Google's Own Music Store?

An interesting New York Post report talks about Google's next move, based on information from their sources.

Apparently, "Internet giant Google is considering an extensive alliance with Napster, which could include an outright acquisition, as it plots its move into the digital music world."

This ties in quite well with reports regarding Napster and the shaky situation it is finding itself in. There was talk about a major round of lay-offs at Napster and even talk about the sale of the company, but the people at Napster denied all of it. If Google is moving to align with Napster, rather than build its own version of the online music store, it might be a sound move on the basis that Napster is already established and it works? to some extent. Also Google might be wanting to avoid the disaster that was the Google Video 'Store', which has been widely criticized and has been called a 'mistake' even by their own representatives.

It also represents a paradigm shift, because Napster works with a subscription model, letting you 'rent' the songs rather than own them. Perhaps Google feels that this is the future of downloadable music, perhaps it is. This model would indeed have the effect of not making them a direct competitor to the iTunes Music Store because the iTMS does not rent music. Whatever the case may be, there is no official word from Google, and their spokespersons have stated, 'We have nothing to announce at this time.'