Google launches free music streaming service

Google has launched a free version of its music streaming service. Google Play Music has offered a monthly subscription service for two years but this launch is the first free version of the streaming service. It is available online and will be available on Android and iOS by the end of this week, Elias Roman, product manager, Google said. 

Unlike Google's subscription music service, the free service will carry ads, be unavailable offline and exclude certain songs. Roman said millions of people look at Google Play Music but are not ready to pay for a subscription.

Google declined to say how many subscribers it has but said they more than doubled in 2014 from the previous year. But rivals Pandora, Spotify and Beats Music had far more mobile downloads than Google Play Music in 2014, according to data from analytics firm App Annie.