Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Google Steps Gingerly Into Music With “One Box”
Google insists, over and over, that it has no intention of getting into the content business. So how is it finessing its way into the music business? Very carefully.
The search giant is working on a new service that will provide searchers with streaming music, which sounds a whole lot like a content play at first blush. But Google will only be offering limited bits of music, and it will be relying on other companies–Lala.com, MySpace’s iLike and Imeem, sources say–to actually provide the tunes.





A year ago, Apple’s iTunes owned about 70 percent of the digital music market, and newcomer Amazon had just five percent. Today, Apple still has 70 percent, but Amazon has…eight percent. In other news: People are buying music from Microsoft’s Zune store!
The once-buzzy start-up isn’t on life support yet. But it sure could use some help–just like every other Web music player. I can confirm that the company has sought, and received, new terms from some of the big music labels, most notably Universal Music Group. One big label that hasn’t given imeem any concessions yet: Warner Music Group, which owns an equity stake in the company.
