Google music set for holiday debut

2010-09-04 12:00

Los Angeles - Google is planning to launch a digital music service by the fourth quarter and has been encouraged by the major record labels who are hoping that it serves as a counterweight to the dominance of Apple, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

The service would operate through computer browsers and Google's increasingly popular Android mobile phones to allow both streaming and downloadable music, the report said.

Apple currently controls some 80% of digital music sales via its iTunes store and the music industry has "rolled out the red carpet for Google" as a way to crack Apple's dominance, the report said.

Talks are currently centred on whether the service would run on a subscription or a la carte basis and on whether thea free-streaming music service would be ad-supported or built in to the cost of the phone.

In recent months Google's Android has emerged as the main competitor to Apple's iPhone, and the music service would place the two companies even more squarely in competition.

- SAPA