Apple Paying Music Labels Up to $150 Million for iCloud Streaming Rights?

[GQB]

I really do hope that iCloud is a lot more than just music streaming tho'.
Of all the things it could do, making my music collection available everywhere (when I already have it available everywhere on my iPhone) is the thing I'm least interested in.

Sometimes I think Steve's weakest link is his assumption that everyone builds their lives around their music collection. (<cough... Ping... cough>)

 

[jclardy]

If it's iTunes only content, this will be another failure from Apple.

iTunes only content on icloud = Ping 2

Everyone is still assuming the only feature of iCloud will be music streaming.

It is being announced at a developer conference with a huge poster that says Lion + iOS5 + iCloud = WWDC. That leads me to believe this will be much bigger than just streaming music.

 

[farmermac]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; fr-fr) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

I wonder how music and song files that are not available will be handled. I have a lot of foreign (to USA) music that is not even available through any distributors in the us but I still want access to

 

[wd89]

I still buy most music on CDs ....

But I didn't know that you still can buy Cassette Tapes (I still have a huge stack of Cassette Tapes with recordings from the radio from the 80s)

A few remaining CD/Cassette/Radio combos are still be sold in the big stores in the UK but the cassettes themselves are a rare find. I tend to buy in bulk when I see them. My friends laugh at me but while they're "wasting money" downloading their chart music every week... I just hit record on my tape deck whilst the Top 40 is on!

 

[rolfbert]

Everyone is still assuming the only feature of iCloud will be music streaming.

It is being announced at a developer conference with a huge poster that says Lion + iOS5 + iCloud = WWDC. That leads me to believe this will be much bigger than just streaming music.

yeah, probably too big for my 0,3mbit download and 0,06mbit upload speed

 

[hansende]

Back in the day I downloaded "a few"" songs from Napster and imported "a few" CD's I borrowed from friends. I hope I can store these in the (i)cloud someday. Am I alone in my thinking?

 

[skellener]

Sources have also claimed that iCloud will be limited at first, supporting only content purchased from the iTunes Store, but that Apple is working to expand iCloud to support music obtained from other sources in the future.

Limited to iTunes at first could mean the music part of iCloud will go over like Ping. Hope the rest of iCloud is more compelling.

 

[hansende]

If I am flying in an airplane but the plane does not have WiFi will I be able to listen to my songs if they are stored in the cloud?

 

[nashpdotcom]

Everyone is still assuming the only feature of iCloud will be music streaming.

It is being announced at a developer conference with a huge poster that says Lion + iOS5 + iCloud = WWDC. That leads me to believe this will be much bigger than just streaming music.

I believe there's a reason it's right next to iOS and Lion in the banner. iCloud will be the go to location for EVERYTHING you do in Lion or iOS.

-Take a picture, automatically starts syncing to your account in the background.
-Working on a document, automatically saves and is ready for the next place you need it at.

iCloud will be Mobile Me, iDisc, LaLa, all rolled into one name.

 

[BJMRamage]

If I am flying in an airplane but the plane does not have WiFi will I be able to listen to my songs if they are stored in the cloud?

of course....look out the plane window, what do you see? iClouds!

 

[OSMac]

If I am flying in an airplane but the plane does not have WiFi will I be able to listen to my songs if they are stored in the cloud?

Just reach out the window and grab some

 

[BJMRamage]

I believe there's a reason it's right next to iOS and Lion in the banner. iCloud will be the go to location for EVERYTHING you do in Lion or iOS.

-Take a picture, automatically starts syncing to your account in the background.
-Working on a document, automatically saves and is ready for the next place you need it at.

iCloud will be Mobile Me, iDisc, LaLa, all rolled into one name.

that sounds right. the umbilical cord between desktop and mobile!!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

If I am flying in an airplane but the plane does not have WiFi will I be able to listen to my songs if they are stored in the cloud?

No.

Unless there's some kind of sync-like buffering where you've pre-loaded (again sync-like) what you'll want to listen to in wireless internet-free zones like that (and subways, etc), if you can't link to this iCloud, you can't stream from/to it.

This problem is one of the most fundamental issues to the dream of having everything in the cloud (and it's beyond Apple's ability to solve within iOS, OS X, and/or Apple hardware development; instead, they must depend on other partners to cover their parts). Paired with this other perception of "thin clients" (little to no local storage, everything is streamed), it means that when you can't link to the iCloud such thin clients would be dumb clients incapable of doing (perhaps) anything until you are again able to make a connection.

I just don't see us getting there. Syncing & local storage seem to be a requirement until there is wireless internet everywhere. I have a hard time seeing us get to a wireless internet everywhere world even over the next decade or more (especially with the likes of Verizon & AT&T dominating the space).

 

[nashpdotcom]

that sounds right. the umbilical cord between desktop and mobile!!

Correct.

 

[Object-X]

Higher quality?

I'm wondering if not "upgrading" my music library with higher bit rate will pay off here? If we don't need to upload our current library, then will the songs we purchased all be available at the higher bit rate? And since I'm on the subject, I seem to recall some recent rumors that Apple was going to increase it again. Could this be how?

 

[Dcuellar]

Sure. Now just come up with why AT&T & Verizon would do this? Their shareholders will not appreciate them choosing to refuse all that added revenue solely to help Apple's service look more appealing. I love how Apple fans (of which I'm generally one with lots of Apple stuff) tend to frame how great Apple's service will be by other players just cutting their revenue throats to help Apple.

The only way for it to NOT count against the data plan is if someone comes up with a business model where someone else pays for it for you (ads are unlikely to do the job, else we would already have ad-model "free" 3G service on many phones). That's what so-called "free" WIFI is now at places like McDonalds, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, etc. It's not magically free wireless Internet; those retailers are choosing to pay for it (for now) as a benefit for their customers.

The equivalent would be Apple choosing to pay for that 3G to make iCloud streaming free for Apple's customers. Why do I NOT see that happening? Can anyone?

So, if Apple doesn't pay for it for us, who will pay for it? Hint: look in the mirror.

I understand your angle, but to me the carrier that has the lowest price for their data rates will win the hearts of all future iPhone holders. In turn, revenue will go up from using other services.

In my case, I am grandfathered into the unlimited plan. If I weren't I'm going to end up with the carrier with the best plan.

 

[davidgrimm]

Huh?

I'm sure I'm missing something here, but what's the value of storing my music in the cloud? I'm old fashioned, but I like my music stored on my local device. Its more reliable than my link to the cloud.

 

[nashpdotcom]

I'm sure I'm missing something here, but what's the value of storing my music in the cloud? I'm old fashioned, but I like my music stored on my local device. Its more reliable than my link to the cloud.

I'm sure you won't lose the local storing option, but now you'll have both options.

 

[organerito]

I got about a 3k catalog. Not one from Apple.

i got a 15k catalog, about 10, not 10k, from Apple. I got my music from my CD's and some from emusic. Most of it is lossless, except the emusic files.

 

[davidgrimm]

I understand your angle, but to me the carrier that has the lowest price for their data rates will win the hearts of all future iPhone holders. In turn, revenue will go up from using other services.

In my case, I am grandfathered into the unlimited plan. If I weren't I'm going to end up with the carrier with the best plan.

IMHO, clearly the GSM technology seems superior, unfortunately the company that dishes out the GSM here in the US is clearly inferior. I've been a customer with them for years and paying top dollar for the privilege and NOW their spending money to get their network so it doesn't suck? Can I have a refund for all those years of crap service? Sorry, I get pissy when I pay for something and do not get it.

 

[MacAddict1978]

If it's iTunes only content, this will be another failure from Apple.

iTunes only content on icloud = Ping 2

I actually agree.

I'm not down with paying money to access things I already paid money for and own. For $25 a year, the service would have to be compelling with what it offers/does, and my Amazon account lets me put whatever I want in the cloud. Not having to upload my iTunes tracks it less of a hassel, but I doubt most people's music libraries have more than 20% of the library coming from iTunes.

I can't really see many times one would need to stream their music with phones, mp3 players, etc. that all have ample storage on them already.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I understand your angle, but to me the carrier that has the lowest price for their data rates will win the hearts of all future iPhone holders. In turn, revenue will go up from using other services.

In my case, I am grandfathered into the unlimited plan. If I weren't I'm going to end up with the carrier with the best plan.

But that's the trick. Who has the best data plan for iDevices? When you have only 2 players in a space, there is virtually no incentive for them to compete on price. Price wars are profit-hurting wars. Both of those players like nice fat margins.

Furthermore, there's no need for them to think about concepts like making up for it on other services. Leave the prices largely uncompetitive and people will pay for those other services anyway. In monopolies/duopolies of desirable commodities, that's always how it goes. If the people want it, they'll pay for it. Keep raising the fees and they'll keep paying (more for it).

In a genuine competitive marketplace, the costs should be going down as some hungrier competitors will fight with price. In this particular market, every time a price-oriented competitor pops up, they get bought out.

 

[BlackMangoTree]

These services don't work with capped broadband plans. Fail!!!!!!!

 

[NebulaClash]

Wow, Steve Jobs must be an idiot to not see what all you posters see. Yeah, he must not have thought about using iCloud for more than music, and he must not realize that people might not have all of their music from iTunes, and he's totally unaware of capped broadband issues, and he certainly misses the point that sometimes you might not have access to WiFi.

Good thing you are all here to educate Steve on these totally obvious issues that Apple couldn't possibly have taken into consideration when building iCloud.

Or you could wait until Monday.

 

[newagemac]

i don't understand that! can anyone explain it to me? Why does apple pay the record companies anything at all?

we bought those files, we store them on our hard disk and if you stream them from "your" cloud they are the same, only the space where you store them us different.

will we also have to pay if we copy the files to another hard disk? or maybe when we sync with our iPods and iPhones? maybe the record companies could start charging us when we use a different headphone or when we play it on a different hifi - car or at home?

isn't it a wonder we can just rip a cd in iTunes? I am sure nowadays you'd have to pay extra for that. maybe 5 us$... or more?

If all you want to do is just do a "dumb" streaming from your own hard drive space in Apple's cloud then sure Apple doesn't need to pay them anything. But Apple seems to want to provide a better service than just that. For example, the rumor about Apple upgrading your songs to a higher quality and streaming it back to you definitely would require some type of deal.