Search giant Google has entered the online music market with a new service for finding and buying music online.
Google announced Wednesday that it was indeed adding music streams to its search results thanks to a partnership with Lala, MySpace (with streaming from iLike), Rhapsody, and imeem. The search giant has struck licensing deals with EMI, Universal, Warner Music, and Sony Music to bring streams of popular music to the search page via the streaming partners, while the likes of iLike and Lala will be bringing their collection of independent artists as well.
Now, whenever you search for a musical artist, a song, or even a lyric (thanks to Gracenote), Google will include streams right there in your search results along with links to the other services. We decided to give this new feature a run-through to see just what it could handle, and came away (mostly) liking what we saw.
For now, Google's musical search results are limited to the United States. This will be a disappointment for the millions of Google users who live elsewhere, but as we have learned from many years of music coverage, this has to be a licensing issue with the music labels. Google says that the feature is slowly rolling out across the US, but if you want to test it out right this minute, you can go to a special page to run your search queries.
Many times, though, you don't know the name of the song or the artist who sings it. Maybe you remember only the chorus — or maybe you remember who sang it, but you forgot the exact name of the song. If you've ever heard a catchy song in a car or cafe, but just can't figure out the name of the song, . This search feature also helps you find many of those songs by entering a search containing a line or two of lyrics.
Finally, a search engine should also be able to help you discover music you'll like, even if you can't tell it what exactly you want to hear. Google partnered with Pandora, imeem and Rhapsody to include links to their sites where you can discover music related to your queries as well.This feature doesn't just make search better. It also helps people discover new sources of licensed music online while helping artists to discover new generations of fans and reconnect with longtime listeners.
Try it Google Music search Link - http://www.google.com/landing/music/
