Future Of Music

Wired.com has reported that Google plans to launch a music service rumored to be called “Google Music,” “Google Audio,” or “OneBox,” launching sometime next week.

The company will not become a music retailer, but will offer enhanced music search with a streaming function — first of possibly several vertical search offerings. Searching for an artist or song will apparently bring up a box (thus Google’s working title: “OneBox”) with a streaming link randomly assigned to stream from either Lala or iLike. After this music search product launches, we understand that Google plans to launch other search verticals, possibly including a travel booking service.

Major labels artists will be involved with the launch in some capacity, and the labels are in the process of gathering assets for Google to use for the service, including videos.

Google is also building the back-end for the majors’ upcoming Vevo music video service, and operates a free download service in China that TechCrunch says will not resemble whatever Google launches here in the U.S. and possibly elsewhere as well.

Stay tuned for more…