Google is Getting Ready to Announce a Spotify-Killing Music Streaming Service

UPDATE, 3:30pm EDT: The new service has been announced, and it’s called Google Play Music All Access. Read all about it here.

Original Post:

Google is expected to announce a streaming music service that will compete with Spotify at tomorrow’s today’s! Google I/O conference, according to The Verge. With the three major labels now on board — Warner Music Group, Sony and Universal — they’ve now got the catalog they need to make a serious push into the online streaming space.

Google’s existing music service, Google Play, allows users to purchase digital files from Google’s music store and keep them in the cloud, accessible and streamable from anywhere. Users can also upload their existing libraries to the cloud. It’s not clear how Google’s new Spotify-like streaming service will impact with Google Play, although the article notes that separate music subscription services for YouTube and Google Play are planned. Google Play hasn’t really gained much traction since launching two years ago — it’s kind of just been there, waiting — but tech pundits have long expected Google to make a move into the a-la-carte streaming game. That they beat Apple to the punch is something of a coup. That Google plans to leverage YouTube for its music streaming service too, in addition to a Google Play tie-in, isn’t surprising, either; with over 800 million unique visitors a month, YouTube’s huge existing userbase offers a great jumping off point for Google.

Of course much of this is moot for metalheads: the three major label groups don’t represent very many metal bands, although they do handle distribution for several metal labels. The scope of metal available on this new service remains to be seen, although it looks like it’ll be pretty sparse initially.

It isn’t yet known how much Google will charge for the music streaming service, although The New York Times reports there will be no free tier.

Thanks: Robin F.