Earlier this year, Google launched a beta version of Google Music to a number of customers in the USA. It allowed users to upload their personal music collection to ‘the cloud’ and stream it to any of their Android mobile devices or their computer, with some offline playback available as well.
The company has now launched a public version of Google Music, which includes a music store offering over 13 million tracks from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, independent rights agency Merlin and over 1,000 independent labels. Independent artists can also sell their own tracks directly via the store.
The service, which is just available in the USA at the moment, is launching with a number of exclusive tracks from a diverse collection of artists including the Rolling Stones, Coldplay and Busta Rhymes.
Google Music will sync purchases, uploads and playlists across all devices. Tracks purchased from the music store within the Android Market are automatically added to the user’s Google Music library.
In addition, there’s a social element that lets customers share a free full play of a purchased song on Google+.