SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

August 22, 2006

Google's Audio Player

Philipp notes as does Ionut Alex that with the release of voicemail on Google Talk, you can now use that feature to play audio files over Google's network. Philipp describes a method of easily doing this. One thing to note, as a Mac user. This does not rendered on Apple's Safari web browser, even thought Google Video works fine.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:03 AM | Permalink

August 16, 2006

Google Music Trends: See What Google Talkers Are Listening To

Garett Rogers spotted the release of Google Music Trends. The Google Labs has it listed and described as "See what music is popular among Google Talk users." It is basically Google Trends for music, though based on the activity of Google Talkers rather than Google searchers. You can currently filter by music genre, and there is a country filter, but I only see the United States as an option. I am a classic rock fan, so it is cool to see the trends for that genre. As Garett notes, the participate link at the top right, currently does not go anywhere.

Postscript: More on the new music status feature that powers Google Music Trends is covered here: Google Talk Gains Voicemail, Music Status, Photo & File Sharing Features.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 5:09 PM | Permalink

August 7, 2006

Google Music, Not Any Time Soon

News.com reports that Google has no plans to sell music anytime soon. Chris Sacca, head of business development for Google, said Thursday at a NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) conference; We are not going to be selling music." There were many rumors about a Google Music coming soon, check out our rumor coverage here. So does this mean Google Music is dead?

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:33 AM | Permalink

May 22, 2006

Google Adds /Music To Robots.txt File: Google Music Coming Soon?

Garett Rogers discovers that Google just changed their robots.txt file to include Disallow: /music. That suggests that Google is ready to launch a music portal, of some sort soon. Gary Price has been speculating about Google Music for over a year now.

And here are three links to the most recent evidence of a Google Music launch. + More Evidence of Google Music Download Service + Google To Host Roundtable For Top Music Industry Executives + Google Hiring Google Audio Employees

Postscript: Hitwise has some stats showing the percentage of people who leave Google for music sites (about 3 percent).

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:56 AM | Permalink

April 12, 2006

Google Hiring Google Audio Employees

Garett Rogers reports that Google has posted several jobs openings specifically for "Google Audio." Garett lists the job openings as Customer Support Technician, Senior Sales Technical Support, Provisioning Manager, Media Account Manager, Business Analyst, Account Executive.

This is most likely related to the roundtable Google hosted for Top Music Industry Executives recently and Google buying dMarc Broadcasting. Even thought recent reports showed that Google's venture into auctioning off print ads were unsuccessful it appears Google may go full force at this. We even reported yesterday that Time Warner has interest in auctioning off TV ads. Time will tell...

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:55 AM | Permalink

March 28, 2006

Google To Host Roundtable For Top Music Industry Executives

PaidContent.org reports that Google is hosting a get-together of the top 20 executives from the music industry this Thursday. The roundtable event is invite only and was mentioned at a Digital Hollywood pre-show yesterday. This is just some more evidence of a Google music download service to come soon.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:17 AM | Permalink

February 13, 2006

More Evidence of Google Music Download Service

To keep Gary's documentation of his past entry named Predictions and More Speculation on a Google Music Service going, I have found an FT.com article which shows Google (as well as Amazon) is "in talks with music industry executives about new digital music services that could break Apple’s grip on the fast-growing market for legal downloads."

A chief executive of one large music company reportedly has told Financial Times that "We have had active communications in the last 60 days" with Amazon and Google. Google supposedly is not as far advanced with communications and plans as Amazon is but Google is serious about it.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:54 AM | Permalink

January 26, 2006

Predictions and More Speculation on a Google Music Service

Elinor Mills has a brief post reporting that Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck is predicting that Google will offer a digital music download service in the three to six months. Bear Sterns is using the name the name "Google Tunes" as their "code name" for the service. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the story.

I've speculated on a couple of occasions that a music download service would be service that Google would eventually offer.

Our May 5, 2005 post titled: Let's Speculate: GoogleMusic.com pointed out that Google has owned this domain since February 2003, after acquiring it from someone in Curacao. Of course a domain name doesn't guarantee or really mean anything only that it's something to think about.

Also, on Jun. 20, 2005, we blogged a Google Blogscoped item that had a few comments from Dave Winer about a Google iTunes clone.

That was then.

Today, Google's payment system is now operating with the Google Video Store and rumors of the "Google Wallet" (whatever it may be) make the possibility even greater IMHO. Even the recently launch of Google Music Search might send a clue or two. Searching might be built right into the Google Desktop. In fact, a popular add-in currently allows you to operate several iTunes functions directly from a sidebar plugin.

Of course, just like with video content, Google would face stiff competition from the likes of iTunes, Yahoo Music, Napster, Rhapsody, and many others. Since money is not a major issue at Google, they could (for a period of time) lower the cost of downloads to help gain market share. Rhapsody offered songs at 49 cents for period of time in 2004.

"Google Tunes" would also give Google another revenue more places to put contextually relevant and keyword ads for related products like MP3 players, concerts, t-shirts, etc. They could also cross-promote Google Tunes with Google Video. Buy a song from a certain artist and get the video OR by the video and get 20% of that artists album. \\

And don't forget the synergy between Google Book Search and an audio/music store as well as an upload program that would allow musicians to sell their music online.

One thing Google's entry into the music marketplace could mean is lower prices for consumers. That's cool.

Another revenue stream might have Google allowing offering a monthly subscriptions of unlimited downloadable content and/or one for those who only want to stream music to their computers. Many services already offer these services. In fact, I'm listening to a playlist of music I created via Rhapsody as I write.

Finally, many music services work with universities offering free or subsidized access for students. This is another market that I'm sure Google would want to play in given their cred on college campuses.

Google's greatest challenge? Quality content and then more qualuty content.

Fast Facts

  • I checked the USPTO and at this point I didn't see any trademark/service marks from Google relating to music.
  • As I said earlier, Google owns the domain GoogleMusic.com but not the .org or .net domains. GoogleMusic.info is registered to a NYC company
  • GoogleTunes.com, .org, .net and others are all registered but not to Google. Of course, acquisition is always a possibility.
  • GoogleTunes.com is a parked page on by godaddy.com. and owned by a person in California. The registration expires in May.
  • GTunes.com and other top level "GTunes" domains are all registered. GTunes.com itself is a personal site where a person shares his music.

    • Posted by Gary Price at 11:36 PM | Permalink

    December 15, 2005

    Google Sings a New Tune With Google Music Search

    Until today, Google hasn't been a particularly useful service for finding information on bands, links to online music stores or other music related information. That's changed with the introduction of new music-oriented results that are automatically triggered when a Google web search has music-related content. Gary and I offer a rundown of the new feature in today's SearchDay article, Google Adds Music Search Feature , and also describe the music features that have been available at the other major search engines for some time.

    Posted by Chris Sherman at 4:31 AM | Permalink

    June 20, 2005

    An iTunes Clone From Google?

    Via GoogleBlogoscoped, word that Dave Winer at Scripting News has a very brief item about a rumored iTunes clone coming from Google.

    I wonder if this "rumored" service has anything to do with the GoogleMusic.com domain that Google registered several years ago? I blogged about it last month. Btw, if you're wondering both GMusic and GTunes are not currently registered to Google.

    Posted by Gary Price at 6:51 PM | Permalink

    May 5, 2005

    Let's Speculate: GoogleMusic.com

    In Stefanie's article about a music search engine coming soon from Yahoo, it's worth pointing out that their is no mention of Google and what they might be doing in the online music world.

    What are they doing? I haven't heard anything. However, since everyone enjoys speculating about what Google MIGHT or might not be doing (OS and browser are two examples), I'll point out that Google registered the GoogleMusic.com domain about two years ago after acquiring it from a somone in Curacao. (-:

    Posted by Gary Price at 6:28 PM | Permalink

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