seems that should this launch, it would give the company access to millions of songs (Spotify already has over 16 million songs). It already has plans to launch a paid subscription service on YouTube that would enable subscribers to pay to watch their favorite shows and artists.
And like Apple, Google can leverage its tablets and smartphones as well as its Android operating system to make a go of it. Actually, file this one under the “nothing new under the sun” category. Indeed, the very same Financial Times reported as far back as 2006 that Google was chatting up music industry executives about “new digital music services that could break Apple’s grip on the fast-growing market for legal downloads.” Since then, Google’s ambitions have grown along with its rivalry with Apple.