Mountain View, California — Google is preparing to bestow upon beleaguered record companies a potentially powerful boost by allowing music lovers to listen to songs or buy them directly from search results pages in a partnership to be unveiled next week with online music sites, according to reports Wednesday.
So far nothing is apparent about the service, which is rumored to be called “Google Music,” “Google Audio,” or “One Box,” although it is confirmed that it will be announced next week and as part of a service tentatively called “Google OneBox,” according to five executives who were close to the matter but declined to be identified because they are not authorized to disclose the information.
The launch of the new service is the search giant’s counterattack to news that Microsoft’s Bing search engine will be able to index tweets and updates from Twitter and Facebook.
Google has partnered with music sites such as iLike, a music search site acquired by MySpace in August for an estimated 20 million dollars, and LaLa, another popular online music site, and LaLa, another popular online music site, for developing the new feature provisionally called “OneBox,” technology blog TechCrunch said.
Song screened will appear in Lala or iLike online music players, and users will not have to steer away from the search results page to listen to the music and to buy it.
As a matter of fact, Internet users already have numerous ways to access music, Google’s involvement could make the initiative important.
“Radio has lost its mojo” for promoting songs, says Phil Leigh, president of market research firm Inside Digital Media. “When new releases come out, people do a Google search.”
But that has been a tormenting experience for some fans as well as for the record companies, which have been soliciting the search leader to change the way results are displayed when people want to track a favorite performer or song.
Under the new arrangement, Google’s new music pages will bundle images of musicians and bands, album artwork, links to news, lyrics, videos and song previews, along with a way to buy songs, according to reports. It is unclear if they will be available in the UK at the same time as the US.
Now, visitors who wish to listen to a song can click on a link that generates a pop-up screen connected to music services Lala or iLike. Lala can stream an entire song from its catalog of about 8 million tunes, while iLike primarily offers clips.
However, Google is not planning to become a music distributer itself, but will only extend better music search with a streaming options — the first of possibly several vertical search offerings.
For example, searching for an artist or song will apparently bring up a box with a streaming link randomly assigned to stream songs from either Lala or iLike, the latter of which was acquired by MySpace in August.
Lala, iLike, “and others” will announce the service next Wednesday at Capital Records Music in Hollywood, California, with musical guests OneRepublic plus members of Linkin Park and Dead by Sunrise.
The search giant collaborating with four major record labels — Warner Music, EMI, Sony Corp’s Sony Music Entertainment and Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, all of whom have licensed their catalogs for Google’s initiative, which is expected to launch next week. Many independent labels also are expected to take part.
According to Wall Street Journal, users would also be given the choice to purchase songs from Apple’s iTunes or Amazon.com. The Journal said revenue from sales would be split between the music services and the record labels.
This initiative establishes a new way for Google and the recording companies to promote alternatives to Apple’s iTunes, the leader in song downloads, as compact disc sales continue to plummet and sales of individual song downloads are on the rise. Recording companies are searching for new ways to tap audiences online and collect revenue from advertising, licensing and downloads.