Google Music Officially Launches

Google debuted its Google Music service in a press event Wednesday afternoon in Hollywood, offering a digital download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Store and Amazon. Google Music debuted in Beta in the spring, but only offered a cloud storage service for up to 20,000 digital songs. As reported this week, three of the four major labels have inked licensing deals with Google. Warner Music is the lone holdout. The service still offers over 13 million songs for sale out of the gate.

Google will also sell music via the Android store, which already offers books and movie rentals. Google Music also integrates with the Google+ social networking service and has a recommendations engine, using your friends' music preferences to help users discover new music. Users can share songs they've purchased via Google Music with friends on G+.

The service also includes Artist Hub, a section for musicians to distribute and sell their own music, setting their own price. Artists create their own page in Google Music for $25 and keep 70 percent of the revenue generated.

As part of the launch of Google Music, the service is offering six, previously-unreleased Rolling Stones live concerts. Coldplay will play an exclusive concert for the service, while Busta Rhymes is giving away a new song via the service. Google promises a free song to download every day. Google is also partnering with T-Mobile, with T-Mobile customers able to buy songs via their account with the mobile provider. They will also access more new, free content.