According to rumors, search giant Google will launch its own online music store next Wednesday.
The company has sent out an invitation for an event on November 16 in Los Angeles titled ‘These go to eleven’, reports the website The Verge. The phrase refers to a scene in the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap in which a guitarist has an amplifier with a volume knob that goes to eleven instead of the usual ten. The invitation was sent by Nigel Tufnel, the name of the guitarist in the film.
Google+
Last month, several U.S. media outlets already reported the impending launch of the music store. The Wall Street Journal wrote that the MP3 store will work closely with the Google+ social network.
Users of Google Music, as the service will likely be called, will be able to recommend tracks from an online library to their Google+ contacts. Those contacts can then listen to the track once for free. The songs will subsequently be available as MP3 downloads for probably 99 cents each.
Record labels
According to the website CNET, talks with the four largest record labels are still progressing with difficulty. So far, only a deal with Universal Music has been reached. It therefore remains to be seen how many tracks will initially be available in Google Music.
Earlier this year, the internet company launched a beta version of the music service, Google Music Beta. But because no agreements had yet been concluded with record labels, no music could be downloaded. Users could, however, upload their own music to Google’s servers and stream those tracks from any computer or Android device.
With the online music store, Google aims to compete with Apple and Amazon, both of which have been successful with their own MP3 stores.