Google Music could come with some free tracks available through Google+ when it launches next month.
Sources close to the project told the Wall Street Journal that Google+ will be an integral part of the iTunes-competitor; users will be able to recommend songs to their Google+ pals, who would then be able to listen to the recommendations once for free.
If the pretty little ditties take your friends' fancies, they can then buy the MP3 to download for a fee – probably around 99 cents in the US (79p in the UK).
It's very similar to the plans leaked last week about the service, whereby users can share your music library with friends via email.
Thank you for the music
Google is also reportedly looking to launch the music store in the next two weeks, but will only have agreements in place with two of the four major labels in time, which will massively stunt the Google+ recommendations plan.
Google isn't the first company to bank on social networking to boost music services; Spotify and Facebook are practically joined at the hip, while RIM recently launched BBM Music which uses BlackBerry Messenger to share music between friends.
There's no guarantee that us Brits will be privy to the Google Music service at all, of course; the Music by Google Beta is only available in the US and we can imagine that with major song rights issues to contend with, Google will take its sweet time bringing its musical product to the UK.
From Wall Street Journal
