Google Ready to Challenge the iTunes Music Store

Sooner or later, the question was bound to come up- is Google preparing to launch an onslaught on the Apple iTunes Music Store? A few recent developments seem to suggest that this could be the case.

According to a report from the Digital Hollywood trade show, found via Ars Technica, Google is preparing an invite-only round-table meeting for 20 top music industry executives on Thursday. While it may only be an exploratory meeting, any move this 600-pound gorilla makes is not taken lightly.

Google already has a music search feature. The feature is mildly useful- it currently serves up limited track listing, artist and album information with links to web sites, lyrics and stores, including iTunes. This service could easily function as a portal into a yet-to-be-seen Google Music store. With Google Video’s success as a video sharing service, it seems that the only reason why a music/sound sharing service has not arisen yet is the fear of a long and painful legal entanglement with the RIAA. The RIAA has already shown that it prefers legal notices as a blanket solution for most of its digital media problems on the internet.

That is where Thursday’s meeting could come in. At the very least, Google may want to build a more powerful audio search service, with an ability to search for legal audio content on the internet and shared on Google Audio. Meeting with industry executives in advance could help them arrive at a consensus about how Google could enter the arena without stepping on too many toes.

Of course, the other extreme may be that Google wants to build an all out music store; a direct challenge to the hugely successful iTunes Music store. ZDNet also speculates that they may be trying to form partnerships, similar to their video partnership with CBS. Google’s past efforts, with Google Video, have not been very promising and the key issue of its lack of a media device to tie the service with will make things harder. However, if the rumors that the music industry is not happy with Apple’s fixed pricing scheme are true, they may be shopping around for a new preferred suitor and Google may fit the bill.

Whatever the purpose of the meeting may be, it is clear that Google intends to form partnerships with the music industry. Apple’s monopoly in the area is difficult to challenge as the success of the iPod fuels that of the iTMS, which in turn may fuel the popularity of the iPod. With the content from iTMS locked into the iPod, for all practical purposes, breaking that cycle is all the more difficult. However, just like Apple has in the past, Google has a tendency to enter markets late but succeed by virtue of doing things right and keeping them simple. Only time will tell if this approach will work for music.