Google could steamroll digital music

When discussing what Google do these days, it’s more of a case of identifying what they don’t do.  From books to operating systems, price comparison and translation services, and now potentially music, as TechCrunch have been reporting.

In the scheme of things, it’s not surprising, especially as they have been operating a service in China, with streaming and downloading functionality.  With their substantial investment in the recent books deal, it was always seemed inevitable that they would turn to digital music at some point.

Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer, reported 7% year on year growth recently, and with healthy profit figures to satisfy music labels demands,  he was quoted as saying:

“We’re going to invest,” Schmidt said on a conference call with analysts. “That, I think, ultimately is good for the long term of Google.”

Good for Google long term indeed, though a Google music service, with the traction it would undoubtedly generate, could potentially see dire repercussions for other web based competitors.  I imagine the likes of iTunes and Spotify will be relatively safe, well, as safe as you could be with a company like Google hovering over your industry.  It’s the browser based services that i fear for.  The likes of Raphsody, Amazon, MSN Music as well as many others that will take the full brunt of this, in hard sales and active users.

It will somewhat depend on the makeup of the service, if it includes both streaming and downloading for starters, but the mere presence of Google will send shockwaves across the industry.