Google Music ohne Lizenzen, Labels forderten „unvernünftige und untragbare Bedingungen“

Laut einem Bericht des Wall Street Journals wird Google seinen Streaming- und Speicherdienst auf der heute und morgen stattfindenden Konferenz Google I/O vorstellen. Der Dienst kommt ohne abgeschlossene Lizenzen, genau so wie Amazons Cloud Player.

Without The Labels, Google’s Music Locker Service Will Look Like Apple’s Ugly Sibling. Again.:

As with Amazon Cloud Drive, Google’s music service will work by uploading your music library to servers, then streaming that music to whatever PC or Android device you’d like, giving you instant access to your library whenever you have an Internet connection. Uploads will be handled by a small downloadable client available for both PC and Mac. There will be a Flash-based web player (which will work with ChromeOS), and the music service is baked into the Music application on Android versions 2.2 and higher, which can also store songs locally. It’s invite only for now — Google I/O attendees will get an invite, as will users with the Verizon version of the Xoom. Google isn’t talking pricing, but the initial test will store up to 20,000 songs for free (Rosenberg says the limit is based on number of songs, not gigabytes).

Interessant ist die Konzentration auf Songs – also Dateien – statt Gigabytes. Google Music könnte sich also für viele User gut für das Speichern und Bereithalten von DJ-Mixes anbieten.

Über die Major-Labels und ihre Forderungen findet man bei Google klare Worte:

Google has originally planned a more robust version of the concept, which it was going to introduce with cooperation from the labels. But as I reported last month, talks between Google and the labels, which started a year ago, have hit an impasse, and Google has apparently decided that it would rather launch a reduced version of a music service than none at all.

“Unfortunately, a couple of the major labels were less focused on the innovative vision that we put forward, and more interested in in an unreasonable and unsustainable set of business terms,” says Jamie Rosenberg, who oversees digital content and strategy for Google’s Android platform.