LOS ANGELES (AP) — Internet power player Google plans to launch a music search service.

According to people familiar with the matter, Google Inc. next week will launch music search pages that will package images of musicians and bands, album artwork, links to news, lyrics, videos and song previews, along with a way to buy songs on one search results page.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to speak publicly about the deal before next Wednesday's announcement.

The package is similar to how companies get individual pages for Google's financial news service.

The effort also marks a new way for Google and the recording companies to promote alternatives to Apple Inc.'s iTunes, the leader in song downloads.

Song previews and sales on Google will be provided by online music retailer Lala and iLike, a music recommendation application bought by News Corp.'s MySpace this month. Song previews will appear in Lala or iLike online music players, and users won't have to navigate away from the search results page. Videos will appear through iLike's player.

The major recording companies — Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. and EMI Group PLC. — pitched the idea to Google a year ago and are cooperating with the project, according to one person.

The music companies will benefit by sharing revenue from song sales with Lala and iLike, while making the discovery, experimentation and buying process simple for Google users.

Google hopes to improve itself as a destination for music discovery. Although Google won't get a share of song sales, it will collect revenue from advertising that will be shown with the search results, according to the people familiar with the plans.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment.