Rumor: Apple's cloud service comes with subscription fee
CNET has heard from "music industry insiders" that Apple's long-rumored cloud service is indeed coming, but with a subscription fee. When it first launches, the service, which supposedly will act as a "music locker," allowing you to store and access a music collection in the cloud, may be available free of charge. But the plan is to eventually charge for it, and most estimations (also known as guesses) are falling in the $20 per year range.
We'll have to see how this all plays out -- Google is also reportedly working on a service like this, but of course, the details are still up in the air. And it remains to be seen what deal Apple is working out with the record companies as well. Will only your iTunes-purchased music be able to stay in the cloud, or will we be able to upload any music that we have installed in iTunes? Or will, as Billboard suggests, Apple try running a Netflix-style music service, where a standard fee gets you access to a certain library of music?
Either way, it'll be good to see whatever Apple's been working on finally revealed, hopefully later on this year.
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CNET has heard from "music industry insiders" that Apple's long-rumored cloud service is indeed coming, but with a subscription fee....
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Lol John.butterfly
April 27 2011 at 2:20 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI guess details about cloud services will always be "up in the air"...
April 27 2011 at 2:15 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHardly surprising, Sony's new cloud music service Qriocity has a monthly charge.
Even Amazon's free service is is a ridiculous 5GB (and that's with them operating an unlicensed service) and is BYO files.
Someone has to pay for all the bandwidth and disk space, if it's not the users then it'll be ads, selling music preferences, demographics and users' track lists "fingerprints".
I prefer to enjoy my own music ad free and without worrying what dozens of unnamed companies (or Sony) are making of me everytime I change tracks.
this is just apple spreading the word, just so they can "surprise" everyone with NO fee, just as with the ipad which was rumored to be like 1k$
just chill you're part of an experiment, as usual
RUMOR: Apple might not let you stream all your music over their bandwidth for free.
Really?
"Or will, as Billboard suggests, Apple try running a Netflix-style music service, where a standard fee gets you access to a certain library of music?"
Once again, Zune Pass, Rhapsody, and Napster get no respect...
You need to earn respect before you can get some.
People still remember the whole Playsforsure furore, Real still doesn't deserve your money after making you play their shell game just to find the free version of RealPlayer and Napster sold out.
I didn't know Real were still in business? Now that was a company who screwed up a great initial product.
April 26 2011 at 7:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBest be free for mobileme
April 26 2011 at 6:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI really don't get why anyone pays for mobileme. What does it offer that other free alternatives such as gmail don't?
April 26 2011 at 6:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOK, am I the only one that thinks about this, but why would I really want to store all my music in an online digital locker and have to pay for it???
I'll go out on a limb here and I'll guess that the next iPhone will have at least 32 GB of space, more than likely it may be more like 64 GB or 128 GB if we are REALLY lucky, but honestly, 32 GB is a lot of space for a phone and for all the music that I really like to have with me. I have about 2500 songs on my iPhone at all times, plus some movies and a few podcasts, so given that, do I really need to pay $20 a year just in case I really really want to hear that one song that I don't have on my iPhone at that exact moment? This service better be totally free! The music labels already get enough money out of me and they shouldn't be paid to allow me to stream the music which I have already purchased from them! To me this is just double dipping in my pocket and I don't like it at all!
I think the concept of a "Digital Locker" could be used to store whatever you wish, like lots of music or large HD movies (or even documents), for access anywhere. Say you're going on a trip or otherwise "off the grid" for a while. You can connect to any open WiFi network, browse your locker, and pick and choose any combination of your media without connecting to a PC. It would be like having a syncable computer with you everywhere you go, completely up-to-date with all of the files purchased through iTunes (or uploaded yourself). You can keep any combination of media on any device for offline viewing and easily swap files around from your "locker" from any WiFi connection.
That, to me, is worth a Twenty a year.
yeah, I agree. I just don't get it. I don't see why I would want to pay a subscription for storage & bandwidth, and use my own ever-decreasing monthly download, AND be reliant on my cell network data connection (!) - all to listen to my own music that's mostly already on my devices
maybe I'm just old... any youngsters out there wanna explain this to me, please? just what exactly is the big deal here that I'm not getting?
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