Amazon.com beat rivals Google and Apple to the punch with its new cloud-based music service Cloud Drive, snubbing music labels by deciding not to secure licenses for the tracks that users store in the online locker. Now, Google is following suit — announcing today a new cloud-based music service which also does not play ball with the labels. Operating under the less than remarkable name Music Beta by Google, the new offering is a bit surprising because the search giant has been in discussions with music labels for months about securing rights, according to The New York Times.

But it appears that Amazon’s foray forced Google to change course.

The new invitation-only offering, which will be announced at the Google I/O conference today, will allow users to store 20,000 songs for free. That compares to 1,000 free songs for Amazon.com’s Cloud Drive service.

Both services allow music lovers to store their collections in the cloud, and take songs with them on the go listening to tracks on Android devices.

Apple continues to work on its own cloud-based music service in cooperating with the labels, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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