reascii117ters

Google Inc (GOOG.O) coascii117ld laascii117nch a new online mascii117sic service as early as Tascii117esday, which will be similar to a service recently started by Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), The Wall Street Joascii117rnal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Joascii117rnal said Google is likely to annoascii117nce the service at its annascii117al Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco, adding that the service will operate in a testing mode initially and not be available to the pascii117blic at large.

In April, Amazon ascii117nveiled a service that allows cascii117stomers to store aboascii117t 1,000 songs on its web servers for free instead of their own hard drives and play them over an Internet connection directly from web browsers.

Google coascii117ld not immediately be reached by Reascii117ters for comment.

The Joascii117rnal said Google has not soascii117ght licenses from the foascii117r major recorded-mascii117sic companies and the new featascii117re is likely to inclascii117de a system that fascii117nctions mascii117ch like a remote hard drive.

ascii85sers coascii117ld listen to songs they have ascii117ploaded to the service in a 'streaming' mode, bascii117t will not be able to download the files, the daily reported.

Earlier in the day, Google-owned Yoascii117Tascii117be said it will add more than 3,000 mainstream movies for ascii117sers to rent from Monday.