Google has released their new music sharing system, and it’s interesting to see how the “free market” in music and Internet services has shaped this new system.
First, you can only upload your own music. Unlike Amazon’s similar system, you can’t buy anything on Google Music. That’s because the record labels don’t really want any cloud storage of music, and Google decided to let Amazon walk point on the inevitable lawsuit from the recording industry.
Second, when you do upload your own music, you’ll be uploading every single bit of it, and Google will be storing every single bit of it. Google could have made a system that just checks your music for a “digital signature”, recognizes that you have a copy of a Britney Spears album, and stores a tiny little marker in your account pointing to one universal copy of “Oops I Did It Again”. This would allow you to upload a few bytes of information instead of megabytes of song data. But, again, the record labels wouldn’t like that, so Google will be storing millions of copies of the same music in everyone’s individual account, and millions of bytes of upload bandwidth will be wasted uploading these identical copies.
This brings us to all the uploading Google Music customers will be doing. All the excitement over “cloud services” and “music lockers” ignores one little fact of US Internet service: it’s extremely asymmetrical. Our upload speed is usually about 10 times slower than our download speed. That’s because the most widely deployed technology used by our cable and telecom ISPs is built on copper wire that’s up to 100 years old. Telcos’ copper is so old that it will probably never support really fast upload speeds, and cable companies have been slow to roll out the technology that allows moderately fast uploads. Only fiber to the home can support fast, symmetrical Internet connections. But fiber-based competition has been limited by cable and telco monopolies, and even when communities try to deploy their own fiber, cable companies have their lobbyists ram through legislation stopping those roll outs.
And let’s not forget that over half of the country can only buy Internet service with bandwidth caps, so those users of Google Music will face hefty overcharges if their kids stream Bieber’s latest too many times. Nevermind that the price of wholesale Internet bandwidth does nothing but fall.
So, moochers, temper your excitement. In twenty or thirty years, cable and telcoms may finally implement fiber, and record labels may finally give up their dream that you’ll re-purchase your entire music library in digital form, just like you did when you trashed your LPs and converted to CDs. Then, and only then, will you looters be able to taste the sweet fruit of Google Music, brought to you by the innovation of the free market.