Is Google Launching a Subscription Music Service to Battle Spotify?

Rumor has it Google will debut a subscription music service this week at its annual developer conference, Google I/O. The rumor mill intensified Tuesday after The Verge reported that its music industry sources said Google secured licensing deals with Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group for YouTube and Google Play.

Google already has Google Music, a cloud music service, that lets users upload as much as 20,000 purchased songs (for example, their iTunes purchases) in the cloud and listen to them across their Android devices or on the web.

However, a Google subscription service with major record labels on board would put it in direct competition with existing music services, particularly streaming hotshot Spotify, which boasts 24 million monthly active users, 6 million paying subscribers and more than 20 million licensed songs in 28 countries.

Jim Cady, CEO of competing music service Slacker — which has 13 million songs and a newly redesigned look — told Mashable on Tuesday night what he anticipates Google will launch, hinting it could have limitations.

"We expect that it's going to be platform-specific and focused on the Google ecosystem," Cady said. "We're huge supporters of Netflix's belief in the power of ubiquity and we think it's incredibly important for consumers to have access to their music across a variety of platforms and devices — whether it's in the car, on their Sonos, Roku or iPhone."

For now, with 20 million licensed songs globally, Spotify still has the largest song library when compared to Pandora, Slacker and iHeartRadio. Meanwhile, Pandora still has the most users with roughly 70 million monthly active users and 200 million registered.

"We've seen several new players enter the space recently and we believe the growth and competition only validates the industry that we're in," Cady of Slacker added. "While there's a lot of attention on on-demand listening, we're seeing our users spending the majority of their listening time with our curated radio experience, which is a major differentiating factor for Slacker."

Mashable has reached out to half a dozen contacts at Google, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment for any details about Google's rumored music developments and will update this post accordingly once they respond.

One Sony Music Entertainment employee was instructed to reply, "No comment." 

Source : mashable