Google, partners to offer music downloads: reports

(Orpheus)

Google plans to allow users to listen to songs or buy them directly from search results pages in a partnership to be unveiled next week with online music sites, according to reports Wednesday.

Google has teamed up with iLike, a music discovery site purchased by MySpace in August for a reported 20 million dollars, and LaLa, another popular online music site, in creating the new feature, technology blog TechCrunch said.

It said it would be announced at an event to be held in Hollywood on Wednesday.

According to TechCrunch and other reports, search results for a song, a band or a particular singer will be displayed in a box at the top of the page and users will be able to directly stream songs through iLike and LaLa.

The Wall Street Journal said users would also be given the option to purchase songs from Apple's iTunes or Amazon.com.

It said the four major record labels -- Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment and Vivendi's Universal Music Group, have licensed their catalogs for the service and independent labels were also expected to participate.

The Journal said revenue from sales would be split between the music services and the record labels.