Entertainment: Google Music

After much talk and speculation as to when this might happen, a number of music industry sources are saying that Google has reached a point where its employees are testing a new Google Music service, which would allow users to buy and store music in the cloud, making the songs accessible from just about any web-connected device including your PC, tablet or smartphone via streaming.

For those who don't know what "The Cloud" is, it refers to "Cloud Computing", where information is stored and presented to the users in a simple way that is easy to understand without the users needing to know how the services are provided. This simplified view is called an abstraction. Similarly, cloud computing offers computer application developers and users an abstract view of services that simplifies and ignores much of the details and inner workings. A provider's offering of abstracted Internet services is often called "The Cloud".

 

 

Proof that Google Music exists was found a couple of weeks ago when a user on the XDA Developers forums did an update to the latest build of Android Honeycomb and a new music option appeared and started syncing with his collection. It turns out that it was indeed a working version, the insiders have said, although the final version will likely look a little different.

Such a service from Google has been widely speculated about for years, and at one point we thought it may launch last year, but the main problem with launching such a service is getting the major music labels to sign up to licensing and royalty deals. Negotiations with at least some of the top publishers and with the four largest record labels are still ongoing, with delays primarily due to the complexity of the subject matter: Google is after cloud music rights, and not just for songs acquired from Google Music.

Apple's iTunes has made no move to offer a cloud-based solution for streaming music yet, and that’s exactly what Google wants for its Music service. It’s new ground for the music publishers and therefore they are cautious of signing away their music to a large online database users can access forever. The fact that Google is thought to be testing Google Music internally does suggest progress has been made, though. If the service is working, then music publishers can see exactly how it functions and come up with a deal they are happy with, or changes they require. The issue then becomes can a deal be struck that both Google and the music industry is happy with?