The that the anticipated will be closely linked to the company's four-month-old social network.

The Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that users of the new music store would be able to recommend songs to friends on Google+ and that those friends would be able to give the songs a free listen. They could then buy and download the songs as MP3 files.

The report said will likely be launched within a few weeks.

"If you could buy music right from Google, that would be cool," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research.

"That would probably drive song sales for Google. For Google+, it gives me yet another look into what my community is doing. And it's good for advertisers," he added.