Google and Tiscali enter online music market

Google is moving further into the music industry by launching its new OneBox service.

The online resource has been designed to drive traffic to legal online music providers, which Google believes should be good for the music industry.

OneBox, which has been set up in conjunction with Lala and MySpace, is only available in the US at the moment.

However, the search engine giant is hoping to introduce it in other markets in the near future.

Speaking to Music Week, a spokesperson for Google said the service should encourage people to use licensed services that pay record labels and artists.

The representative commented: "It is good for Google to be able to provide our users with even more relevant results, by directing them to songs licensed and hosted by music service partners."

This coincides with the launch of a new music download service from Tiscali called Music for Life, which includes more than six million songs and links to external sites such as YouTube.

Emerging and established artists from a wide range of genres will be represented on the web-based resource.

By Neil Hill