Google brings together My Space, lala, imeem, Rhapsody, Gracenote for robust music search. More partners t.b.a.
(NEWS & VIDEO) Last night Google announced partnerships that will simplify and improve how people find music. As only the tech giant could do, MySpace, lala, imeem, Rhapsody, Pandora, Gracenote and all four major label groups have come together to provide Google content for a new music search engine.
Users who type on an artist's name, album title or a snippet of a lyric will see results that include a single song play button from either lala or MySpace's iLike. A buy option and links to more content are also included, as are links to artist content on imeem, Rhapsody and Pandora. Gracenote is powering the lyric search function.(See a demo video after the jump.)
The core of Google's listen and buy option is powered by MySpace and lala. And the later said in an interview after the announcement that artists will have some control over which songs are played and what content is shown when lala is chosen by the searcher.
Each of the other partners are trying to find their own niche, as well. If, users click on Rhapsody from the search results, for example, they can listen to tracks from an artist’s entire catalog for free up to the site 25 track monthly limit. Later this year, Rhapsody says it will also enable Google users to stream 30-second samples directly from within the search results.
The expansion of Rhapsody's role later this year also points other partners being added to what Google's RJ Pittman says in an "open platform" with the goal of including "all the world's music..indies and all the way down the long tail". Pittman admitted that including more and specialized services and music could be logistically difficult, but insisted that was Google's goal.
A video demo:
