It seems as though Google is competing with Apple in every single possible way nowadays. This time it's music. Andy Rubin, Vice President of Engineering, has been pitching ideas to music label executives to launch an online music store to compete directly with iTunes. A planned launch is set for the holiday season.

iTunes currently accounts for 70% of all digital music sales in the United States. Andy Rubin may be "the brains behind Android", but he has a long way to go if it he wants to effectively compete with that. The only advantage right now is the fact that some music labels are starting to get -- well, pissed -- with Apple's controlling habits on most of the content available in iTunes.

Finally here's an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform. What you'll have is a very powerful player in the market that's good for the music business. -- Anonymous label executive

One other factor can come into play: YouTube. With YouTube, Google would quickly be able to collect information on the types of music people are searching for and find a good place for it in marketing the music store. There's a large number of YouTube users that frequently search for music or music videos on YouTube.

Google could also take the "cloud" approach with their online music store, a weak spot for Apple at the moment. There's no current way to access your iTunes library anywhere there's an internet connection, although with the acquisition of Lala by Apple a few months ago, this feature could be well on its way.

If Google were to put Apple right in its crosshairs, would this be another miserable attempt by Google to move into every market possible? Of course this is another attempt, but with the right skill and the right marketing, this may not be so miserable.