Google wants the world to acknowledge that it ’s serious about euphony . Alongside the Google Music cloud service , the company rolled out its medicine store Wednesday , complete with a unrecorded in - house band , celebrity guest wiz , and a coxa Hollywood venue . But can its catalog compete with iTunes and Amazon MP3 ?

[ show : Google Music hail Out of Beta ]

soaked consolidation with Google Plus and theGoogle Musiccloud service are compelling features , but what it really comes down for substance abuser is the largeness of capacity . The depot with the most downloads is the store with the most – and the best – music . So how does Google ’s try stack up at launch ?

Google Musichas more than 13 million tracks from artist on major and autonomous labels . For comparison , Apple iTunes Store has over 20 million track in its catalogue , while Amazon MP3 has 17 million songs .

What’s Missing From Google Music?

As we confirmed before , Google has secured plenty with three out of the Big Four criminal record recording label : Sony Music Entertainment , Vivendi SA ’s Universal Music Group , and EMI Music . Warner Music Group is the odd recording label out . So what does that entail for you ? You wo n’t be able to download albums from Cher , build to Spill , Eric Clapton , Metallica , Neil Young , R.E.M. , and Gucci Mane – among many other creative person spanning multiple genres .

Google has also team up up with over 1,000 independent labels and electrical distributor such as Matador Records , Merge , Revolver USA , and CD Baby , just to name a few . It is unmanageable to measure how comprehensive Google ’s indie option is compare to its contender . I did a cross - lookup of a few indie musician / set ( The mike , Huggy Bear , Saviours , and Sundowner ) and all three storehouse had them .

I ’ll have to do a routine more grasp but , despite its smaller catalog and lack of Warner Brothers Music ( Cher , mostly ) , Google Music ’s selection fulfil me .

Artist Hub: Potential for Indie and Signed Musicians

Google Music ’s artist hubs and exclusive content might make up for the missing Warner Brother ’s content . The service is launching with dozens of exclusive , gratis tracks from creative person like the Rolling Stones , Coldplay , Busta Rhymes ( who was present at the result ) , and others .

Artists , both autonomous and sign , can distribute their own original euphony on the Google Music weapons platform . lot or individuals can build their own artist page , upload original songs , set their own prices , and betray depicted object directly to devotee . Artists keep 70 per centum of sales of single songs or full album .

Kyle Waters , a former indie musician , equate Google Music ’s Artist hub to a fancier MySpace Music . He likes the DIY panorama of it and sees potential in it . He say it could be really successful for both hearer and musicians if Google Music in reality catches on with consumer . Bands can apply it to sire buzz and might have a prospect to get sign by a real recording label .

But body of water scowl on unsigned bands test to make money off MP3s . “ Any unsigned lot should not be charging for digital music powerful off the bat , ” he said . “ I ’m all about the DIY part though . ”

Here ’s how the Google blog explains creative person hubs : “ With the Google Music artist hub , any creative person who has all the necessary rightfulness can distribute his or her own music on our political platform , and expend the artist hub port to build an creative person Thomas Nelson Page , upload original tracks , set prices and deal content directly to fans — essentially becoming the handler of their own far - reaching euphony stock . ”

The other draw for indie as well as sign musician is the Google+ consolidation . The fact that user can partake in full songsandfull albums with their champion is really amazing . It is a great , “ viral ” manner for musicians to get their names out there .

Google is gestate to add more content partners over the next few months . Despite the critique Google is getting for jump into the music store occupation late and having a smaller catalogue than its competitors , I see a mess of potential for both consumer and musician .

In TV : Google ’s Next target : iTunes and Amazon Music