According to Director of Android product management Jamie Rosenberg, the service will be of the ‘digital locker’ format – whereby Google will give out a slew of free virtual GB in which to store music to be streamed from multimple devices. Unlike Amazon, Google Music won’t offer users the chance to buy tracks.
This is apparently due to a breakdown of talks between the search giant and the record labels. “A couple of the major labels were less focused on the innovative vision that we put forward,” says Rosenberg, “and more interested in in an unreasonable and unsustainable set of business terms.”
Instead, Google’s looked to best Amazon in terms of storage. Whereas the (currently US-only) Amazon Cloud Drive offers 5GB of storage equalling 1,200 songs, Google Music will let users store and access 20,000. It will also boast a feature that automatically generates playlists.
The full announcement will happen when America wakes up later this afternoon, so stay tuned. Would you be interested in a music service from Google? Let us know on the Gadget Helpline Twitter feed.