Google’s Gaga, Too

Amazon’s music store melted yesterday under a crush of orders for Lady Gaga’s new album, which it was nearly giving away via a $0.99 one-day promotion.

Google’s music store, meanwhile, did just fine. Because Google doesn’t have a music store. It had planned on opening one, but after nearly a year of negotiations Google launched its music service this month without a store because negotiations with the labels broke down.

Bummer for Google and Gaga, I think. Because if Google did have a store, my hunch is that it would have a pretty good promotion lined up.

Here’s a hint of what could have been–a Gaga/Google ad promoting her new album and the search giant’s Chrome browser. It ran over the weekend, during her appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” and it’s easy enough to imagine a slightly tweaked version telling fans to head to Music Beta to grab the new album. Alas.