Lala expects huge growth from the search deal
The music industry is facing a very
hard road today. Physical format sales are dropping quickly as
consumers flock to digital tracks and buy only the songs they want on
an ala carte basis rather than whole albums with higher profit
margins. Record labels have been so focused on pricing that easy
methods of discovering music for users have fallen by the way
side.
Google has announced a new partnership for music
search in conjunction with Lala and iLike. ILike was purchased
by social networking site MySpace in August, and this is the
first significant move MySpace has made with the service since its
purchase. The new deal will make it easier for music fans to find
music by making music related searches on Google.
The new
search method will give users who search for a song a popup box that
will play at least 30 seconds of the song and at times will play the
entire track provided by iLike and Lala. The popup box will also
offer links to purchase the track.
Reuters reports that
Google is also working with Pandora, iMeem, and Rhapsody to
incorporate the links into those music sites as well. The goal is to
help users find the music they are looking for and increase sales of
tracks and albums. Reuters reports that the new music search features
will be rolled out to users of Google on Wednesday.
A Google
blog entry read, "Every day we get millions of search queries
about music. You want to know more about your favorite artists, find
that new album or that iconic song, or figure out the name of that
tune stuck in your head."
The search function will also
let users search for music based on the title, artist, and lyrics.
That means songs that users know some of the words to, but not the
artist or title will still be searchable. There were earlier reports
that Google worked with music publishers on the service, which
Reuters claims are untrue. However, Google reportedly has the
full support of the recording industry, as it should since the new
feature could increase sales for the labels.
"Everybody's
been very supportive. Indeed, our business model is to improve the
search experience with the help of streaming partners, which offer
interesting business models of their own," said R.J. Pittman,
director of product management for Google.
Lala is expecting
very big things from the new Google search partnership. Founder Bill
Nguyen says that he expects a significant increase in business thanks
to the search deal. He told Reuters, "We'll see a
thousand percent increase in our business. We have about 100,000
customers and the majority or about 60,000 of them are active, which
generate about $67 per year."
Lala revenues reportedly
total about $10 million, but that number is expected to grow
significantly next year. Nguyen said, "We expect to be one of
the largest retailers of online music within one year after this
deal." He also expects artists to start releasing music
specifically for the Lala platform.
An iPhone app is also in the works from
Lala.
"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
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