Google is in the process of negotiating licensing fees for a music streaming service akin to Spotify, Mog, Deezer and others, according to several published reports and first reported by the Financial Times.
The news comes as Google is in the process of looking to implement subscription models on YouTube, the company’s video site and the web’s most popular music streaming service.
The search engine launched Google Music in Nov. 2011 allowing users to download music and the previous May a storage service allowing users to store and stream music to various remote devices.
Music retail competitors Apple and Amazon launched similar music storage services the same year. Interestingly there is much speculation now that the same online music retailers will also compete in the music streaming space.
Apple, the leading music download site, was last fall reported to be seeking music licensing for its own Pandora-like radio streaming service.
YouTube’s importance in the music space got a boost this week when Billboard announced it would incorporate Nielsen’s YouTube streaming data into its chart tally, which had immediate impact. Baauer’s “Harlem Shake,” a song that has become a viral video sensation, immediately shot to No. 1 on the Hot 100.
A report earlier this week by the Recoding Industry Association of America slammed Google for failing to live up to its commitment to keep pirated music sites from appearing prominently in its search rankings.
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