Apple iCloud Rumors: What Apple's Cloud Music Service Might Look Like

The rumor that Apple plans to launch a new streaming music service at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June has spurred a huge amount of speculation.

Apple is said to be planning a cloud-based music storage service that allows users to access their music collections from any device with Internet access and stream music from the web. Amazon's Cloud Player and Google Music Beta, the first two major entries into cloud music services, offer similar functions.

But new information has emerged to provide a fuller picture of just what an Apple offering in the space might look like. Apple has reportedly signed licensing agreements with EMI Music, Warner Music, and Sony Music and is thought to be close to completing a deal with Universal Music, the last of the four major record labels.

With licensing agreements in place, Apple would be able to offer upgrades to the upload and listening process that Google and Amazon, two companies without deals with the record labels, cannot. According to Businessweek, sources close to those negotiating the deals say that Apple could scan a customer's music library and mirror the songs on Apple's servers, a method that would drastically reduce the length of time it takes to upload a music collection. Critics of Amazon's and Google's services have singled out lagging upload times as a key frustration.

Appleinsider also uncovered a patent that suggests Apple might be able to improve playback speeds by storing segments of songs locally on devices and filling in the rest by streaming from the cloud. Such a method would avoid the delays typically experienced when streaming, as songs must download a certain percentage of the file from the cloud before beginning playback.

But, Businessweek warns, it's unlikely the service will be free, considering the amount of money Apple has likely spent obtaining these licenses. Apple's MobileMe service, which syncs user data such as address books, bookmarks and calendars across devices, costs $99 a year. Engadget guessed that Apple might choose to bundle a cloud music service in with MobileMe as a pay-per-month subscription in a move that might appease music labels aggravated by the spread of pirated music.

Apple purchased the domain name iCloud in late April, leading many to believe that it could be the name of Apple's cloud music service.

Comments

[novaguy1968]

10:29 AM on 06/04/2011

Amazon's cloud player rocks.

[novaguy1968]

10:27 AM on 06/04/2011

I somehow doubt that Apple waited until late April to purchase the "iCloud" domain.

[mamarama]

05:50 PM on 06/03/2011

Wait. Doesn't make sense. So...you have to buy downloads from iTunes to upload them onto iCloud? Or, does it partly stream locally (which means downloads still clog up your computer)? Why the heck should anyone pay for THAT? In other words, if it's a cloud service, let it be a cloud service, just streaming, for all music, whether you bought it or made it yourself or your kid gave it to you or whatever, not just purchases from iTunes. And, if you're going to pay 99 cents per song (which, at this stage in the game, is high) then why should you pay $25 just to be able to listen to it on other devices? This is ANOTHER rip-off from the record labels - each yr. they came out with different formats to make people pay again. Now, there are no new formats...so..they'll get you by making you pay for playing the song you just bought on other devices. RIP OFF. And, don't get me started on the copyright issues - copyright law is screaming for reform.

[Jim45]

09:40 AM on 06/01/2011

I only wish that I understood what they are talking about! JC

[Dennis Engish]

08:12 AM on 06/01/2011

Sounds Like a Great Idea!
And Steve Jobs? You Go Guy.. Better than sitting around waiting to Die.
We all are Waiting To Die.. Some Sooner than others and Some of us Unexpectedly Sooner than we had hoped..
It's Been a Nice Run Buddy
Now? Go into Legacy Mode..

[Fletch55]

09:00 PM on 05/31/2011

Apple is late again. It has already been shown the Cloud is a failure and not stable so apple jumps on board again and slaps an i in front of it. Clouds are for dummies.

[mikemaj82]

06:19 PM on 05/31/2011

thanks, i'll get my music for free elsewhere. some artists have enough money.

[John Adcox]

09:33 AM on 06/01/2011

Well, I hope you at least have the balls to go shoplift in person. Stealing from home is just gutless. Weasel.

[novaguy1968]

10:30 AM on 06/04/2011

John--I wish I could favorite your comment more than once!

[novaguy1968]

10:28 AM on 06/04/2011

Yet another misinformed person.

[john bruno]

12:11 PM on 05/31/2011

Google will be offering the same service for free. Why should anyone pay Apple for it?

[Abelardo Perez]

04:17 PM on 05/31/2011

oddly enough, devoted apple-ites will pay because it's an apple product. don't believe me? people bought the iphone 3, then the 3gs, then the 4, and soon to come...4gs

[5pliff5tar]

04:26 PM on 05/31/2011

Apple users are the bigggest suckers.

[jeb29615]

04:52 PM on 05/31/2011

because EVERYTHING Apple makes is SUPERIOR to anything else...and for me my TIME is worth money...I can have my Mac Book turned booted up, connect to the web and have read 4 or 5 e-mails before my buddy's dell will even boot up...oh and his dell is brand new and I've had my Mac Book for 4 years...

[Al Schrader]

06:00 PM on 05/31/2011

4 years and you only get 5 emails ? 4 out of 5 emails are ads or spam.
So you know like one somebody. You need more friends.

[JeffJeckyll]

06:47 PM on 05/31/2011

why not put your Mac Book down and talk to a girl?

[sikkshady3]

11:55 AM on 05/31/2011

BIG BROTHER MONOPOLY thanks but ill keep my harddrive and cash

[edm718]

11:42 AM on 05/31/2011

I think apple is scrambling to keep up, and in doing so, they're just falling behind. Take for instance, google owns YOUTUBE... apple has a cloud music device. LMAO. I have a bluetooth radio in my car that is linked to my phone. i push 1 button on my android phone and say "any song name" and it starts playing, on my car stereo, through youtube via bluetooth, and i can watch the video from my phone. FOR FREE. I have not found a song that isn't on youtube or linked to youtube via VEVO. I trip people out when they get in my car, because i always ask them, "what song do you want to hear.. any song you can think of" and people are in such disbelief, they name stuff they think i won't have, like an old frank sinatra or dolly parton song, (not my choice of music) but i push the genius button, say the song, and bam, its playing, streaming. with video. in my car, on the cars stereo, wirelessly. steve jobs should just ask google if they're hiring. If apple wasn't soo good at marketing and propaganda, their cult of followers would see right through their deprecated technology in side by side comparisons. I laugh at pandora, and satelite xm hd radio, i like being the DJ and deciding exactly what i'm listening to

[wloogs]

11:24 AM on 05/31/2011

I'll keep my ZUNBE thanks..if and when Microsoft does eliminate it...then maybe I'll switch to I tunes

[frank1946]

08:50 AM on 05/31/2011

The Cloud is a DUD, Big Brother Public and Private love it, control your info. and you and your
$$$.......................Think I will keep my Hard Drives for awhile longer !

You lost my data and all my information, now what ?

[Samurai Cowboy]

08:46 AM on 05/31/2011

All of my mp3's and music videos are stored on a separate usb hard drive so that I won't lose it in case of a crash. Why pay to store it on a server that could possibly be hacked?

[comraderoger]

02:36 PM on 05/31/2011

Your music will stay with you. This service is [rumored] going to scan your library and put the music that is available from iTunes [not all music you have may be available from iTunes] in the 'cloud.'

You can lose nothing. You will still have to pay for, and download, any new content which will live on your hard drives.

[Dennis Engish]

08:37 AM on 06/01/2011

DITTO
I started doing that Eversince the days of Cassette Tapes!
And? Spend more time Book Learnin' and putting $ into Your Pocket than Spending $ on Music and putting $ into Their Pocket!

Guess how much Old 33 1/3rd Albums cost Now? $1 each..
How much do 45 RPMS cost? $1 Each at best
How about Cassette Tapes? $1-$3 each with Dozens of Songs on them!

Just like spending $10 to go to the Movies vs waiting a couple of wks to get it On DVD..For $3

[fjohnanderson]

08:27 AM on 05/31/2011

Wow funny if it's Apple AOL raves about it. Sorry Apple Windows

[acarioti]

07:23 AM on 05/31/2011

Nothing inherently wrong with this and it's certainly an evolutionary tech step towards our music future but I still prefer to save my music locally on my device. The storage capacity of hand-held technology is large enough for me not to be concerned with that aspect of it. Regular back-ups keep it safe...and it only costs me what I want to pay, when I want to pay it - per song. Even then....

[comraderoger]

02:37 PM on 05/31/2011

The music will live on your hardware. This will only create copies of what you have and put it in the cloud. You will not lose anything from your own hardware.

Pretty simple, really.