Google Music has introduced its free cloud-based music matching service in the U.S. at no cost, akin to a key feature of Apple's iTunes Match.

The updated music storage and streaming service is free, unlike similar services provided by iTunes and Amazon.

Previously limited to Europe, the service now allows users in the U.S. to match their personal music collections to music stored in Google's servers. The feature also allows users to play songs that they already own wherever they might be. As Apple Insider rightly notes, "the new matching feature will scan a music collection and quickly rebuild it in the cloud for free. Previously, users were required to upload their own music, a process that could take days for a collection with many gigabytes of audio."

With Google Music, users can match up to 20,000 songs from their music collection and those songs can be streamed back at up to 320 kbps at no cost. Google play has set a 300-megabytes limit per individual song and it provides no option to buy more storage to go beyond 20,000 tracks. When it comes to a similar Apple service - iTunes Match - users can scan their music library and match up with tracks available on the iTunes Store for $24.99 per year. iTunes Match has 5,000 tracks more than Google's free service.

Google Play made the announcement on its Google+ page. Here is the full text:

"Traveling this season and want to make sure your music goes with you? Add up to 20,000 songs from your music collection to Google Play and stream it to your Android devices and your computer, anywhere you go.

 Our new music matching feature gets your songs into your online music library on Google Play much faster. We'll scan your collection and quickly rebuild it in the cloud - all for free. And we'll stream your music back to you at up to 320 kbps. Amazon and iTunes only stream at 256 kbps.

This feature is live today for people in the US, following our European launch last month. Check it out: https://goo.gl/Hehq6!  It'll be music to your ears."