Google is throwing some large sums of money at the four major record labels for cloud-music rights.
BusinessWeek magazine is reporting that Google offered the labels $100 million to obtain licenses for a cloud-music service. Google launched an unlicensed service two weeks ago that enables users to upload their songs to the company's servers but isn't as fully-equipped as it might be with licenses.
This is the latest and perhaps most dramatic sign of how important antipiracy efforts are to the labels. BusinessWeek reported that they turned down the money because they want Google to turn up the heat on the online pirating of music and other copyrighted works. A source with knowledge of the negotiations between Google and the labels said other issues were involved in the breakdown of negotiations, such as Google's reluctance to detail what its plans are for the cloud service.
As the top Internet search engine is believed to be in a position to make it more to difficult to find pirated materials online. The company's ads are often found on sites accused of trafficking in pirated or counterfeited materials.
The cloud is the term used to describe songs are hosted on someone else's servers, accessible to you from a variety of devices rather than locked into a specific gadget. Amazon and Google are among the companies that have begun offering consumers a chance to load their music libraries on to the companies' servers. Apple is expected to soon join the fray.
The cloud is supposed to be the next music-distribution format.
