UPDATED: Watch out iTunes – Google plans a music service, launch Oct. 28

Apple’s iTunes empire seems set to meet a bigger than normal threat, on news former ally Google now plans its own online music service.

Details on Google’s music plan are vague right now, we don’t know if it will be offering a la carte downloads, music streaming, subscription services or what – it’s all open to speculation.

TechCrunch is reporting that multiple sources are discussing the Google plan, with the company “spending the last several weeks securing content for the launch of the service from the major music labels.”

The report suggests the name of the service might be ‘Google Audio’. The service will reportedly be available for US users.

UPDATE: "Google will partner with iLike and LaLa for their new music service, we’ve learned. And the announcement date is Wednesday, October 28, 2009." Service to be integrated into Google Search! (For some reason I feel unhappy about that – like – the world’s biggest search engine selling music through the search engine? Doesn’t feel right, somehow). Read it here.