Musimuse.com

Streaming music has been the focal point for all too many startups in the last several years. Companies like Pandora, Imeem, Lala, and now Spotify have invested tens of millions of dollars, only finding that it is really a hard nut to crack. After all, how exactly are you going to make money? The struggles of Rhapsody have shown that not many people are willing to pay for a streaming service, and audio ads haven’t really taken off in the way that people thought they would.

In recent months however, things have started to pick up. First off, Pandora raised an additional $35 Million to accelerate growth. Then, Swedish upstart Spotify announced it was bringing its slick new application to the US sometime in the next few months.

Now, we hear that Google is launching its own music streaming platform. Exactly how this will sync up with cellphones and mobile devices is unclear, but having the trusted Google brand name (and wallet) behind a streaming service could really push this market to the next level.

If even one of these companies manages to reach profitability and shows some ability to scale, it could usher in a new golden era for the music business. Exciting times ahead!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 7:17 pm and is filed under music business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.