The death of the big music label is well documented. Hard copy music sales have plummeted and recording artists today make most of their money from live performances. Now the search giants are getting in on the music scene – in a big way. Microsoft says 10% of all search queries are entertainment related with 70% of these searches looking for lyrics to songs. With this in mind it launched an entertainment vertical to Bing which now serves up full-track streaming of songs from Zune and details on upcoming tours and links to where the music can be bought.
Google is listening to the music too and this year will launch a music download service that’s tied to its search engine. Apple currently commands 70% of digital music download sales in the United States. Google recently bought Simplify Media, a technology that can be used to synch and stream music bought online to any Android phone containing the technology.
What Google, Microsoft and Apple already know is that the future of music publishing lies in combining a vast cloud-based music library with online search and mobile-synching and then having the ability to sell advertising, concert tickets and merchandise around it. The video above shows what Google announced eight months ago. On the back of this, its much anticipated music download service is expected to be very good.

You may also like: