Did Google just become a huge player in the world of the DIY independent musician?

…Google Music is shocking the industry with two giant prods:

1. Google’s music cloud is free for up to 20,000 songs, and
2. Their ‘Artist Hub‘ allows anyone to directly upload, manage, and sell music, without the need for a DIY middleman.

These are not only game-changers, they could quickly provoke responses from Apple, Amazon, and others, while also potentially creating disastrous ripples for the entire DIY middleman space.

…It’s such an overcrowded space!  But this is totally different, especially from someone like Google: the ‘Artist Hub’ is all about direct-uploading, with one upfront cost.

And you don’t need Tunecore or CD Baby, you just hop on board.  “This is a bit of a new experience for a digital retailer,” said Google’s Chris Yerga.

The action is happening at music.google.com/artists, where Google is asking for a one-time, $25 startup fee.  That sounds modest, though we’ve been impressed with how disastrously broke – and reluctant to pay – many artists can be.

The question is now whether another giant – ie, Apple or Amazon – decide to do exactly the same thing… (Via DigitalMusicNews)

It appears Google realized how much money Tunecore and CD Baby are making. Now the only question is how much will people embrace Google music. It’s all about the user base. iTunes is still the reigning champion of eyeballs in the digital music world, so if they did something similar it would really put pressure on the online aggregators. But for now this is definitely big news because at the very least DIY musicians now have another digital world to find an audience.

Music Consciousness
Voyno