Google Music Expected to be a Download Store

We all know it’s coming. We may not know officially when or how, but we do know it’s coming. In recent development though Google has really been offering proposals to various record labels in an mission to jump start their music service. According to Billboard, “Google is looking to lock record labels into a 3 year contract.” Subscription services, paired with a cloud-based offering, could be part of Google’s Music game plan. Google is considering a $25 monthly plan, and would allow customers to store their music online in a “digital music locker.”  Customers could also choose to purchase songs or albums   la carte. Google locker subscribers would have the additional option of having their purchases transferred directly to their cloud-based account. Given Google’s choice to allow music to be accessed from a cloud, there sounds like there could be a mobile tie-in with its music service. The locker would also have social networking features, such as allowing users to send playlists to fellow subscribers, entitling those users to listen to each song in its entirety once. This could play into their social networking overlay aspect as well. Google’s Android operating system currently offers Amazon Mp3 for over-the-air downloads, but there isn’t a service from Google itself. A Google music application, that could pull songs down from the cloud instead of clogging up mobile storage space, could be the perfect compliment to its Android operating system.