We’ll Be Live at the Google Music Store Event in LA at 5pm Eastern – What to Expect & What We Want to See
Today’s the big day for Google’s event in Los Angeles and we expect them to announce none other than the long-awaited Google Music service the way Google envisioned it back at I/O in 2010. A year and a half later and their iTunes and Amazon MP3 competitor is just about ready for eager eyes to see.
Forward to 33:00 for Google’s vision
Our own Chris Chavez will be riding over to LA for the event and we’ll be bringing you great coverage of the announcement including any hands-on time we may be able to get. Circle back around with us at 5pm to make sure you’re tuned in to the latest that comes out of the event. You can also watch their presentation live at YouTube.com/android at that time.
What to expect?
So just what do we think we’ll see at this event? Luckily for us, a lot of the guess work has been taken out of it. Google gave us a glimpse of what they wanted to do back in 2010 at Vic Gundotra’s Day 2 Keynote at Google I/O.
An iTunes Alernative
Forward ahead to exactly 33:00 in the video above. It would be accurate to describe it as Google’s version of iTunes for Android, though we absolutely hate making the comparison. We will anyway since it is top dog in the world of music downloading.
Users will be able to download music from many of Google’s recording partners and at affordable prices, we’d imagine. It would be a completely new venture for Google but one that I think could work well. It’s not like Google TV where content is driven by ads. It’s a lot easier to get a music service going with great content than it is a video service and we think Google will be able to achieve a lot over time.
Much like how downloads work in the Android market now, users will be able to purchase music on their PCs using the Android market and the music will proceed to download straight to their device. We also expect you to be able to purchase and discover new music through the Android market on phones and tablets.
Free Content and Great Publicity
Earlier screenshots also leaked plans for Google to provide a free song of the day, much like Amazon does with Android applications. The quality of these free songs remain to be seen, but when it’s free you can’t really complain. It’s also a great way for artists and labels for visibility. If someone downloads the free song of the day and end up liking it, they’ll be more enticed to go out and search for more of that artists’ music.
Beyond that, it’s hard to imagine what Google will do which is why we’re going to talk about things we want to see. We have a few good ideas that we hope Google has already thought up to make the service even better.
Things we want to see
As much as we trust Google has put a ton of effort into Google Music, we hope it’s more than even they probably imagined. Here are just a few things we’d like to see announced at tonight’s event, or at the very least we’d want to see these updates sometime down the line.
Google Music Integration
Google already has a cloud streaming service that allows users to upload their music acquired from elsewhere and listen to it over 3G, 4G or WiFi. What we’d want to see is the ability to purchase music and have it automatically added to your cloud library in Google Music. Some say there could be a bit of a problem there logistically and legally, but who knows? If users are going to download then upload songs to the cloud anyway, why not?
A subscription-based streaming radio service
It wouldn’t be enough for me to be able to stream my music. I’d love to be able to listen to music I don’t have on my phone but that I wouldn’t necessarily buy. I’d pay a small fee each month for the privilege, but wouldn’t it be great if Google went the true Google route and offered it free? Perhaps an ad-supported model would work. Sure, there’s Pandora and other services but there’s nothing like getting stuff straight from Google sometimes.
The ability to re-download music you buy for free
I know this sounds like a no-brainer but you’d be surprised how many music downloading services force you to re-buy music if you need to. A lot can happen that causes one to lose their music collection and I think it’s really lame when certain services (coughamazonitunescough) force you to buy songs you’ve already bought. I’d like to think that if there’s any company that could change this trend, it’s Google. It’s as good a time as any for them to proudly demonstrate their “don’t be evil” mantra, though I understand this may also be a licensing issue with record companies.
More than just music
As great as music is alone I’d want a lot more than that. Call me greedy, but being given the ability to download comedy shows in audio format and being able to listen to podcasts all round out the iTunes experience quite nicely. Again, I hate to make that comparison but iTunes is the king to beat at the moment and they have it figured out in a lot of areas. Audio-only comedy shows could work just the same as music does. Podcasts would likely require additional work for episodic and automatic downloading of new episodes as well as giving users a way to actually publish their shows to the service, but I think the added effort would go a long way.
What About You?
So what do you all hope to see out of today’s music-centric festivities? We always love to hear your opinions so give us a shout in the comments section below and remember to whip back around these parts at 5pm eastern time for our event coverage.