While it looked like Google Music’s digital retail platform would not include songs from Sony Music Entertainment’s library earlier this week, according to a Bloomberg Newsweek story Google has since struck a deal to offer songs from Sony for the new music service being officially unveiled 11/16. That leaves Warner Music Group as the last major label holdout—over pricing and piracy concerns.
Universal Music Group and EMI Group have already signed on. The new digital service will add premium downloads to its existing Google Music Beta cloud streaming service, which operates without label agreements in place. Music Beta enables consumers to upload and store their digital music collections via the web for streaming playback across Flash-enabled connected devices including Android smartphones and tablets as well as the desktop. Users may store as many as 20,000 songs for free–the service syncs activity on different devices, meaning that playlists created on the user’s smartphone will automatically show up on their computers.
Google’s new music download store reportedly will allow copies of songs to be stored online and played from multiple devices. Songs will cost 99 cents to $1.29, though Google may offer discounts.
