The Friday#: Google Music

Welcome to the Friday#
This week in The Sizzle: Yahoo shares rise. The Fri-Up: Google Music. The Sauce: Jeremy Clarkson in a microwave.

The Sizzle

The Fri-Up

Google Music

In recent weeks, the digital music scene has changed immeasurably. EMI has opened its catalogue to developers, Spotify is encouraging app development from its platform and Google has launched its ‘iTunes killer’.

Google Music, which has so far only been launched in the US, allows devices running on its Android software to buy, store and stream MP3 files. Three of the four major labels are so far providing content along with 23 of the largest independents. Integrated with Google +, the service also allows users to share music with those in their circles.

The fact that the service is not available on the iPhone is not as significant as you might think. A new study by research firm Gartner suggests that more than half of all smartphones sold between July and September ran Android, making Google Music is the only serious threat to iTunes we’ve seen since its launch in 2003.

We explore the feedback so far through Brandwatch.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the sentiment. Since most of the chat was on Twitter, we’ve filtered out other social networks for this graph:

Fig 1.  Sentiment on Twitter surrounding Google Music

We can see that as people get used to the service, the feeling is mainly positive rather than negative. The neutral sentiment shows users passing on tips and information about the new service. Many of the negative comments are concerned with technical glitches, including the fact that the app force closes. There are also complaints from iPhone users that the new store is not available to them yet.

Now lets take a look at the top tweeters on side for the new service:

  • google
  • mashable
  • maryjblige
  • neilhimself
  • BusaBusss
  • GuyKawasaki
  • ForbesTech
  • tw_top_books
  • funkmasterflex
  • dannysullivan

Aside from the obvious tech bloggers and Google itself, Google Music’s top ten supporters list reads like who’s who of R ‘n’ B with Mary J Blige, Busta Rhymes and Funkmaster flex appearing in their top ten tweeters – added to an appearance by Drake at their launch event. It will be interesting to see how this support holds up as more and more big stars see their albums hit the $1.99 Google Music bargain sales.

The Sauce

Something for the weekend:

Hope you enjoyed the Friday#, have a great weekend.