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Google Music, the search giant’s cloud music service, has been labelled an ‘oxymoron’ by the outgoing Warner Music Group, chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr.

Google Music launched in the US in November 2011. Photo: AFP

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Talking at a digital conference in the US, Bronfman Jr said that the search giant “was still unclear about how it wants to deal with the content industry”, which had manifested itself when Google tried to sign a music content deal with Warner. He inferred that Google was now contradicting itself by trying to become a content player rather than just an aggregator and host.

Google Music launched last November in the US only, and offers a free cloud service for listening to music and downloading tracks from the Android Market.

Warner has yet to sign a deal with the service, but the former chairman said he had no issue with Google – but that it had to find the correct approach to content companies like Apple.

Surprisingly, Bronfman Jr, who has now departed the music group but will remain on the board, praised Spotify during the ‘All Things D’ conference, despite having previously hinted that Warner would pull out of free streaming music services in 2010.

He said: “We see Spotify as incrementally positive. It’s not slowing down music sales or downloads. We would all love to make more money from Spotify, but Spotify needs to make money, too. But artists should know that it is a real and growing revenue stream.”

This is a step change from his position nearly two years ago, when he said: “”Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry and as far as Warner Music is concerned will not be licensed. The get all your music you want for free, and then maybe with a few bells and whistles we can move you to a premium price strategy, is not the kind of approach to business that we will be supporting in the future”.

Last week Spotify, in which Warner is understood to have a small stake, announced it had signed up three million paying subscribers.