Google does it for free, Apple $24.99 a year....you pick

The scan-and-match technology Google rolled out to Google Play last month in Europe is now available in the U.S.

The option saves you from having to upload all your music song by song; Google will scan your music library and add matching songs online via the cloud.

"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," the Google Play team said in a post to Google+.

The move "gets your songs into your online music library on Google Play much faster," Google said. Music will be streamed at up to 320 kbps.

Amazon and Apple have similar services, but both cost $25. Scan and match was added to Amazon Cloud Player in July, while iTunes Match went live in Nov. 2011.

Google Music launched just over a year ago, and it lets users store songs in the cloud for free and buy tracks directly from Google Play. Users can store and stream up to 20,000 songs in the Google cloud for free, and buy other songs from Google Play.