Google Music is available for everyone in the US. The service will allow people to buy music online, download it or even stream it. The music bought by people will be synced and people can share the music socially. Apple’s iTunes is the service which Google is targeting.
iTunes is hugely successful but here are 5 reasons I think, Google Music could manage to win.
#1. Choice
Apple likes to control the user-experience obsessively even at the cost of not offering a choice to users. For instance people are stuck with their iPhones or iPads once they buy their music from iTunes. iTunes does not make their music available on say, an Android phone.
No such issues will arise for Google Music users. Google is sure to leverage this notion of ‘Choice’ to get more people adopting Google Music.
#2. Search
I think anyone with an internet connection has searched for music online. Who is the big fish of internet search? It is Google and this is could end up getting users to adopt Google Music.
#3. Social
Currently users can share music they buy from Google Music with their Google+ Circles. Social networks play a big role in looking for music as we tend to connect with people with similar taste in music, books and more. If Google+ rises it will also make Google Music very popular.
#4. Music in the Cloud
Google and Amazon (the other company with a similar service to iTunes) are both very well established in cloud sync. These company’s are far more trusted names when it comes to cloud sync. Apple are trying to catch up with iCloud but has a long way to go.
#5. Does not have to win!
Google Music does not exactly have to win against iTunes. It has to simply put a dent in the iTunes revenues. Google’s main revenues come from displaying ads online. Even if Google Music pays for itself, it will quite happy to keep an alternative service. In other words iTunes is more critically important for Apple than Google Music is for Google.
At the moment iTunes is far ahead of its competitor but Google does have a habit of creating a service and keep tweaking it. Google are not experts at giving awesome products from the word go. They tend to improve over time, like they did with Gmail or they completely forget about it like they did with Orkut.
The good news is, that people who buy music online are going to see interesting times ahead.
Do drop in your comments.