Google Music Beta coming to the cloud

Google is preparing to launch a test version of a new digital music service that will enable users to upload their music libraries to the company's servers. It is expected to be announced today at the company's I/O Developer Conference in San Francisco, according to Zahavah Levine, one of the executives in charge of getting the music service off the ground.

While Google and Levine have been negotiating to obtain licenses from the four largest record companies for more than a year, the test version of the service will launch without licensing. 

This is the same strategy that Amazon employed when it launched its cloud-music service in March.

"We're launching a beta service called Music Beta by Google that lets' users upload their personal music libraries to their own account on Google's servers," said Levine. Users can "access those libraries anytime or anywhere from Web-connected devices," he said.

For more on this story, read Unlicensed Google Music arrives tomorrow on CNET News.