Google seems to be taking a page out of Apple’s playbook. Yesterday there were reports that google will be selling their own android powered mobile phones. Today there is news that Google will be offering its own music service in partnership with iLike and Lala.
Google will partner with iLike and LaLa for their new music service, we’ve learned. And the announcement date is Wednesday, October 28, 2009.
iLike was recently acquired by MySpace, so the new service may involve them as well.
From information we’ve gathered from sources, the new service will be integrated into Google search. Users will be able to stream songs directly from Google via partners iLike and LaLa. Additional information around the music query will be provided to users as well (presumably any relevant results from YouTube as well as information already available in Google’s existing music search – example
). One source said that Google will organize music searches in a way very similar to the way they do public company stock searches today.
Users will also be offered the opportunity to purchase songs for download, we’ve confirmed.
Both iLike and LaLa provided limited streaming services today. LaLa lets users stream a song once, then a user either has to pay or only get a 30 second clip. iLike has some full streaming, some 30 second clips. MySpace Music has full streaming rights from all four major labels.
I think it is a bit too late to offer a me too sevice like this.