What do MySpace, Pandora, Rhapsody, and Imeem all have in common? They’re all not what they would like to be. MySpace is not Facebook, and the rest of them are not iTunes. And so I can see why all these not-others have teamed up with Google, which some say is not Apple, to offer a music platform that more or less replicates everything about the world’s leading music download service except for the iPod, which is not an ordinary MP-3 player.
I have not been an active user of the new Google music discovery service, but I think I get the picture well enough. I will summarize: if you are interested in a song, type the song’s title or some key lyrics into the Google search box, and Google (powered by all of those not-iTunes platforms) will make it possible for you to listen to some or all of the song before buying it. Now, where have we seen this consumer offering before? [Click here.]
Whether this new Google service gets any real traction with consumers remains to be seen, although in my opinion it won’t… which is to say, Google’s search market share will not meaningfully change as a result of this added application, Pandora’s traffic and Rhapsody’s subscriber growth will probably not be meaningfully different, and iTunes will retain its market leadership position. But what all this wild competitiveness and unlikely alliances underscore, is the threat that Google must feel coming its way from two distinct directions: Apple and Facebook.
The opening paragraph’s facetiousness aside, it is interesting that Google’s tactical approach of late has been to team up with, or somehow otherwise replicate, all of the media sector’s middle of the pack: Google seeks to save newspapers by offering online digital editions and providing micropayment services. Google teams up with Internet radio and other independent digital music services, as noted above. Google tries to be a book publisher. Google offers its Android wireless platform initially to T-Mobile, that’s right, that service provider almost nobody uses, before going out more broadly to Verizon, that wireless carrier which has no iPhone.
It is as though Google is doing everything in its power to throw lifelines, to give a boost, to prop up all of the world’s not-leading platforms. I have noted in a previous entry that the advertising battle is likely to rage between the “pull” and “push” approaches of Google and Facebook respectively, and there are several industry observers who are already relying on Facebook to win. I have also commented previously on this summer’s rift between Google and Apple, and the dichotomy of utilitarian commodity vs.premium design, of free to use vs. subscription basis, of advertising vs. consumer retail, all represented by this rift.
As these battles continue to rage and as these contrasts become more pronounced, it does seem as though Apple and Facebook are becoming more focused and more comfortable with their place in the ecosystem, while Google is out there trying to be all sorts of middling new things. In the last analysis, Google may still just be a search engine, and its product is still just words.
