Google’s Music Announcement – Crazy Bulletpoint Summary

Today, starting at 5pm EST / 2pm PST, Google announced their music plans in a live event, as well as streaming online. Highlights of the event’s announcement included:

– Recapped Music Beta by Google’s launch in May 2011. They learned that users love having music access on any computer via a web browser. 2.5 hrs streamed every day on average (note: wow!). 100 million free songs were given out to users’ libraries.
– 100M Android devices have been activated worldwide as of 6 months ago. Now it is 200M Android devices. Everyday, 550,000 new devices.
– Google Music is about discovering, sharing, and purchasing music. Google wants it to be a social thing, sharing music with friends.
– Google Music is now open to google.music.com for US
– Still up to 20,000 songs. STILL FREE – Google believes that music that you already own should be free. (note: AGREED!)
– Can listen to music offline
– Play counts, playlists, ratings update across the board when a change is made somewhere
– Better integration with the Android phone. You can buy millions of songs from Android Market – market.android.com
– On every artist page, are other recommendations (I assume akin to Amazon or Chapters services for books)
– You can share a purchased song on Google+ with your friends.
– webplayer is on google.music.com; you can play it on the webplayer, any browsers, or your phone
– There will be a free song each day.
– There will be an artist featured every week, with the focus on discovering artists
– Artist bios, reviews, and some interviews (Coldplay interview shown)
– Google+ Friends will see your recommendations, and you can share from the purchase confirmation screen, or at any point later on. Can share with people not yet on Google+
– Everything is available right now, for US users, right now (damn my Canadian residence!)
-Google thinks the social sharing and recommendation feature will be big, as that’s where people learn about music. There, and PeteHatesMusic.com
– EMI, Universal, Sony all signed on, plus many small indie labels; over 1000 labels total. 13M tracks on Google Music, 8M live today (note: Warner is missing, as thought by the rumours)
– Universal president said he thinks that the revenue stream with Google will be beneficial
– Reminder: THE CLOUD IS FREE! Awesomeness
– Google says they worked with artists to have exclusive music on Google Music. Artists include Rolling Stones, and will have 6 unreleased concerts. The rest will follow in 2012. Coldplay gets a 5 track LP from Madrid. Busta Rhymes is in the HOUSE!
– Busta Rhymes to debut his new studio album on Google Music.
– Live albums from Pearl Jam, Shakira, and Dave Matthews
– Indie bands can upload their music and share in some of the money for songs sold. They can change pricing structures
– The example used was Monogold, who opened the proceedings today
– music.google.com/artists is where to go to set up the info, at the Artist Hub
– T-mobile phone tie-in and purchasing options announced

Well, stop reading this and start uploading to Google Music (it takes days to upload your library if you have 1000s of songs like I do)