Google may scrap own music plans to piggyback on Spotify
updated 01:35 pm EDT, Fri April 22, 2011
Google may use Spotify for mobile music service
Google's inability to close a Google Music deal could have it decide to ride on an existing service instead. A source said Friday that Google had decided to start negotiating for Spotify's mixture of free ad-based music, streaming, and downloads. The deal described by CNET would have to scrap the cloud media locker by definition.
Music labels were supposedly told that talks were underway, but not that a deal was ready. Spotify is well established in Europe but has yet to clinch all US licenses.
An agreement would help explain recent claims from label executives that Google was being indecisive on its plans. The term would also be an admission that the service, in development since at least shortly before the Google I/O conference last year, wasn't panning out as planned.
The partial backing down would also represent a rare concession to Apple in cloud services. Apple's experience in negotiating with music labels appears to have already secured two labels for its iTunes media locker with the rest possibly clinched as soon as this week. Apple's edge is rumored to be a willingness to pay labels for full cloud locker rights where Google, and initially Amazon, have insisted that it was just remote storage and needed to be free.
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Joined: Jan 2010
Leap before you look, Google. Nice.
There seems to be a lack of adult supervision at Google. They rush half-baked projects onto the market without doing the heavy lifting first. No deal with the labels? No music for their end-users.
Giving away software for free doesn't make it OK to bite the hands that feed you.