Google and Discordant Music
December 11, 2010
Gobble. Gobble.
Black Friday has come and gone, and Google’s music service is still not off the ground. “Delays Dog Google’s Digital Music Service” reports that major music labels are balking at Google’s planned cloud-based “digital locker” service admit fears that users will also store pirated music there.
The article says that “Google wants to sign wide-ranging deals that give it streaming permission for the locker service alongside rights for a music download store tied to its search engine,” but the labels aren’t ready to sign on for the downloads until their fears about the locker service are assuaged. Ad revenues are also not yet set as the labels question how artists will be compensated.
If Google had made a deal with Catch Media, would some of these rich media problems have been fixed? Despite these issues, all the players seem optimistic that the service will be available sometime in 2011.
Google’s solution may involve buying more companies like Wildvine, the outfit that provides DRM to Netflix and Best Buy. Details of this acquisition are here.
Alice Wasielewski, December 11, 2010
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United Health Ingenix Acquires A-Life
October 12, 2010
Short honk: United Health acquired A-Life Medical, a privately-held company with natural language processing and medical coding methods. Terms of the deal were not announced. The few details available are summarized in “United Health to Buy A-Life Medical.” Figuring out how the moving pieces interact within the United Health Group are beyond the scope of this Web log. Not a peep has been heard in Harrod’s Creek about Google’s and Microsoft’s health play. Surprisingly, Dell Computer is in this sector as well. With billions flowing through the US healthcare system, I am not surprised by the robustness and dynamism in this complex, chaotic, and probably unmanageable business sector.
Stephen E Arnold, October 12, 2010
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