14 DAY TRIAL // In its never-ending endeavor to gain more popularity and to expand its services to as many fields as possible, Google has also decided to become a worthy competitor for Apple when it comes to its music marketplace. Furthermore, it seems that the Mountain View company has already approached a music-industry group publishing organization that would help them achieve their goals.
More precisely, it is reported that Google's Android expert, VP Andy Rubin, is leading the negotiations for obtaining digital publishing rights for a great deal of songs that would permit the Internet giant to launch a Google Music store in the near future. It appears that the projected date would be November or December 2010, judging by the current state and pace of the discussions, especially since the contacted party is quite a renowned one, namely Harry Fox Agency.
On the other hand, Google has kept quite secretive about its plans to take on Apple and to make an entrance in the digital music download industry. The current leader in this business is by far iTunes, accounting for about 28 percent of the market share, followed by Amazon and Wal-Mart, each of them having 12 percent.
In addition, it looks like the California company has successfully completed the first stage of the process, discussions with record labels, since Rubin has approached Harry Fox Agency, thus advancing to the next step. This New York-based firm has probably been chosen due to its reputation as it currently manages license fees to more than 27,000 music publishers.
Even though the two involved companies have declined to comment on the current state of affairs, they are definitely in talks, and are most likely discussing the pricing, the available rights and the best way to establish the two business models.
Despite the fact that it would be interesting to see two of the largest Internet companies competing over the same marketplace, it would also benefit users in the sense that both Apple and Google would produce better offers so as to attract more customers, thus also gaining more profit.