Google Music?

What exactly is Google's new music search service? Google's waiting until later this week to tell us what to expect, but in the meantime, The NY Times has an interesting article about it.

What's known so far: People will be able to discover music and then immediately discover where to buy it. The consumer tendency is instantly satisfied, and the wheels of commerce chug merrily away. According to The NY Times, the music isn't hosted on Google's site. "But it has struck deals with several streaming music services to let people easily sample music directly from the search engine." Sites like Lala and iLike will allow searchers to either check out a sample clip or listen to an entire song in a pop-up box.

This strikes me as a good thing, so long as Google maintains its commitment to an open internet. And it seems as if that is indeed the case (from The NY Times' Bits blog: “No money is changing hands in these deals, a person with knowledge of the discussions said.”) Still, the question remains as to whether this will bring us that much closer to an inexpensive streaming music model, as opposed to one based around fixed-price downloads. And it seems like the answer to that question may be a qualified yes. Facebook's announcement of a deal that would allow streaming access for 10 cents a song also moves the ball ever so slightly in that direction.