You find a song you love. You buy the MP3. You want to share it with your friends to see if they love it too. In the past your only option was to send out a link to the 30-second samples offered by Amazon and other online music stores, but it looks like Google is planning to change ^[1] that. Earlier today, Android chief Andy Rubin confirmed at a conference that Google is planning a new online MP3 store to go with its new Google Music Beta ^[2] which lets users store tunes they already own online for access from any web-enabled device. The new store, Rubin said, would “have a little twist–it will have a little Google in it.”

He said no more, but industry insiders seem to have figured out what the twist will be: A social element. Music industry insiders report that Google has been discussing a feature that would allow Google Music users to recommend a song they’ve bought to a friend, and if that friend is also a Google Music user, he or she could listen to it–once. If a second friend recommended it, they could listen to it a second time, but that’s all. The free listens would top out at two.

Nonetheless you can see the various clever elements of this plan: Allowing music sharing to become more social, allowing users to check out a song, especially one their friends like, before buying it. And encouraging new signups: The song-sharing only works if the person being shared with is also a Google Music user.

On the other hand, Apple and Amazon have a heckuva head start. It should be fascinating to see how this plays out.

Read more at CNET ^[1].