According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is about to launch a music download service based on its ubiquitous search engine later this year. This will be followed by a subscription service in 2011, and is set to end months of speculation about Google’s plans to end iTunes’ stranglehold on legal music downloading. No record labels have yet admitted to striking deals with Google, but the WSJ believes it is planning to offer a music service tied in with its Android phone platform.

The download service will offer paid downloads by automatically linking to the store when a Google search is conducted for an artist or song. Google aims to muscle in on digital music market leader iTunes’ market share as it rushes to challenge Apple which is believed to be about to launch a cloud-based version of iTunes to complement the Apple iTunes store.

This service would also nip in the bud potential legal action from the British Phonographic Institute which has sent Google a cease and desist letter on behalf of major record labels warning them that it must remove search links to illegal downloads. Replacing these with legal downloads and watch the labels fall over themselves to jump in to bed with the search engine.

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