Google didn’t just unveiled Google TV and Android Froyo. It’s also revealed plans to create an Android Market music store and allow Android users to automatically sync music from their PC or Mac to their phone. It announced that it’s snapped up Simplify Media, which previously made an iPhone app to stream music from your PC or MAc, to power the Android music syncing. Looks like Apple better hurry up and deliver iTunes streaming…
Simplify Media’s iPhone app disappeared from the iTunes Store back in March. Now we know why. Google has got hold of its streaming smarts! In a demo during the Google I/O event, Google showed a song purchased from the Android Marketplace automatically transferred to an Android phone over the air.
Google vice-president Vic Gundotra said the Android Market music store is just a demo at the moment and that the search giant has yet to sign any deals with major labels. But rumours of a Google music service have been around for a long time and even show a demo is clearly a shot at Apple.
If Apple uses LaLa to create an iTunes in the cloud service, it’s likely that it would stream your music from central servers in a similar way to Spotify. Google’s solution would be a little different. Using the Simplify Media tech it would sync songs directly from your home computer and with Google’s penchant for open sourcing its services could also tie in with other stores like Amazon or 7Digital.
Google hasn’t announced when it’ll pull the covers off its Android music syncing feature but Gundotra suggested that we’ll see it first in a desktop app that will give you direct access to your music on your Android phone. We’re seriously excited to see that.
Let us know: do you think Google can create an iTunes-beating Android music store? Or will Apple unveil a cloud solution that will keep it one step ahead?
Due TBC | £TBC | Google (via Techcrunch)
