Record Labels Withhold Key to Google's Digital Music Locker [REPORT]

Credit:

Delays can be attributed to the reservations of record label executives, who are said to be balking at the idea of a digital locker for storing and streaming music in part because they fear users would use the locker to store and stream pirated tracks.

"What's been holding things up is that the labels will do downloads, but they need to know more about the locker service, and Google really wants to keep the two together," the executive said to the New York Post.

According to previous reports, the "Google Music" service was expected to launch by Christmas and have two key components: a digital download store and a cloud-based subscription locker service costing $25 per year. The digital locker feature would allow users to store their music -- purchased from Google or added from their own collection -- for streaming across multiple devices.

Defining Google's streaming rights around this locker system seems to be the major sticking point. This is a relatively common hardship for all cloud-based music services. Even Spotify, the super trendy U.K. freemium music streaming service, may not be faring so well -- it was recently reported that the startup lost $26.7 million in 2009.

Still, all may not be lost. The source holds out a sliver of hope for a pre-Christmas launch and suggests a late first quarter 2011 release is more likely. Unfortunately for Google, the delay would mean a missed opportunity to capitalize on holiday music sales.