Google to Launch iTunes Killer Before Christmas

Will it matter to the consumer if the price for a single MP3 is still 99 cents?

Good now come out with an android mp3 player that competes with the ipod touch!

Finally.. now beat everything apple.. but macs are for unintelligent losers.. they stupid'd themselves

As soon as it is released I'll be supporting this, Apple already have far too much of my money.

By the way, you guys really need to proof read your articles before publishing them, there are usually grammar mistakes in each article.

I agree there really wont be an "itunes killer" unless the price per song goes down.

Well its easy the create a better software (Than iTunes) but the tough part is on the users side, will they switch for your non-apple software.

But the question is will they try to REQUIRE you to store songs on the cloud if not on your android?

I fine with amazon's mp3 store, relatively cheap, and don't need a bunch of junkware like Apple's iTunes. Just purchase, download, and once I lost my songs and amazon allowed me to redownload it all.

It'll be interesting, seeing as I'm currently in the market for a new media player...

wait..store the files in a cloud??
does that mean we'll have to fork over our limited data bandwidth everytime we stream from the cloud??

i would really like an android mp3 player(dont need/cant afford a new phone).

Knowing Google, it will be DRM-free -- unlike Apple. This will be the appeal to the consumer. Or at least the informed consumer... hopefully that's a big enough demographic to turn the tide. F*** Apple. F*** iTunes. I'm sick of the bloated-software, media-monopoly, and platform-gimpness that they bring.

Also, I just read some of the other comments. Google's not naive enough to believe that everyone has unlimited, high-speed bandwidth everywhere they go... of course they'll let you store what you can/want on your device, but leave everything in the cloud. Do you really think that they'd leave something that simple as a "chalk one up to Apple"?

iTunes killer? lol

interesting, i hope the music is apple taxless. 25 cents a song would be sweet!

This man speaks the truth. From what I've read it'll work great, you can download your media just like itunes, although with the ability to stream to your device if you want to. This will work well in that you don't have to use up storage on your device if you don't want to.

If its good they only have to undercut Apply by a small margin and people will jump over in masses. Say 89c per song and tie the list of songs paid for to a gmail acount so you can re-downlod them whenever you want for free.

Well given Google's track record it will probably be browser based and might have Chrome plugin.



They wouldn't need to undercut them on all song, just on the $1.29 songs.

Someone please explain to me why people will switch to Google?

Are iTunes users who have a large investment in music simply going to abandon that music and their iPod to go and buy a competing portable music device that they can start loading up again with more purchased music? Not likely.

The only people who will be interested in this are those don't have an iPod and are in the market for a new music player.

That's how you fight godzillas => with a bigger godzilla.
Name me a music label that would dare to refuse dealing with allmighty google.

At least not using bloody itunes software?

Funny thing is, the definition of informed is having information. Based on your post you seem to be the one that is the truly uninformed consumer since you haven't event taken the time to research the topic. iTunes has DRM free music and it plays on my android phone with no problems.

Apple tax? You do realize that the media content owners are very upset with the "low" cost of the content. What would make you think that just because it's Google that they will all of a sudden want to cooperate and actually make music cheaper? Don't you think Apple would love to give you the music as cheap as possible and DRM free? It is in their best interest because it would drive more sales of their hardware (iPods, iPhones, Apple TV, etc...) where they make far more money and lock you into the platform.

I'll gladly buy music if it's in FLAC format. Hope my Galaxy S audio is as goon as my Samsung palyer...

I agree. After you buy the song they should allow you to download it in multiple formats eg. MP3/OGG/AAC for portable or FLAC for home use.

the day google dominates earth in coming

Even as a person who, at this point in time, has never owned an Apple product besides an iPod Classic (even that was hard to swallow after going through 3 Zunes with stuck pixels, though years ago, returned my iPod nano for an iPod Photo, returned that for an iPod, then returned that one for nothing), this is an extremely arrogant statement. I have actually seriously contemplated a MacBook Pro (I don't want a desktop Mac) because all I need my laptop for is the "Internet", not games. And a "Mac" is well beyond fully capable of performing my "Internet" needs and then some. A "Mac" is still a "PC". I have just only owned PCs my entire life. I started with a 486/33 with DOS then installed Windows 3.1, etc. There are some times where I wish I could just use my computer instead of troubleshooting a problem. But after troubleshooting it, I feel more aware of what my PC is doing, and have knowledge for troubleshooting problems down the road, because also, ANY computer will have problems down the line, Windows platform or not.

There are a lot of IT professionals that go with Apple computers because, in all reality, they just-do-work. I even know this as someone who would almost never own an Apple computer, though have used many in my 24 years. When it comes down to it, a computer is a computer, and it's all what you can do with it and what you NEED it to do. There is almost nothing an Apple computer can do that a PC can't do, besides the catalog of PC games, really. And besides AutoCAD, etc. that are all PC based, but that is such a small percent of users that it doesn't matter.

Final note: The world is run by Windows and Linux PCs, YES. But for the majority of the people in this world that only need a computer to use a web browser, word processor, IM client, DVD/Video player, music player, and just a way to connect to the outside world, a MAC will more than enough do the job

google taking on itunes is like when microsoft tried to take on steam. sure it will work but hardly anyone will care and many people alreay have an itunes account with lots of music attached to it so splitting it up to a new service often doesn't go down to well.

The problem is you have to supplant the whole iTunes ecosystem. iPods, iPads, iPhones to really be an iTunes killer. Can Google do that? I don't know... seems like an uphill battle at the moment.

Am I the only one boredof the tech giants recently? All they ever seem to do is copy one-another.

I'm pretty sure the Google board-meeting went something along the lines of:

Eric: Hey, Paul... this iTunes thing is doing pretty well.
Paul: Yeah..
Eric: Do we have... one of those?
Paul: No..
Eric: ...We probably should.
Paul: I'll get the team onto it.

Whatever happened to innovation? Trying completely new ideas? Do we really need yet another music store? Do we really need yet another social network? (I'm looking at you, Apple...).

As much as I appreciate it makes good business sense to have a finger in every pie, it does clutter and confuse the consumer market to no end, and more importantly distracts each of the companies from doing what it is they're actually good at doing.

I for one will support Google's music store (proud Android phone owner).

People would not need to switch over from Apple. Since anyone with an Android device (phone/tab/etc..) would have access to Google's music store. And you're looking at a very large market. And this applies to both existing and new comer to the portable device market. Just look at how many manufactures are building new Android devices now. That should give you some idea of the effect of the Android platform.

By the way, I have nothing against Apple or iTunes. I just like to use something that is more flexible, convenient, and widely accepted.