Google’s new search engine for music has officially launched and is promising to make finding new music easier than ever. Google claims that 2 of their top 10 searches of all time are music related, so this addition to their search capabilities was a no brainer.

Google Music will be incorporated directly into the regular Google search engine, so all you have to do is search for what you’re looking for, as you normally would. For example, you can look up anything from the names of the artist’s or band’s, the album, songs, or sections of the lyrics, and your top results will be from Google Music.

The service is itself doesn’t host any music, but it brings up results from nine music related companies that match what you searched for. The main companies who Google has partnered with are Lala, Myspace, Imeem, Rhapsody, Pandora, Universal, Sony, Warner, and EMI. Each service might vary slightly, but expect it to work similarly to iTunes. You will be able to listen to 30 second previews of songs and will also have the option to buy them.

Songwriters and music publishers have been assured that they will be paid royalties for the use of their music. Independent artists will welcome that with open arms, but for major label artists, they will most likely still be shafted. The major labels consider online music sales to be a part of something they call “New Medium” or “New Media.” Most major label recording contracts are very vague when it comes to this and basically allow the labels and aggregators to keep the majority of the profits.

From a user’s perspective tho, this will allow a quick, easy, and legal way to find and download music. Ironically, it’s very similar to how torrents work, except in a legal corporate way.

Here’s a video from Google explaining “Google Music:”

You can check it yourself by going to Google’s landing page:
http://www.google.com/landing/music/

The service now works in the United States, but as usual, Canada will have to wait a little longer before the service is implemented. Bing has taken approximately 9% of the search engine market from Google since Microsoft launched it earlier this year. Google is hoping the launch of their music search engine will help regain some of the business they have lost. The wildly popular social network, Facebook, is not a part of the Google Music deal, but they also have plans to incorporate a music store. It looks like companies and record labels are finally embracing the Internet. They’re only about a decade late, but it’s a step in the right direction.