Google unveiled its new Google Music service in a live event held in Los Angeles today. This music service is an extension of what Google kicked off with its Music Beta service earlier this year. Music Beta was solely a digital music locker service that let you upload and stream your music from Google’s cloud. The new music service is a full-fledged music store that will be integrated into the Android market.
The service will be available for free and will let you store up to 20,000 songs at 320kbps. It will launch with all new players for Android devices and the web. The new web music player and new music manager software will be available today. For Android devices, a new version of the Google music player will be available for Android 2.2 devices. It will also require the latest version of the Android market and will hit handsets in the next few days.
Google will launch its service with Universal, EMI, Sony Music, and several independent labels. Taking a page from Amazon’s App Store, there will be a free track per day and several Google Music-exclusive tracks from the Rolling Stones, ColdPlay, and others. The music service will also include a social feature that will let you send a track to a friend using Google +. Your friends can listen to the track once and then purchase it, if they like it.
T-Mobile is a carrier launch partner for Google Music. The wireless carrier will let its customers buy music through their Android phones and pay for those charges via their monthly bill. There will also be free music content just for T-Mobile customers from Drake, Busta Rhymes and others. This music will be available at launch and will continue on a regular basis. The store is live now at now at music.google.com. Check it out and let us know what you think.