Apple (AAPL) has the No. 1 music store in the world with its iTunes -- and that gives the company a considerable lead with any content plans moving forward.

Google (GOOG) wants a part of that action as well and is planning its own online music store to compete with Apple and Amazon (AMZN) according to various news reports this week. But Google may have to forge ahead without cooperation from much of the music industry.

The company has talked to all four major labels about participating in its service, but only EMI Group, owned by Citigroup (C), is close to a deal, The Wall Street Journal reports. EMI has Katy Perry and Gorillaz among its artists.

Google is rushing to launch the store in connection with its Music Beta music-in-the-cloud service. The service is similar to ones launched already by Apple and Amazon that let you store music online and stream tunes from smartphones and other devices.

The following video discusses how Google is moving beyond search.

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Google has run into problems with the music industry over financial terms and concerns that the company wasn't coming down hard enough on piracy.

"Some at the labels continue to pressure Google to do more piracy busting," writes Greg Sandoval at Cnet News. "They have suggested that obtaining content might be easier if the company showed more prowess at protecting that content."

Google's efforts come as Apple continues to show just how far ahead it is in this business. Apple this week rolled out its iCloud remote storage service, and it has a clear advantage over Google and Amazon.

Apple will scan your iTunes collection and automatically populate your iCloud space with those same songs. Other services require users to upload each song in their libraries, which can be time consuming.