Google India has shut down its online music search service, Google Music India (not to be confused with Google Music), which allowed users to search for music by entering names of artists, movies, albums or song titles associated with it. It also allowed users to play music online via partners like record label Saregama, Web18's In.com and Saavn.
However, it's worth pointing out that it was a 'labs' product. According to Google, labs products are experimental only and are not guaranteed to make it onto Google.com. The company says that labs products are essentially "for more adventurous users to play around with prototypes of some of our wild and crazy ideas and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them."
The development was first reported by startups focused website
NextBigWhat. Interestingly, Google India has also officially confirmed that it has indeed shuttered down the service since a lot of legal online services for music were available that figure prominently in Google search results.
In a
statement to MediaNama, it said, "We are always trying out new products and formats to improve the experience for our users. Given that we have a lot of legal music options for users now (raaga, gaana, in.com, saavn, dhingana, youtube etc) being featured on search, we felt we did not need a dedicated product for the purpose."
Google had launched the service in October 2010.
We observed that if one tries searching for a music track on Google with its name or with the name of the artist or movie, the first few results include YouTube videos from the film's producers or record label. This is followed by links to sites that feature lyrics or even illegally hosted files. It would be great if Google starts listing legal audio streaming links with the listings as it would aid in music discovery and make the process more centralised, since different streaming services have tie ups with different record labels.