I’ve just read on Slashdot that Google, according to its head of business development, Chris Sacca, isn’t going to release, or work for that matters, on any digital music sale service/website anytime soon.
And I must say, I agree with them. It is a huge market indeed, but, I think, not yet mature enough.
ITunes is a great service, an appreciable and clever approach to this money-fare. ITunes does not only work, it also binds the customer to Apple.
Once you’ve downloaded a song from ITunes you have no means of getting out the ITunes/IPod vicious circle.
I’m also eager to check out Microsoft’s new service, which is due to be launched soon. Hopefully it will not be just an ITunes clone but a significant improvement to Apple’s approach.
With this I don’t want to say that ITunes is not a great service. However it has been tough for Apple to strike a deal with the music majors and keep selling every song at the same price, and I believe it’s not going to get any easier. At least anytime soon.
This is not Google’s style, I don’t think they’re likely to find a compromise with those weighty music giants, rather then find I should probably say seek a middle ground.
My opinion is that they’ll wait for us, the audience, to make up our minds and decide what do we really want, pay per download (ITunes model), subscription fee (Napster), single songs or entire CDs.
For example for me the packaging is really important. If I buy a CD or a DVD I like to have also some sort of original/cool-looking package to expose in my living room.
Google will have enough time to join this business when the demands will be well defined and the majors will be ready to kneel to our decisions. The vox populi will tell Google when it’ll be time to barge into the market and innovate.
What do you think?
