There were excitable reports overnight that Google is about to launch its own music service. That is seemingly not the case. However, what Google IS doing is preparing to unveil richer music features within its main search engine.Essentially, when users search for band names, they’ll bring up a “One Box” including a photo, biographical info and an option to stream preview clips and/or full streams from partners including Lala and iLike. There will also be prominent Buy MP3 buttons.All four major labels are thought to be supporting the initiative. TechCrunch has screenshots, while Hypebot has an invite to a launch event next Wednesday. But Google isn’t the only Web 2.0 giant making waves in music this week.As predicted, music is set to be one of the key planks in MySpace’s comeback strategy. The social network has announced several new music-related services, including its own music video portal: MySpace Music Videos.The site will host videos from all its existing licensing partners, and will offer recommendations to users based on what their friends are watching – complete with Buy buttons. There will also be artist-skinned video players that will offer all their videos together.Separately, MySpace has launched the MySpace Artist Dashboard, which gives artists and labels better metrics on their profiles and streams on MySpace and MySpace Music. It integrates recent acquisition iLike’s own artist dashboard. Finally, MySpace Music now offers Buy links to iTunes as well as Amazon.And finally… Facebook has its own new initiative to reveal: music gifting. The social network has been selling virtual items to Facebook users to give to their friends for some time, but now it’s added a Music and MP3s category, with partner Lala – a busy week for them.US users can buy streaming songs for 1 credit or MP3 downloads for 9 credits (as a guide, one credit costs $0.10 in real money). Recipients of the music gifts can play the web songs from their Facebook News Feed and from Lala.com, and download the MP3s. Meanwhile, THEIR friends can play the song once from their own news feeds, after which it reverts to a 30-second clip.
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In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…