GET ON MY CLOUD: GOOGLE TRIES TO TAKE A BITE OUT OF THE APPLE

Tamara Conniff is a well-respected music industry pundit who has just launched TheComet.com, which she describes as “the Huffington Post of music.” Hey, if HITS can be the Mad magazine of the record business, why not? This is the first of a regular series of opinion pieces in which Tamara will explore issues affecting the current climate. In other words...blame her, she wrote it.

Google is currently making the rounds of all the record labels. The company is trying to build up its content arsenal to go head-to-head with Apple. It may turn out to be one of the most formidable battles yet: Google Music vs. Apple iTunes. The labels, praying for a competitor to Steve Jobs’ monolith, are impressed. Another big digital player in the marketplace, in theory, could lead to more music sales.

This mythical Google Music has been rumored to have everything—all the content you’ve ever wanted in the cloud! Digital downloads at the touch of a search button!

If anyone can shake Apple’s hold on the marketplace, it’s Google. Amazon tried, sort of. While their music store has gotten good reviews for usability from tech geeks, labels have been reluctant to give exclusive content for fear of retaliation from Apple. Plus, music is simply not a priority for Amazon. They sell other products worth far more than 99 cents, and they are not a device manufacturer. So music is more or less a sideline for the Amazon folks.

But Google. Ah Google. They want world domination. And when you hit the power button, a Darth Vader-type voice says, “Droid.”

However, we humans are creatures of habit. We’re all used to our iPods and iTunes. How will Google compare? How will they lure us to switch?

Personally, I think it’s all going to go to streaming anyway. Downloading is so last decade. Apple is threatening to go into the clouds, too. Didn’t they acquire LaLa for precisely that purpose?

Hell, I’d like to live in the cloud, with all the streaming content in the world. And you get to be weightless, too. Sounds like heaven.

Google vs. Apple. May the better Big Brother win.