Why is the music industry so cross with Google? #4

The key to understanding why the music industry is so angry with Google is that it’s not just about the amount of links or takedowns. This is about what broken promises (or, at least, the perception of broken promises).

In August 2012, Google announced that it would be downgrading piracy sites in its search rankings. SVP of engineering Amit Singhal explained in a blog post:

“Starting next week, we will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices we receive for any given site. Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results. This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily—whether it’s a song previewed on NPR’s music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed from Spotify.”

This was welcome news to the music industry bodies, who’d been lobbying hard for exactly this kind of action. The BPI and RIAA stepped up the number of takedown requests they were sending to Google, anticipating that they would start to see the results in search results. 

The music industry is angry with google, as they are allowing people to download music videos for free, this has lead to people getting free music, which means the music industry isn't making any money. This would mean people aren't purchasing albums of celebrities anymore as they can get it for free. However, as Beyonce launched her album without anyone being aware of it on iTunes, it meant people were forced to buy it as noone was told about it beforehand and people weren't able to download it off Google.