October 22nd, 2009 – TechCrunch has a first look at what Google is planning (in conjunction with iLike and LaLa) for a new music service. I’m not going to talk much about what their plans are since it would just be a re-hash of what’s on TechCrunch, but I would like to briefly touch on Google’s potential impact in this arena.
Google has already released a music service in China where the music industry, despite having a 1.3 billion person audience, brings in less than 10 percent of North American music industry revenues. Google’s service is ad-supported so artists can actually make money without their audience paying them. The revenue may not be as high compared to an actual purchase, but if people are going to pirate the music anyways, ads are a good way to ensure that artists get paid.
Knowing this, let’s think about how this might work in the North American market. I’m not sure if this is the way it works for most people, but those around me pirate music by downloading full albums using torrents that they’ve found on torrent websites. If the music is available for direct download, they’d rather download that than use a torrent. They find direct downloads using Google.
Google holds a huge share of the search market. If people knew that they could search for music through a specific Google service and find what they are looking for, they would do that since it’s easier. They already search for everything else through Google, why not music?
Since Google makes revenue through ads, and they’re serving up results, they know the search query metrics very well. If an artist is being searched a lot, that artist is attracting more eyes to ads. The more eye time, the more money from ads they’ll make. That makes it in the artist’s best interest to optimize their content for this search, and be a part of this service. It’s a whole new revenue stream for artists.
In my opinion, music should have value. If an artist wants to charge $15 for a CD or for the download of digital files, that’s their right. Their audience has the right to decide not to buy the music if they don’t think it is worth that value, but they do not have the right to take the music without the artist’s permission. If the artist wants to give away the music, that’s their prerogative as well. It is up to the artist period.
That being said, the reality of the music business is that people pirate music. That cannot be helped, so it is our job as artists to find other ways to make a living from our music. It may not be from selling the music, but from secondary revenue streams related to our music. Getting ad revenue from Google may be a boon for artists. It may even open the door to affiliate ad marketing which is big money.
Whatever Google decides to do, it will have a big impact on artist revenues. Keep your eyes on Google, they may change everything.
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