Google has been talking to record labels about a download music store that would include à-la-carte purchases as well as a subscription component that would cost $25 a year, according to Billboard. Consumers would be able to purchase music by the track or album, and also pay yearly to store songs in the cloud. Then, they would be able to access their personal library, by either streaming or downloading, from any Internet-connected device.
Google Music would likely also include social networking features and P2P services. Intriguingly, the search giant is trying to let each customer listen to the whole song once before purchasing (30-second samples would be available after that). That's similar to how Lala worked before Apple bought it and killed it.
We can see the advantages of having our music hosted in the cloud, but an important question will be whether the service will let you upload songs you have already purchased. Furthermore, how much storage would this digital music locker have? Consumers will likely have a lot of questions, but before that, we're sure artists, labels, and publishers will want to know how much of a cut they will be getting. In other words, the details are still up in the air, and if this service ever launches, chances are it will be quite different than what we're hearing about right now.