Google to pair Music Beta with MP3 store

By Jeff Hughes October 13, 2011

Google is said to be planning a launch of an MP3 download service; a counterpart to Apple’s upcoming streaming product and Amazon’s Cloud Drive. The search giant is currently stuck in negotiations with major record labels.

The New York Times was the first to report on the matter, pointing out that Google would most likely be combining the Music Beta product—first launched in May—with the upcoming MP3 store. The Music Beta allows users to back up songs remotely and stream on mobile devices; a competitor to Amazon’s Cloud Drive service, as well as Apple’s upcoming iCloud.

Google is hoping to launch the MP3 store service within weeks, perhaps before Apple makes iMatch available later on in the season, but its not clear whether the search company can finalize the deals in time. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

Google and Amazon initially went ahead with their locker services without partnerships from music labels. Though locker services were legally absolved of piracy issues a couple months ago in the MP3tunes case, the lack of cooperation from record labels who are wary of piracy issues with remote music storage is not helping Google’s product.

Apple has an edge over Amazon and Google, having secured licenses from the big 4 music companies: Sony Music, Warner Music, Universal Music and EMI. Google wants to offer an efficient and comprehensive service, but according to the WSJ, the runt of the litter, EMI, is the only one close to a deal for catalog licensing with Google. The other three major music companies are continuing with talk s over copyright issues.

Music Beta was launched earlier this year and is currently invitation only. Google’s cloud product is free, compared to the $25 iCloud and $20 Cloud Drive. Users have the ability to upload 20,000 songs, including iTunes music.

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Emerging Tech

SanDisk announces the Sansa Clip Zip MP3 player

ClipZip_Family

Today, SanDisk introduces the latest addition to the Sansa lineup of MP3 players, the Sansa Clip Zip MP3 player. In addition to sporting a microSDHC slot for expanded storage, the Sansa Clip Zip comes in two different storage sizes. The 4GB model stores up to 1,000 songs (based on an average of 3.5 min songs encoded at 128 kbps) and the 8GB model stores up to 2,000 songs. The microSDHC slot allows consumers to expand the memory of the MP3 player an additional 32GB. While some memory is being used for other device functions, the total number of songs between the internal and external memory totals 8,000.
The Sansa Clip Zip utilizes a 1.1-inch LCD color screen for menu navigation and showing off album art. In addition to being compatible with the AAC codec used in iTunes, the player is capable of playing music and audiobook files encoded in the MP3, FLAC, WMA, WAV, Ogg Vorbis and Audible formats. The Sansa Clip Zip music player has also been optimized for use with Napster, eMusic and Rhapsody services. Beyond music, the Sansa Clip Zip offers a stopwatch for timing during workouts, a FM radio to pick up local radio stations and a built-in microphone for voice recording.
SanDisk claims that the Sansa Clip Zip has up to 15 hours of battery life. It utilizes a micro-USB connector for charging while mobile and the device is about the size of a matchbox. For consumers interested in matching the MP3 player to outfits, the Sansa Clip Zip comes in red, purple, grey, white, orange, blue and black. The 4GB model of the Sansa Clip Zip retails for $49.99 and and 8GB model retails for $69.99. The Sansa Clip Zip is currently available in the United States and is scheduled to be released in Europe next month.

Music

Magnifier: Google’s plan to reignite interest in Music Beta

Remember the buzz leading up to the launch of Google Music? Yeah, we do too. Since then, the infatuation and excitement surrounding a Google cloud-based music streaming solution has been reduced to mere smolders. But it’s been three months since Music Beta was introduced and the site’s become stagnant.
To spur a little interest, Google has launched its new music blog, Magnifier. Magnifier is part music discovery, part music education, and part Google Music marketing. But the most important part of Magnifier is that the music it introduces can be added to Music Beta instantly and for free – something its somewhat-lacking library could benefit from. The site will feature promo tracks from artists it’s featuring as well as a song of the day that can be added to your Music Beta collection at no cost. This, obviously, means you have to create a Music Beta account – a smart move to drive new users to a site that needs to reignite user interest.
Luckily Magnifier doesn’t seem to be some throw-away effort to pump some life into Music Beta. It’s being headed by former Rhapsody VP and Android exec Tim Quirk and has a few features to keep visitors busy. There’s the general posts, as well as the Song of the Day section and something called Antenna, which appears to be a sort of collection of artists-to-keep-your-eye on. There’s also a “Tips + Tricks” section for using Music Beta.
And it’s got Google+ written all over it. There aren’t options to share via any other social networking sites – G+ only. We can only hope this means Google+ and Music Beta will eventually be linked in some manner.

Music

Walmart giving up on MP3 download digital store due to lack of interest

Walmart_exterior

Walmart has issued a memo to all music licensing partners and informed them that the digital music store at "mp3.walmart.com" will be shutting down on August 28, 2011. All music content will no longer be available for download and users are urged to download DRM-free tracks before becoming unavailable. After the store closes up, tracks containing DRM will still be supported and will continue to work as the DRM servers are being kept online. DRM-enabled tracks will be available in WMV format and contain the same device restrictions as when purchased.
The digital side of the retailer opened up in 2004 in an attempt to undercut the prices for music on Apple's iTunes. Single tracks sold for 88 cents on the Walmart music store while Apple charged 99 cents. Walmart was also one of the first music companies to offer legal DRM-free tracks encoded at 256kbps in 2007. However, adoption rates of the iPod and iPhone helped Apple quickly outpace both digital and physical music sales at Walmart by 2008. By 2010, Walmart's share of the digital music industry had fallen to less than one percent behind Amazon, Rhapsody and Napster while Apple reigned supreme at 66 percent of the market.
Walmart was quick to stress that the closure of the digital store doesn't effect physical sales of music within brick and mortar storefronts. They went on to note that Walmart Soundcheck will remain open for live streaming of music. The most frequent criticisms of Walmart's music store were usually directed at poor software interfaces and the increasing amount of censorship within the catalog. Walmart's long standing policy of only carrying edited versions of albums with parental advisories drove users to other alternatives like iTunes. iTunes, as well as other music services like Spotify, give the user a choice between the two versions of the album.