The sound of music?
Google is rumoured to have high hopes of launching its iTunes rival, Google Music before Christmas, despite not securing any licensing deals with major music labels yet.
According to Reuters' sources, Google's VP of Engineering, Andy Rubin (the brains behind Android) is presently in talks with music execs about what Google's musical download store might look like.
He is reportedly keen to get the shop up and running before Christmas, while the music industry will be hoping for an early Christmas present, because it wants to cash in on a Apple/Google musical showdown as both companies seek to dominate the download and advertising mobile spaces.
Apple currently dominates the download music market, reportedly accounting for a massive 70 percent of all digital music sales in the USA, but Google is keen to ink deals with music labels and make inroads into Apple's market share, something the music industry is encouraging.
One anonymous music exec told Reuters: "Finally here's an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform. What you'll have is a very powerful player in the market that's good for the music business."
While the music industry was initially very grateful to Apple for making music downloads mainstream, it has been increasingly worried that its dominance in the market means it has too much control in setting the price of downloads and determining digital formats, plus reportedly thinks a strong competitor could expand the market further.
However, the indystry might be cautious in predicting huge success for Google too early as fellow giant Amazon reportedly has just 12 percent of music market share despite launching its download sites some three years ago and Google doesn't have a track record in selling products to consumers either.
Many music industry commentators believe Google and Apple were bound to go head-to-head in the music space, predicting that mobile downloads and streaming is the next major battlefield.
Labels reportedly hope the roll out of cloud-based services form the two rivals could boost the uptake of mobile impulse buys and had high hopes Apple would have announced iTunes has cloud-capabilities at this week's event. However, it seems both firms eventually plan on cloud musical offerings as Apple snapped up LaLa media last December, while Google acquired Simplify Media, another cloud-based site.
