Google, it seems, plan to launch a music download service. Luckily though, they're keeping it within the trend of cloud-based subscriptions. The twist? It's specifically for Android.

This comes after lots of talk (faffing) about a Google music creation throughout the last couple of years. Compared to everything we've heard before, the big focus is now unsurprisingly on the Android system. It's logical, considering whilst users can buy music directly from Amazon and use Spotify, the music player is the major turn-off when buying an Android handset (I find it a little clunky but fine).

This still borders on a bit of rumour mongering but at Google I/O, Google showed off new technology that would allow Android users to stream music from computers to phones. More interestingly, the Wall Street Journal reports that this has morphed into Google's soon-to-launch plan: Initially they will be launching a download service linked to the service engine, and by 2011 we'll see the launch of an online download tied to Google search. "The ultimate goal is to have a cloud-based subscription service that could stream directly to Android (Android)-based devices."

Ah, yes. When we first read the news we were a bit excited that there might be moves to adapt the system to make adding and syncing your own music easier. However, whilst this quite notably this sounds a little like 'Spotify for Android' Christina Warren reckons there's a lot of potential behind it. If we're able to stream our subscriptions from computer to handset, then maybe we'll see a future of shared libraries bouncing from Google TV to home stereo, or cars with Android-embedded systems. Which begs the questions.. are we stepping towards the death of physical music, and will anyone miss it?