Google has launched its Google Music service, featuring major artists on labels including Universal, Sony, and EMI. Google Music offers over 13 million songs at prices ranging from $0.99 to $1.29, automatically syncs a users' music library across devices, and lets users share songs on Google+.

Google launched its Google Music streaming music service on Android Market, letting consumers find, purchase, and share over 13 million songs. Participating record labels include Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI, as well as more than 1,000 independent labels, says Google.

The company launched Google Music Beta last May, letting consumers upload up to 20,000 songs formatted in iTunes or Windows formats to the search provider's cloud for free. Now this music storage locker service is becoming a full streaming music service.

Google Music store on Android Market
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The new service, launched Nov. 16 to U.S. users, automatically syncs users' entire music libraries across all of their devices from the cloud. It's accompanied by Google's new music store in the Android Market, where users can sample free songs and test Google Music if they haven't already signed up for the storage locker. Songs and albums from Dave Matthews Band, The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, and Pearl Jam are available.

Google Music is said to work with Android Market's personalized recommendation engine. Consumers may purchase single songs, ranging from $0.99 to $1.29, or entire albums from their computer, Android smartphone, or tablet, to instantly add them to their Google Music library. As a bonus — and as a way to boost user engagement in its nascent social network — Google is letting users share one full play of a song they purchased free with their contacts on Google+. This somewhat confusing sharing scheme is explained in detail by Search Engine Land.

The service, soon to be available in an Android app (pictured at right), goes up against other services such as Apple's iTunes Match, Amazon's Cloud Drive and Player, and Facebook. The latter integrates with streaming music specialist Spotify.

While Google came to terms with Universal, Sony, and EMI, Warner Music Group — whose artists include Led Zeppelin, Green Day, and Death Cab for Cutie — is not on board with this launch. Google has also inked deals with independent rights agency Merlin, along with indie labels such as Merge Records, Warp Records, and Matador Records.

In addition, Google launched a Google Music artist hub that allows any artist with all the proper distribution rights to build an artist page, upload original tracks, set prices, and sell content directly to fans. Artists who do this will keep 70 percent of their track sales.

"This goes for new artists as well as established independent artists, like Tiesto, who debuts a new single on Google Music today," stated Andy Rubin, Google's senior vice president of mobile, in a Google Music blog announcement. Rubin was the man responsible for striking deals with the record labels.

Google Music promo on YouTube
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Availability

Google Music is available now via any web browser, and is also available via the Android Market. Single-song purchases range in price from $0.99 to $1.29, says Google.

More information may be found at the Google Music store on Android Market, as well as in this blog announcement by Andy Rubin and this Google Music overview page.

Clint Boulton is a writer for eWEEK.

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