Lots of rumors floating around about a Google music shindig tomorrow, and while Google has admitted it is taking place, they maintain that the private event is purely a networking event.
PaidContent originally reported that the invite-only event would be attended by 20 top executives from the music industry. Elinor Mills has the statement Google released after the word got out:
“This is a networking event, typical of networking events we hold across a variety of industries and topic areas,” Google said in an e-mail statement. “We have no plans at this time to develop a music store. Google offers a music search feature to provide users faster access to music-related information they are searching for. We offer users links to third-party sites where they can purchase music if they’d like to.”
Valleywag tipsters say that Yahoo may be launching a streaming audio subscription service Friday night with a big invite-only bash, and they say in response to the news that Google’s is all about networking:
In other Google media news, Google Videos now work in India (via Digg). I never even knew they didn’t. And, while we’re on the topic of Google and parties, Larry Page’s birthday was a few days ago, so enjoy Gray Hat News’ mockups of what Google bigwigs will look like about 50 birthdays from now.
Oh, and if you’re obsessed with Valleywag, they’re looking for another writer. Of course, you have to give up ever being liked by Google or Yahoo if you take the job, but I’m sure it pays well.
Also (yeah, I have a lot of open tabs), Yahoo has released a Yahoo Music Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget, so you can use your Yahoo Music subscription without using the Yahoo Music Engine. TechCrunch has screenshots of the semi-transparent widget. The Yahoo Music Blog has more, including links to download a preview (minus most of the eventual features) version of the gadget, or just download the Yahoo Widgets (Konfabulator) version. Curious that Yahoo is helping out Microsoft’s widget platform when they already have one of their own. Will Google play ball?
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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.
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