Google is about to announce a new online music service at its annual Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco, according to the Wall Street Journal report.

The Journal cited the sources familiar with the situation saying the service will operate in a testing mode initially and not be available to the public at large.

The Journal said Google has not sought licenses from the four major recorded-music companies and the new feature is likely to include a system that functions much like a remote hard drive.

Users could listen to songs they have uploaded to the service in a "streaming" mode, but will not be able to download the files, the WSJ reported.