Luckily for the music industry, the rumors weren’t true about the now-live Google OneBox music service was intended to do.
According to Brad Sams' blog, “Most were expecting, or wanting, a service similar to what Google offers in China. In China, Google offers free music because piracy has nearly killed all legitimate music sales.” While huge lawsuits would have likely been engendered if they had executed this rumored plan, music fans were very hopeful.
Instead, the Google OneBox is simply being used to provide previews of songs on Google’s landing page, and then providing links to other music selling websites. Clearly this will prove to be a profitable move for Google, because companies offering music on their site will bid on the links directly under the music sample.
To me, however, this is only a small piece of a much bigger issue.
What if Google decided to provide a similar service to the one offered in China that many had hoped for?
As stated in BBC News’ article about the new feature, Google could have potentially avoided legal issues if it decided to provide a link to a torrent next to the song, where the consumer could use BitTorrent to pirate the music. This would be incredibly valuable to Google because people looking for music would go to Google as their primary source of acquiring music.
This shows the extraordinary power of the new digital age. The powerhouse of the digital media industry could easily provide what could be the fatal blow to the entire music industry with the click of a button.
The once colossal music industry continues to struggle in the new digital age, and can’t seem to find a way out. With the looming implementation of the new service, the music industry labels were probably frantically clawing for hope with nothing but helplessness and fear on their minds like lobsters in a tank.
Finally, they can take a breath of fresh air.
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