Google Music Beta invites start rolling out

Google, having finally lifted the lid on the worst kept secret of all time at the I/O conference earlier this month, has begun to make good on its promise of Google Music Beta. The service has been live on US Motorola Xooms since the day of its announcement, but now the streaming service is starting to hit users who signed up for the program on Google’s site.

The invite, pictured above, lets the chosen ones upload up to 20,000 of their favourite songs to Google’s servers, from where they can stream them to any computer or Android mobile device via Wi-Fi or 3G. Google Music Beta also allows users to store and sync their uploaded songs on their mobile device, which means you’ll be able to access your music on the move when you don’t have a data connection.

Think of it as being like Spotify, except you’ve got to upload all the music first. Google should be looking to roll this service out swiftly, as Apple are expected to unveil their own take on it in June, which will have the benefit of record label backing.

Is Google Music the future of content access or just a waste of bandwidth? Let us know on the Gadget Helpline Twitter feed.