Google Tunes in Search to Music

By Ed Oswald | Published December 15, 2005, 10:16 AM

Google on Thursday said it was launching a new music service that would make it easier for users to find information on artists, album titles and song lyrics. Google Music would also provide links to download songs if they are available from the major digital music services.

The search engine cautioned speculators from reading too much into the new feature, as it said it had no plans for a digital music service of its own, but rather sending traffic to other sites.

Four sites have initially partnered with Google to provide the purchase options: iTunes, Real Rhapsody, eMusic and Amazon.com.

"Right now the music search feature mostly works for popular U.S. artists and a more limited number of artists from other countries, but we plan to expand it to classical music, worldwide artists, and lesser-known performers," Google's Search Quality Product Manager David Alpert explained. "Our list of music stores will also grow over time."

But it's unclear if the site may run into legal trouble soon after it launches. On Monday, a report from the BBC indicated that the music publishing industry planned to take sites that provide music lyrics to court over copyright infringement issues.

Google also plans to include Web pages of its own with more information on specific artists, as well as reviews of albums from various sites on the Internet.

Both MSN and Yahoo offer a similar feature from their sites, however both serve as an extension of sorts to their respective digital music services.

Comments

"...that the music publishing industry planned to take sites that provide music lyrics to court over copyright infringement issues..."

Hahahahahah... HAAHAHAhahaha...

While you're at it, let's sue anyone who tries to use Free Speech. It might hurt your bottom line if someone speaks!

..!., RIAA

buggy

Score: 0

|

is google tring to take over the worl or what. Good luck to them

Score: 0

|

Now four companies race for world domination.

General Motors/General Electric
Sony (wait till they make cars)
M$ (inherent information)
GOOGLE (woo and yay)

Score: 0

|

No one company will ever have world domination. Eventually they will become corrupt and pave the way for upstarts.

Score: 0

|

I smell lawsuit... :(

Score: 0

|

This is good, I am happy to see Google grows in strength and hopefully they can take down everything else that's bad.

Google is GOD!

Score: 0

|

The almighty YHWH brings us music, not just search and mail options!

Score: 0

|

"that would make it easier for users to find information on artists, album titles and song lyrics."

Yeah...til the MPA hears about it. I really don't think Sergey Brinn would do well in Jail....

Score: 0

|

There's nothing illegal about this. Many sites already do this. Google is smart to bundle the lyrics and artist info with links to legit site to download the tracks.

Way to go Google! Keep up the good work!

Score: 0

|

Nothing illegal?

Where have you been hiding?

http://www.betanews.com/...ic_Tab_Sites/1134421643

This was, i believe, posted on the 12th.

The MPA is trying to get Jailtime for people allowing access to music lyrics...and now Google's going to make it easier?

While I think the MPA is asinine, and that we would do well being able to search for music/lyrics on Google, I find it hard to understand why Gooogle is choosing *now* to do something like this when it seems aimed at directly pissing off the industry.

Score: 0

|

If Google is aiming... directly... at the industry... then good for us, not good for themselves. Now we shall submit a sacrifical torrent to the almighty Yahweh of the internets.

Score: 0

|

The RIAA can not win it. It's like having a friend listen to a song then transcribe it on paper for you. Most lyrics and tabs are not the actual lyrics.

Plus if Google does it right all they have to do is link everything to the Bands site which is already made public. Information can not be stopped as easily as buying an album.

Even in music stores if you buy a book that has the sheet music and or tabs to music most of the time they are people's interpretations of the music not actually the sheet music itself from the musician.

Most pop songs are remakes and or 2 cords. Thats what the RIAA has property rights to. Not the good musican's themselves. Anyone can see a cover band but its not the same as seeing the real band.

Score: 0

|

They could easily win it...sadly.

Under strict interpretation of the law (And someone was kind enough to post a portion of it in the diiscussion on the article in question), the law is on RIAA's side, not Google's.

Yes, if the band has the lyrics posted, fine...but how many do?

I agree with you that music is defined by the person listening to it, as most art is defined by the observer. It would be great if artists stopped at a decent profit and then made the music/songs/art/etc public domain. That's the way it should be. Under no circumstances should Julian be raking in dough for John's work in the Beatles. It's ridiculous. Not to make light of his work or life, but he's gone. There is simply no *way* anyone can argue we're "hurting the artist" by downloading Lenon's songs, or posting the lyrics.

I sang "Let it Be" in High-School, in concert. I didn't pay a dime for the priviledge, nor did the musicians to read or play the music. Come get me, RIAA\MPA.

Score: 0

|

Well done, that's a 4-octave song.

Score: 0

|

Behave....

Score: 0

|

Ok for a starter i'd love to see the **AA take on google, i thought nothing could push their public image lower but....

As for the feature itself, i'm not sure whether the other search engines do this or not, but with google's policy of being pretty open i'd love to see them create another online database of music similar to freedb.

and google while you're catering to my every need, why don't you hurry up and buy opera...(sorry had to get that in)

Score: 0

|

I was also thinking about fRiaa...and i do too want google to hurry up: with their free voip, wifi, & hosting for everyone-- in exchange they can bombard me with as many ads & popups as they wish, & hopefully of the x kind too.
Know what i'd love is if accidentally all the nsa/fbi/cia archives somehow got crawled & cached: say we find out Marilyn seduced Oswald & convinced him to ice JFK...

Score: 0

|

mmm don't know what google you use but the one i and everyone else i know uses doesn't bombard me with popups or indeed any ads. And on the other point about the x ads, well if you're searching for monkey love your going get ads for monkey love...

...as for the crawling of the nsa/fbi/cia etc archives and records, i'm 99% in favour of that cause at least then we would know when they c*** up and mark a bunch of innocent people as terrorists. Of course since i'm from Northen Ireland i'd also wnat google to index our gov stuff.

Score: 0

|

Nokia: Android? Are you crazy?

Rumors about new Android devices abound, but Nokia squashes this one.

What's Now: Drenched with 'Purple Ra1n,' iPhone users caught eating 'redsn0w'

Plus: Symantec and McAfee go to war, and what's LucasArts building in its top-secret, moon-shaped orbital facility?

Can Linux do BitLocker better than Windows 7?

Betanews kicks off a new series with a look at how the Linux operating system's FDE stacks up against BitLocker, the Windows feature that today commands a $120 premium.

Firefox 3.5: The need for speed

This has been the big payoff week for Mozilla's developers, who worked overtime to squeeze out the last drop of performance from their new JavaScript engine.

'GeoHot' gets a shower, cleans up nice, reveals new iPhone 3G S jailbreak

Either puberty has been very kind to the author of the new 'Purple Ra1n' jailbreak tool, or George Hotz may also have some adequate Photoshop skills.

Symantec goes live with Norton 2010 betas

Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus 2010 are now available for testing.

IE8 WSUS update push to begin August 25

After months of availability to users willing to seek it out, Internet Explorer 8 will be rolled into Windows Server...

In New York, online booze loses a Circuit Court decision

Court worried about gangster influence if liquor purchased directly.

Geeks vs. journalists: A tale of two worldviews

Recovery with Angela Gunn Why geeks think most mainstream journalism is flaky, and why the mainstream thinks geeks are trying to kill them. (They're both right.)

Fire in downtown Seattle data center knocks out businesses, online services

Small fire has global impact with payment centers, city services down.

What's Next: Obama gives 'Einstein' the go-ahead, while China gives 'Green Dam' a thumbs-down

Plus: If you put up a Web site and name it after you and you're a federal judge, you might not want a bunch of weird nudity hanging around on it.

Hybrid satellite cell phones aren't far off

The first satellite in Terrestar's hybrid cellular/satellite phone network has been launched.

AbiWord for Windows 2.7.6 Beta

July 6 - 12:46 PM ET

Notepad++ 5.4.4

July 6 - 12:25 PM ET

KeePass Password Safe (v2.x) 2.0.8

July 6 - 12:04 PM ET

ReactOS 0.3.10

July 6 - 11:43 AM ET

Tux Paint for Windows 0.9.21

July 6 - 11:22 AM ET

Norton Internet Security 2010 Beta

July 6 - 11:01 AM ET

Norton AntiVirus 2010 Beta

July 6 - 10:56 AM ET