YouTube Merch Store Could Be a Gateway to the Google MP3 Store

If you're a musician, then YouTube just got a lot cooler for you. The recently announced YouTube Merch Store will let you create your own digital "merch table" right on your YouTube channel. They're working with TopSpin for merchandise, concert tickets and experiences (no details on what shape "experiences" might be) and Songkick will kick in concert info, presumably meaning tour dates. There's room for future partners to be brought into the fold as well. The Merch Store has the painfully plain "Google look," something that will hopefully be upgraded over time with the ongoing Google redesign.

Check out more about steaming music sites in the Spacelab Streaming Music Guide.

Independent labels should dig the fact that Google is reaching out by creating a program to partner with them when their band's music is played on YouTube, including user generated content. Think of the royalties from all of the blog embeds of a YouTube video, and that could be a nice piece of change. There are plenty of details that should come around eventually, it's hard to imagine that this will be the sum total of the YouTube Merch Store.

The YouTube Merch Store is claiming to lean on both the Amazon MP3 Store and iTunes for selling downloads, but as this weekend's news predicts, a Google MP3 store might be just around the corner. If that's the case, we can expect that it will be integrated into the YouTube Merch Store as well. Apparently Google is in licensing talks with the major recording labels for a Google MP3 store to go along with their Google Music Beta.

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