Google Music Search Debuts

So the rumors were true. On Wednesday, Google (GOOG) launched its new music search service, Google Discover Music. In partnership with several online music retail outlets, Google now offers the experience of immediately listening to a snippet of any song by any artist, with an option to buy the song on the spot.

From now on, whenever you search for a song, musician, group, or lyric, Google will flash the artist at the top of your search results. If you searched for a particular song or lyric, the company will offer you a link to hear a piece of the song right away, along with a link to one of its numerous business partners (imeem, lala, rhapsody, et al), where you can buy the song for 99 cents. If you searched for an artist, a sampling of his or her work will appear next to an image of the artist.

As we mentioned last week, this has to be seen as a direct challenge to iTunes, the premier seller of music online and a key service of Apple (AAPL), once a natural ally of Google's, but now increasingly its bitter rival. We'll gawk as this all plays out in the next couple of months. Meanwhile, here's a quick tutorial of how Google Discover Music works.