Google really has taken the music race to "eleven," with their announcement today unveiling a large amount of brand new things coming to the service, as well as announcing that it is available for all in the US.
Free song of the day is already live for those who use Google Music on the web, just by going to "Magnifier," the Google Music Blog. It"s as simple as clicking "add free music" and it adds to your online library. Nice.
The Android market now includes a "music" tab, where you can purchase and listen to music from the marketplace. Each song is a 320kbps MP3, and the marketplace allows 90 second previews of songs. Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and EMI are all onboard, bringing a slew of great music with them.
On mobile, the service integrates deep Google+ functionality, and even allows you to share it on your Google+ page, and gives your friends one free listen to the track.
The music applications for the desktop have been updated too, and Google says that they"ll push these out in the next few hours. Additionally, the service will feature exclusive music that isn"t available elsewhere, from bands such as Coldplay, Busta Rhymes, Shakira, Peral Jam and Dave Matthews Band.
Artists are able to own their own artists page, and customize it to their hearts desire. They"ll allow artists to add their own content, too. Watch out Myspace.
There"s a one time sign up fee of $25 for artists (not bad!) and they"ll be able to sell music directly to listeners, as well as get metrics and payments from the service. It"ll be available over at music.google.com/artists -- however, the site doesn"t exist right now. It even allows artists to set their own prices and doesn"t require annual, reccuring fees. The revenue split is 70/30: 70% to artists and 30% to Google. Move over iTunes.
Exclusive music from Busta Rhymes just showed up on the Android Market.
T-mobile is a partner too, and they"re going to let their customers purchase music using their phone bill in the very near future.
Image source: The Verge