Google To Compete With iTunes

Google is set to launch a music service expected to compete with industry pioneer iTunes.

Google is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are as it steps up its rivalry with Apple, according to people familiar with the matter. Google’s Andy Rubin, the brains behind Google’s Android mobile operating system, has been leading conversations with the labels about what a new Google music service would look like, according to these sources. Rubin, Google’s vice president of engineering, hopes to have the service up and running by Christmas, two of these people said.

Earlier this year Apple bough the popular cloud-based music company LaLa and promptly shut it down, leading many to speculate that the next version of iTunes would be cloud-based. That was not the case.