The world's most popular Internet search engine provider
Google Inc.
's (
GOOG
) music service, Google Play Music recently came out with a new
scan and match feature to better compete with its rivals
Apple Inc
. (
AAPL
) and
Amazon.com Inc.
(
AMZN
).
Google announced its digital music store, Google Music almost
a year ago, debuting with millions of songs from leading music
companies like EMI, Sony Music and Universal.
The new scan-and-match feature allows a user's music to be
matched in the cloud so that songs can be played on any
authorized device. The service enables users to upload their
music to the cloud from their respective files. The time taken
for the upload depends on the amount of music that the user
wishes to upload. Users can then log into Google Play to listen
to the music stream through web-connected music players. A user
can upload up to 20,000 songs to Music Play.
The service is similar to the ones offered by Apple (iTunes
Match) and Amazon.com (Cloud Player), which allow a user's music
to be matched in the cloud. Unlike Apple or Amazon, who charge
about $25 per year for their respective music services, Google's
service will be free.
According to the market research company, NPD Group, Apple
accounted for 64% of U.S. music sales online, followed by Amazon
at 16%, Google at 5%, and other services making up the rest.
Though Google is far behind its competitors, it is trying to
attract more and more users through its new ideas and features at
no extra cost.
We believe that one of the key strategies for Google Music
remains the expansion of its songs archive. This deal will allow
users to access a greater range of content, a key factor for
Google to better compete with rival music destinations like
Apple's iTunes Store, Amazon, as well as streaming services such
as Spotify, Deezer and Rdio.
Google has done well in the third quarter, with its gross
revenue touching a record $14.10 billion. Revenues from both
Google-owned and partner sites continued to grow in double digits
on a year-over-year basis. Historically, Google has always fared
better than
Yahoo Inc
(
YHOO
), which has been struggling to uphold itself and
Microsoft
(
MSFT
), which is yet to gain critical mass.
However, legal entanglements related to competitive matters or
patent infringements remain an overhang. Google retains a Zacks
#3 Rank (Hold).
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