This afternoon, Billboard is reporting that Google has signed Warner Music up for it’s upcoming streaming music service that is still a rumor. This new music streaming service would be competing against others like Spotify, Pandora and iHeart Radio among others. It’s rumored to be released later this year. Warner is the first one being signed up for Google’s streaming music service. Now this is interesting, since Warner was the last one to sign up for Google Play back in October of last year. Stephen Bryan also held out for quite some time after his rivals began signing deals with Google to sell downloads on Google’s music store which launched in 2011.
Warner Music Group has struck a licensing deal with Google for two music services the technology giant is launching later this summer, according to executives familiar with the agreement. Google will offer two distinct subscription services – one through its YouTube online video property and another via its Google Play platform.
Executives at Warner, which is the first record label to commit to Google’s proposed music service, declined to comment. A YouTube spokesman issued the following statement: “While we don’t comment on rumor or speculation, there are some content creators that think they would benefit from a subscription revenue stream in addition to ads, so we’re looking at that.”
Google is also in deep negotiations with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and other labels to nail down an agreement similar to the one it now has with Warner.
Earlier today we saw reports that Google was looking to do their streaming service through YouTube as well. So it looks like we’ll get streaming music from both Google Music and YouTube. But I think Google Music will be better for record labels and their artists, since anyone can upload music to YouTube and have it streaming now.
Another important thing to note is that tomorrow is Google Play’s one year Anniversary. So we might see something big from Google tomorrow. We’ll be sure to keep our eyes open.