Google Music Beta launched today, invite only of course. Initial reviews? I’ve only found one, and it’s Venturebeat who describes it as miserable.
The timing is certainly odd. Google’s original vision was to license with the music labels, and potentially provide access to a giant database of music for a monthly fee, a move which would have dramatically altered the landscape of music consumption in America. Apparently Google misunderstood a basic fact of life: the music industry is completely stubborn, and still thinks this whole internet phase is going to pass. Many labels refused to budge from their “no thank you we will watch our business collapse in peace” position, so Google decided to Beta the product now.
Here’s three little notes on why this was dumb:
1. Google just kicked an essentially identical service off the Android market. But Google Music Beta is legal…
Grooveshark was a streaming service that did exactly what Google Music Beta lets you do. It actually did less! But, Google took Grooveshark down from the Android market, presumably for being shady regarding copyright law. Then Google released Google Music Beta, which does the same thing, but Google insists now that it’s legal! Well, then what was wrong with Grooveshark? Google’s product is MUCH more questionable from a copyright standpoint. On Google Music Beta, you can cache music you’ve uploaded and streamed, which is a much more contentious copyright issue because the device is physically making a new copy. So, totally anti-competitive behavior and extreme hypocrisy. I never intended my blog to hate on Google every other post, but damn, this makes Google look terrible in my opinion. 1994 Microsoft-level anti-trust.
2. Google just lost all their leverage with the labels.
Now, I know Google launched this thing today. It’s a BIT early to write it off entirely. But, on the other hand, Google has blown numerous product launches over the last couple years, and all of them were panned in their Beta stages (Remember Google Wave? How about the Chrome notebook?). Even if Google Music Beta is the BEST cloud storage option in the game, it’s competing with Amazon for the exact same space, a space that consumers haven’t been quick to jump into anyway. Dropbox has been capable of the same cloud storage since the service went live, and Rhapsody has actually been in the space for over a year and only has 750,000 subscribers. Rhapsody is “on the cusp of breaking a profit”, which means it probably never will with the entry of 2 tech giants into the space. So the only successful entrant in the space thus far hasn’t made a profit, and Google will split the remaining market with Amazon, who has a similar service. This will not pressure the labels to jump into the cloud game any quicker. [May 11 edit: Apparently I’m right that the music labels want to go with Apple, anyway.]
3. Apple can do whatever the hell they want now.
Google basically took the “well we can always go to google” negotiation point away from the music labels. Apple can do whatever the hell they want now – if they want to keep working on the labels to license, no problem, they are the only cloud service at the table now, and they are the company that the music industry has begrudgingly accepted thanks to iTunes sales. They can basically hold out forever now: with Google and Amazon competing with the same service, Apple knows they can wait to release something amazing. If it isn’t until next year, that’s fine, because if they can license it will be a far superior service. If Apple wants to hurry and squash that first-mover advantage, they can release their cloud service in a week or two (probably going to be identical to Google’s anyway, if they don’t make a licensing deal). Or, they can wait and see how Google’s product does, and simply make the additions critics want without going through the potentially brand damaging process of having a public beta panned by the media.
I’m gonna stop writing about Google because I do like some things they do (trying to buy up software patents to end trolling, providing the best email service on the internet for free, providing the competitor to iOS). But yeah, didn’t like this very much.
danielmarkmiller.net 