More on Google music search

After I wrote about Google's new music search feature last week, several readers pointed out that Google already offered searchers an easy way to stream songs: YouTube. Clips from YouTube have been featured prominently among the search results on Google and Yahoo for some time. If Lala, MySpace Music and Google's other partners in the new search feature are going to see much benefit, they'll have to offer a more compelling experience at the top of the search results than YouTube does nearby.

With that in mind, Google is rolling out the first upgrade to music search today: semi-exclusive content. I say "semi" because the content is actually being made available by Lala and MySpace and can be found by going to those sites directly. Anyway, the booty includes new material and free MP3s available for a limited time only. Among the artists contributing MP3s are Phoenix, Tim McGraw and Mos Def; exclusive tracks will be available from Snoop Dogg, Kings of Leon, Lady Gaga and Linkin Park. It's not clear whether this will be a regular feature or just a gimmick to get people to try out the new search feature. But if artists and labels really want to draw people into the experiences provided by services such as Lala and MySpace Music, they'll need to keep the freebies and/or extra features coming. Otherwise, what's to keep Google users from clicking on the links from YouTube in lieu of the ones at the top of the page?

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

Comments

[Mark Milian]

Users will click on whatever is most convenient. If the music links are displayed most prominently, they will get clicked on.

The popularity of YouTube for music is smart to point out. This is how the DJ system works at a lot of the house parties I go to: pick the next song by searching for it on YouTube.

[MusicChirp]

I have been following the various articles on this topic which all have been correct in their content for the most part. But, I have yet to see anyone talk about the fact that Google has missed the boat when it comes to all of the indie artists available on MySpace. As this article states "content is actually being made available by Lala and MySpace and can be found by going to those sites directly". Now the reality is the search does not bring up the indie artists as one would expect. I have tested this on numerous occasions and the end result is no dice and no love for the indie artists. There are plenty of sites such as Bandcamp, MusicXray, MixCloud, ReverbNation and others out there that have a boatload of indie artists that Google could hook up to. At the very least let us search the indie artists on MySpace as a start.

[nintendo ds r4 kort]

Thanx for the valuable information. Does google music allows to stream the music only or lets it to be downloaded too? Please provide information over it. Provide links to related topics if possible.

[Scheinschatten]

You are totally right. Without any freebies like they are provided on myspace or similar sites users will have the experience like they have in any other music download store i.e. iTunes

they have to invest some of there revenue into providing free music to their customers to keep it as attractive as possible and to make it an alternative to Rapdshare Downloads.