Internet search engine giant Google launched their new Google Music search service last week, giving music geeks and casual listeners alike an easy, effective and useful new way to scour the web for info on bands, songs, albums, and pretty much anything else you could want (except for guitar tabs and free downloads). Google Music allows the user to type in a band, artist, album or song title, hit “search music” and be instantly bombarded by all the web has to offer on that particular subject. For example, I just did a search for Broken Social Scene as a test. Google Music returned info in three sections, “Artists,” “Albums,” and “Songs.” By clicking on the Artist link, which also includes a photo of the band, you are taken to a discography page where you can see the results sorted by popularity or by release date. On the left side of the screen is a tool bar with quick links to “artists websites,” “latest news,” “artist photos” and a “show all tracks” button that lists each album with album their respective covers and a complete track listing for each.
Also included are links to purchase full albums from iTunes, CD Universe, Amazon, and other retailers, or download each track from the iTunes Music Store, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc. In addition, users can look at reviews from a number of different web outlets, or see a count of positive vs. negative reviews. One thing that is missing however, is release date info. You can sort results via release date, but it doesn’t actually show the specific date an album was released (which would obviously be helpful).
I figured I’d give you the heads up on this, as many of us spend a good deal of the day scouring the web for band information as it is, and this should hopefully expedite the process. Enjoy.
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