Google has big plans to expand its Play Music service by adding a Spotify-style music streaming service, with several reports confirming the plans.
According to both Financial Times and Bloomberg, Google is currently in talks with various record labels, trying to strike up deals that will allow it the rights to offer music to stream online.
Of course, Google isn’t the first to offer music streaming, not by a long way. We already have the likes of Rdio, Spotify, Pandora and many more, but it seems Google sees this as merely a way to offer more for those who use their systems, including Android and Chrome OS.
The launch of such a service would also put Google in a better position than its rivals Apple and Amazon, who have both been linked with music streaming services in the past but still haven’t come up with anything.
Financial Times believes that Google hopes to build a library consisting of ‘millions of songs’, which would hint at most of the world’s biggest record labels being on board to provide content. Spotify currently offers over 18 million songs, which is an impressive figure that no doubt Google will want to compete with.
Bloomberg believes that Google’s service will go live sometime between July and September, which would then make a May announcement at its annual I/O Developers Conference likely.
Google introduced Play Music at the end of 2011 and now it plays a big part on new Android devices, in particular the Nexus range of phones and tablets where it is the default music player. It currently offers users a simple app to play music stored on their phones or tablets and a digital locker of sorts, which allows music to be uploaded to the cloud from a PC or Mac and then streamed using a 3G or Wi-Fi connection.
We have a feeling all will be revealed at Google I/O 2013, which takes place May 15-17.