14 DAY TRIAL // Google is now said to be in talks with potential partners, including Spotify for a music service. Apparently, the company is exploring the idea of having someone else provide the actual music for its music service, since its talks with the music labels aren't going so great.
At this point, it becoming apparent that either Google doesn't really know what it wants, which doesn't bode well for it, or the music labels are becoming even more greedy, which doesn't bode well for them.
There is no agreement with Spotify, but Google is talking to the company about integrating its product or music, according to sources from the music labels, who have been notified by Google, Cnet reports.
Partnering with Spotify means that Google can bypass the labels and get its music elsewhere, without having licenses with all four major labels.
Google may be desperate enough about the slow progress of its own negotiations with the music labels, which have been going on for almost a year now, with no clear results, that it's looking at other ways of getting its music service off the ground.
Spotify is one of the most well regarded startups in the on-demand music streaming space, so it would be a good choice for Google, except for one problem, Spotify doesn't have deals with the Music labels in the US either.
A partnership between two companies with no licenses to create a music service, doesn't make much sense. What's more, if indeed Google is having troubles with the labels, partnering with Spotify will likely hinder the startups efforts to get licenses as well.
Of course, all of this is based on rumors, substantiated ones, but rumors nonetheless. So saying that the labels are trying to squeeze every last penny rings true, but it's still only speculation.
Another theory that seems more interesting, and one that is getting more backing, is that Google doesn't really know what it wants to build and it keeps changing its mind.
In fact, negotiations with the labels were going well, albeit slow, until a few weeks ago, when Google decided it wasn't happy with the terms and proposed a different service than it had initially envisioned.
If that is the case, it doesn't look good for Google, it's actually starting to look like a big company with teams fighting for supremacy and bureaucracy slowing down any progress. Google probably doesn't want to become the next Microsoft, or worse yet, the next Yahoo.
But the change of mind may be linked to a couple of other things. For one, Amazon beat both Google and Apple and launched a music locker service, by simply skipping on the licensing part.
At the same time, Larry Page took over as CEO bringing with him some rather radical ideas and a shakeup of the exec structure. It wouldn't be too surprising to find that he has different plans for the music service as well or that he has less patience for negotiating with labels than former CEO Eric Schmidt, who is a much better diplomat.