Google’s music search

 

Google launches music search US service will enable people to find songs by typing in lyrics and direct them to sites where they can buy music

Article history Google has launched a music search service for internet users in the United States that will provide information about artists and quick access to licensed music providers.

The new search feature on Google.com will allow people to find songs, even if they know only a few of the lyrics, by simply typing a line or two.

“People searching for an artist, song or album will get what they are looking for right at the top of their search results, with links to audio previews and the option to purchase music from Google’s music search partners MySpace and Lala,” Google said.

The internet company said the new feature was designed to help users find music and help artists, labels, songwriters and music publishers by driving traffic to licensed online music services. Google has not struck any revenue-sharing deals with labels as part of the new service. Instead it says the feature is merely a search function linking people up with existing legal music sites.

“Lots of people search for music through Google, so it made sense for us to find a way to get them to the content they’re looking for faster,” said Tom Stocky, Google’s director of product management. “The best answer to a query is frequently not a web page but a map, a video, an image or some other kind of content.

This launch makes search better by adding music to the list of things we can connect people to speedily, as well as providing a revenue source for artists, labels and others.”

Camden Walk Of Fame

Development is still on going for the creation of the Camden Walk Of Fame. Musical figures including Jarvis Cocker, Jazzie B and Robin Gibb from The Bee Gees are still backing the plans to create a Walk of Fame on the main streets of Camden Town.

The documentary Film is well in the mix now, with yours truly (Bedroom London Ltd) on board to do the in show graphics.

The idea to lay a heritage trail is largely the brainchild of club impresario Lee Bennett and would see a series of slabs dug into the pavements to credit the famous names who have passed through the legendary music venues in Camden Town – just like the “stars” that line Hollywood Boulevard.
Mr Gibb described Camden Town as an “epicentre” of talent, adding: “I think it’s something we should have had a long time ago in this country because we have such a wealth of musical talent. Historically and culturally it’s all come from this country in the past 40 years and its time we celebrated and honoured that culture.”

Film-maker Nick Mason has captured a series of celebrity endorsements on camera. S sneak preview of the film shows Soul II Soul star Jazzie B raving about Camden Town.

“It was the easiest place to kick a lock off a door so that was the place it all went down,” he said. “The Walk of Fame is an innovation.”
Other bands said the area became so synonymous with good music that there were sometimes more record company executives than fans in the crowds at clubs like the Dublin Castle, Barfly and the Electric Ballroom.

The Dub Pistols described Camden as an “A & R man’s dream” while The Cribs and the New Young Pony Club recalled how they were both signed after doing one gig in the area.

Others proved their fondness for heady party days by… not remembering them. Jarvis Cocker said: “I can’t exactly recall… Camden in the Britpop era… erm…”, before a five-second pause. He did remember a gig at the Underworld around 1992, when Suede supported his then-fledgling band Pulp.

“A week later they were massively more famous than us,” Mr Cocker added.
The film was made by production company Fasten Your Seatbelt last summer.

Mr Mason said: “In an ailing music industry live music is now more important than ever – Camden is responsible for launching countless music careers.”

Watch this space for updates and more information on this exciting project …

Spotify is going offline …. but in a good way

Spotify is going offline. Not in a bad way, but in a potentially profitable way.

From today, “premium” subscribers to the music streaming service will be able to select their playlists and set them to be ‘Available offline’. According to Spotify, “Those playlists will then be synced to the computer so you can listen to your favorite tunes even if your internet connection goes down or if you’re at summer house with no connection at all.”

The interesting question that we haven’t been able to determine but which will doubtless be investigated in great detail by Spotify premium-owning geeks around Europe is: do the songs have any digital rights management (DRM) attached?

Spotify streams in the patent-free Ogg Vorbis format, but it actually caches what you’ve listened to (on a Mac, for example, you’ll find the songs you’ve listened to or might be about to listened to in an strange format in your home folder at /Library/Caches/com.spotify.client/Storage/.

As much as anything, it’s a neat way to avoid having to pay streaming bills (though not of course music publishing charges) if you keep listening to the same songs.

Unclear – but it’s not clear if those files actually have DRM too. Clearly, the app does something else to the files so that it can read them but others can’t. In that sense, the obfuscation amounts to a sort of rights management: Spotify can read them, but others can’t. But it’s not the way you usually think of them.

The question now is whether this will mean more people will sign up for Premium ??

The last time there was a public declaration it was that something like 2% of users have gone for it – though the introduction more recently of the iPhone version may mean that’s moved up. But – Spotify on your desktop machine? What’s the point? Don’t you always have your songs with you if you want them, on a digital music player? It seems like an oddly retrograde step, to encourage people to use computers to store songs again.

Nevertheless, if it grabs you, you can also now pay for your premium subscription.

Spotify has specified that you can store up to 3,333 songs on up to three devices including your phone. You have to have the latest version of Spotify, and may need to log out and in again to see it. Premium only, of course.

So – will that make you more likely to pay for the privilege ?