Google pitching online music service to labels: Billboard

(IKO)

Internet search powerhouse Google is trying to put together an online music service that would take on Apple's market-ruling iTunes, according to a report at Billboard.com.

Google is courting record labels for a service that would let people download songs in digital format or store music in the Internet "cloud" for streaming to online devices, according to unnamed sources cited by Billboard.

Google is reportedly proposing charging annual subscriptions of about 25 dollars to let people store music online and then stream or download tunes to Internet-linked gadgets as desired, Billboard said.

Google is seeking to have the service include letting customers listen once to any song all the way through before limiting them to a 30-second sample of the song, according to Billboard.

The service would reportedly have aspects of Lala.com, an online music website bought by Apple in December and closed early this year.

Lala boasted a playlist of more than eight million tunes and hosted users' digital music collections on the Web, allowing access from varied locations in what it described as "music in the clouds."

Apple has not disclosed its plans for Lala but there has been speculation that it may adapt its technology to create a Web-hosted music subscription service of some kind.

Lala launched in 2006 as an online vision of a vintage San Francisco record store where people tipped each other off to artists, shopped for CDs and traded used ones.