Apple’s iCloud music service will automatically mirror your iTunes library using ‘high-quality’ tracks?
Posted in: amazon, Apple, audio, cloud, Google, itunes, Music, rumor, streaming, Today's Chili
There’s been so much chatter about Apple iCloud that you’d think the streaming music service had already been announced and the deals inked. But it’s still just a rumor until an Apple executive takes the stage and unleashes the Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music competitor in a spate of superlatives. That hasn’t stopped Businessweek from stepping up with a good summary of all that is “known” thus far, while giving us some insight into the particulars of how the service will work and the motivations to make it happen. One revelation, sourced from three people in the know, claims that Apple will scan customers’ iTunes libraries (hello, LaLa) and quickly mirror the contents on Apple’s own servers — no massive DSL-choking upload required. And Apple will do you the solid of “replacing” any low bitrate tracks with the “high-quality” versions it stores in its fully licensed music locker for streaming to your connected devices.
Of course, this value-add won’t come free and will certainly require a subscription fee. The cost to the consumer, though, is still very much unclear as is the service’s integration with Apple’s $99 per year MobileMe sham. And you know those rumors about MobileMe being offered as a free service? We wouldn’t be surprised if it stays at $99 with iCloud being announced as a “free” feature update; aka, an $8.25 per month music subscription that also provides web access to your synced bookmarks, contacts, email, and calendar. Regardless, it’s this subscription model that has the major labels so enthusiastic as it will finally allow them to extort fees for all that pirated audio you may have stumbled upon since Napster was loosed on an unprepared music industry a decade ago. All signs point to WWDC for this to get official but we’re sure to hear more — much more — before the event kicks off on June 6th.
Apple’s iCloud music service will automatically mirror your iTunes library using ‘high-quality’ tracks? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 03:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Over the last year or so, we have watched as Apple’s iTunes has become an ever increasing influence in the music industry. It was just last June (2007) when they passed Amazon and took over the #3 position as largest music retailer in the United States. In February (2008), Apple announced that they had become the #2 music retailer and surpassed Best Buy which was another huge milestone for them (this was likely data from December that they were reporting on). Standing in their way of first place up until now has been discount department store Wal-Mart. News today is that for the first time ever, iTunes has passed Wal-Mart and they are now the number one retailer of music in the United States according to the NPD Music Watch Survey conducted by the NPD Group.
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