Rumor: Google May Announce Google Music

Is Honeycomb all that's on the menu for today?

Google’s got a big Android 3.0 event planned for 10 a.m. today, however, it seems Android 3.0 may not be all that is on the agenda. Rumor has it that we could finally see Google Music, Google’s foray into the cloud-based music business, and a web-based Android Market that we first saw at Google I/O last year.

Android and Me cites a “regular” and seemingly reliable source that says Google will show off a web-based Android Market. Interesting in itself, especially considering Apple’s recent launch of the Mac App Store, but that’s not the biggest rumor regarding today’s event.

A Business Insider article posted last week talks about Andy Rubin’s role in the company’s music ventures. Rubin is supposedly working on the venture with former YouTube lawyer, Zahavah Levine, who is trying to acquire licenses from the ‘big four’ music labels. The service would see users upload their music libraries to Google's servers and then sync them with their mobile devices. Though sources were quick to warn that no deals with record labels had been signed, BI reports that there could be an unveiling as soon as this month, and it’s possible Google wants to use a public unveiling to put pressure on the record labels to sign.

Obviously today’s biggest item is going to be Android 3.0, which Google has promised demos of (including some hands-on time with a Honeycomb device). However, Android 3.0 is so talked about, and has been so long in the works, that it's quite hard not to get excited about the extra, little announcements Google has got planned. Let the countdown begin!

_{(via Engadget)}