The Guardian
topics
Close Box

News From Us:

Our latest report; our new video section; and jobs with paidContent.org and paidContent:UK


Google’s Music Search Will Be Wrapped Up With MySpace Branding

At the famed Capitol Records building in Hollywood, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) officially unveiled its OneBox music search service. First news tidbit to emerge is that MySpace will be the brand powering the streaming music, videos and track purchases—not new acquisition iLike, as was initially reported.

Google’s Marissa Mayer demoed what the new music search results would look like, and a big MySpace branded track player took over the screen. MySpace is serving up tracks from all of its major label partners and the indies; the results also include music videos and links to upcoming performances in the searcher’s area.

Still, even though MySpace is getting the glory, it’s iLike’s streaming and discovery tech that initially attracted Google. iLike co-founder Ali Partovi said the company had been talking to Google about the OneBox project for months before the MySpace acquisition. “We couldn’t talk to [MySpace] about the Google deal we potentially had in play,” said iLike co-founder Ali Partovi. “But they trusted us when we said we had something big we were working on ...” Getting the MySpace brand in front of the millions of people searching Google daily—not to mention the potential revenue from track sales—makes MySpace’s iLike acquisition seem like a much better deal than it first appeared.

Related Stories
Oct 28, 2009 6:30 PM ET

MySpace's Courtney Holt and Ali Partovi @ Discover Music Photo: webcast

Share

Posted In: Entertainment, Music, Companies, Google, News Corp., MySpace, Sony, SonyBMG, Vivendi, Universal Music Group, ilike, lala.com

  • Phoebe Spanier

    Given how well the iLike acquisition is working out, I wonder if MySpace will similarly try with other premium content (TV, movies) given that this is their stated focus - http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/digital-downloads/broadband/e3i18f9fdff77fbe3601b74c3aa11de78ca .

The Economics of Content | paidContent Newsletter

Know something we don’t?

Send Us a News Tip

All tips are anonymous and untraced.

Sponsors

Contributors