The New York Times’ headline ‘Google Said to be Planning an MP3 Store’ raised our eyebrows, given that Google itself did the saying at its I/O conference back in 2010, and even showed a demonstration. However, the point of the article is to suggest that the store may be finally launching in the coming weeks, although that depends on the perennial “negotiations with the major record labels”. The store would likely hook into Google’s Music Beta cloud service, although the terms are thought to be still subject to intense haggling, after talks broke down in the run-up to Music Beta’s original launch. “We want to make sure the locker doesn’t become a bastion of piracy,” says one ‘senior label executive’ cited by the NYT story. As ever, the focus seems to be on labels, when publishers will have just as much of a role to play in ensuring Google does (or doesn’t) manage to launch its store.
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Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…