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Apple's cloud music service ready to rock and roll (Updated)

by Kelly Hodgkins Apr 22nd 2011 at 2:30PM

A report from AllThingsD suggests Apple has already inked deals with two of the four major record labels for its upcoming streaming music service. Apple's VP of Internet Services, Eddy Cue, is supposedly traveling to New York to complete negotiations with the remaining two music labels as early as Friday (today). This report contradicts an earlier report from Reuters which claims Apple has not yet signed any licensing agreements.

Unlike Amazon's cloud music service, which launched without signing a single licensing agreement, Apple may have the blessing of the top recording companies, such as Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony and EMI. Industry insiders claim these agreements will let Apple stream higher quality music tracks, offer an improved user interface and incorporate other features that would not be available to Amazon's Cloud Player service.

Industry executives that spoke to AllThingsD confirmed the music service would let iTunes users store their library in the cloud and access it from a variety of devices. Tracks purchased from iTunes as well as tracks stored on the user's hard drive could be added to this online digital locker. No word on when the streaming service will launch, but Apple is reportedly working quickly to tie up all the loose ends.

Update: CNET is reporting that Apple has signed a deal with Warner Music Group to offer its music catalog on Apple's rumored streaming music service.



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A report from AllThingsD suggests Apple has already inked deals with two of the four major record labels for its upcoming streaming...
 

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9 Comments

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Jameseh

Is this like Zune with Streaming and DRM downloads or just streaming?

April 25 2011 at 7:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matthew

No one is going to be "storing" any music in Apple's cloud. Your playlist.xml or whatever it's called file will be uploaded to the cloud and apple will give you access to those songs already on their server. Same way VOD services work. They're going to start with a base library of tracks and build from there.

April 24 2011 at 2:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tuaw

I suspect that Amazon's decision to go ahead without licensing has improved Apple's bargaining position with the music companies.

April 22 2011 at 7:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Beenyweenies

"Industry insiders claim these agreements will let Apple stream higher quality music tracks, offer an improved user interface and incorporate other features that would not be available to Amazon's Cloud Player service."

The wording of this could lead to some confusion. Amazon's service does not limit the quality of your music, since it's playing back whatever you uploaded. If your entire collection is 320kbps, that's what will stream back to you.

I also fail to see what features Apple could offer beyond Amazon's service, simply because the labels are in on it. Label-sponsored promotions? Maybe we'll get some clarification on that...

April 22 2011 at 6:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bob6stringer

I fully expect there to be nowhere near the 130 Gigs or so of music I want to host in the cloud. I have a feeling that will more than make-up for any rumored elimination of the annual MobileMe fee.

April 22 2011 at 5:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Batman

I don't understand why anyone would be too lazy to simply manage their music on their device and be able to listen even without a connection. Furthermore, why would you burn up valuable bandwidth needed to do things you genuinely need bandwidth for? I must be missing something here.

April 22 2011 at 5:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
PowerHouse

I can't wait for this to really happen. This will eliminate the need to have more storage on my iPhone 4 and I'll have my entire library at my disposal. Since I still have my unlimited data plan, life will be good indeed.

April 22 2011 at 3:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to PowerHouse's comment
T-Will

Now if I only had a signal at work (where I spend the most time listening to music on my iPhone).

April 22 2011 at 4:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Roberto

Has anybody ever heard of a Pogoplug?
This music service, as explained in the blog post, is redundant and more than likely ridiculously expensive.
A Napster-modeled deal would make more sense.

April 22 2011 at 2:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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