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Apple Tapping Lala Media Team for Cloud-Based iTunes?
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If everyone was uploading their own music (possibly user selected), the amount of available tracks would dwarf what's currently available via iTunes, or, potentially, any music library in the world.
What if, through MobileMe service, Apple made ALL of this music available to ALL MobileMe subscribers? Only through Apple hardware, of course. This could move a lot of iPods, iPhones and tablets, plus actually get people to sign up for MobileMe subscriptions.
Wishful thinking? Probably.
What if, through MobileMe service, Apple made ALL of this music available to ALL MobileMe subscribers? Only through Apple hardware, of course. This could move a lot of iPods, iPhones and tablets, plus actually get people to sign up for MobileMe subscriptions.
Wishful thinking? Probably.
Excellent point! Not everyone has spare BW or afford the BW it would take to u/l and d/l their media.
If they could do that then the iTS would already contain those files. It's all to do with copyright.
For those of you who haven't used LaLa, this is exactly how that service works. They have a little music uploader utility that does metadata / beat analysis on each song to determine if it is already part of the service or not, and then just tells LaLa that "yes, this person has this song, allow him to stream it." I only had to transfer ~1% of my library, if that.
The actual indexing took forever, but if iTunes does it in the background, then there should be no issues.
The actual indexing took forever, but if iTunes does it in the background, then there should be no issues.
Why upload the complete library to the cloud, can't they just use the same file for different users? I think Lala also used that method.
Now, iTunes purchases could be free and ripped CD's with a yearly fee or something, can't imagine this being a free service. And they could split the income with the labels to keep them happy.
Now, iTunes purchases could be free and ripped CD's with a yearly fee or something, can't imagine this being a free service. And they could split the income with the labels to keep them happy.
Most likely you will have access to the list of songs you purchased on iTunes. You'd be able to stream lower quality/small file sized songs from this list.
I highly doubt Apple is going to host anybody's personal music files.
I highly doubt Apple is going to host anybody's personal music files.
"Those who are serious about software should make their own hardware"
Apple is Alan Kay's vision in the extreme.
Apple is Alan Kay's vision in the extreme.
as interesting as this is ive been able to access my libary from any were in the world were theres an internet connection for years ..
Such services as winap and orb have provided me with this feature. Dont get me wrong great idea and knowing apple it will have some simple eye candy with it as well but its not as ground breaking as a so called new device.
Such services as winap and orb have provided me with this feature. Dont get me wrong great idea and knowing apple it will have some simple eye candy with it as well but its not as ground breaking as a so called new device.
I have to agree. I have over 15,000 songs occupying over 240 GB. I seriously doubt that Apple wants all that on their server.
I have to agree here too that it will only be iTunes purchases and of those only songs. While I would love to have access to my entire library, could you imagine streaming movies, TV shows and whatever else people have stored in their personal libraries! The combined efforts of all telecommunications would crumble over that load.
Hasn't apple been building/buying server farms recently? I remember reading about those...I assumed they were itunes only but who knows now?
The 64K questions is: have digital downloads been around long enough that enough peoples (not nerds like us, I mean regular people) libraries are properly organized /tagged to the level where enough music can be linked to one file so Apple has space to do this, or is there still so much untagged/misnamed/non-itunes/lossless music out there that this is impossible?
This must have been a crazy assignment for whatever Apple division. Its a big bet. Otherwise it will have to be itunes store only, which is still convenient.
The solution I can think of that is a sure bet is that Tablet owners will have first access to this capability. This ensures
a) a smaller group of itunes users
b) a group of itunes users that probably has their music organized/tagged (assuming disposable income/gadget love correlates with organized itunes libraries)
c) a killer app for the tablet.
depending on response it goes they could expand this to ipods and iphones, or expand it to encompass full libraries. I imagine its easier/cheaper to add storage for several thousand terabytes of storage then add several million users worth of bandwidth to a server farm.
How this cloud is going to work is way more interesting than the other tablet rumors...
The 64K questions is: have digital downloads been around long enough that enough peoples (not nerds like us, I mean regular people) libraries are properly organized /tagged to the level where enough music can be linked to one file so Apple has space to do this, or is there still so much untagged/misnamed/non-itunes/lossless music out there that this is impossible?
This must have been a crazy assignment for whatever Apple division. Its a big bet. Otherwise it will have to be itunes store only, which is still convenient.
The solution I can think of that is a sure bet is that Tablet owners will have first access to this capability. This ensures
a) a smaller group of itunes users
b) a group of itunes users that probably has their music organized/tagged (assuming disposable income/gadget love correlates with organized itunes libraries)
c) a killer app for the tablet.
depending on response it goes they could expand this to ipods and iphones, or expand it to encompass full libraries. I imagine its easier/cheaper to add storage for several thousand terabytes of storage then add several million users worth of bandwidth to a server farm.
How this cloud is going to work is way more interesting than the other tablet rumors...
I don't think it'll be iTS purchased content only, but it'll be capped at 2GB per account (or something similar).
If it included photos, videos, and music this would be VERY cool. But even just music would be pretty nice.
The question is whether or not this would be a pay service (or part of mobile me). That would more or less kill it for me. I just can't justify the cost of that service. and while this would make it a little more enticing, really I can already do this with some pretty simple (and free) 3rd party tools.
It wouldn't be as nice as direct integration with iTunes and iPhones, but free is free.
If it included photos, videos, and music this would be VERY cool. But even just music would be pretty nice.
The question is whether or not this would be a pay service (or part of mobile me). That would more or less kill it for me. I just can't justify the cost of that service. and while this would make it a little more enticing, really I can already do this with some pretty simple (and free) 3rd party tools.
It wouldn't be as nice as direct integration with iTunes and iPhones, but free is free.
If any of you have ever used lala.com, it allows you to upload your own content - beyond what is on their site. I think Apple will keep that strategy at least with music when this rolls out and eventually moving to movies, tv shows, etc.
This is the way technology is rolling people - Apple has always been at the forefront, pushing others to make it happen.
poor mobile internet providers are going to have to seriously increase bandwidth limits...
As a long-time user of Apple's current cloud offerings, I hope they bring on some better programmers or buy a company with better code - While the features list available via MobileMe is currently substantial, the actual function of those features leaves something to be desired. Using the browser-based mail app is horrible compared to other offerings like Zenbe or Gmail. The lag between clicking a button and having that action complete itself is amazingly slow. If they bring the same type of 'streamlining' to mobile music...ouch.
But the technology is at the mercy of the internet providers. The only way this will be interesting is if it allows for mobility since at home you already have access to your library. The current 5gb restrictions however seriously impede the possibility of rolling this out to movies and tv shows. Something will have to give, either the technology, the isp bandwidth distribution model, or your pocket book.
I'd say this sounds right on! There is NO WAY Apple will ditch the iTunes software itself. But this added streaming cloud feature integrated into iTunes is exactly what I can see them doing!
Lets hope for a 64 bit Cocoa rewrite and the cloud streaming for iTunes X! Who's with me?
Lets hope for a 64 bit Cocoa rewrite and the cloud streaming for iTunes X!
Who's with me?It will probably necessitate a paid scheme on Apple's part to upload the GB or TB worth of data that people have, but keep in mind most of this information already populates the iTunes store.
What will make this extremely valuable to the consumer is now they have a laptop, iPhone, tablet, etc...all internet ready and can connect to their media without eating up their hard drive space. Throw in contacts, calendars, documents, and your home folder and you've got everything. At this point it is a completely new product merged with mobile me.
it will all tie in together
I agree with Redkamel's idea that this will be a feature aimed the Tablet. After all, a small hard drive = lower cost = more sales. All-cloud-media, all-the-time is going to be Apple's new slogan!
And besides, anyone who really likes music (read: people who know life beyond iTS) aren't going to use this service much, I predict. It will start small, and people will have an option to store a specific amount (2Gb?) on their cloud for access on the Tablet. Not just music, it will be pics, videos, etc.
I agree with Redkamel's idea that this will be a feature aimed the Tablet. After all, a small hard drive = lower cost = more sales. All-cloud-media, all-the-time is going to be Apple's new slogan!
And besides, anyone who really likes music (read: people who know life beyond iTS) aren't going to use this service much, I predict. It will start small, and people will have an option to store a specific amount (2Gb?) on their cloud for access on the Tablet. Not just music, it will be pics, videos, etc.
I think most legal tracks would be ripped from CDs, and they would be very similar, but not identical. First, if we bought the same CD in the store, that doesn't mean the CDs are identical. I think that was a significant (but solved) problem for the title database that gives you track information when you rip a CD. Second, you likely used different settings than I did. And last, timing information will be different even if you rip the same CD twice in a row with the same settings on the same computer.
Which isn't a big problem, they just have to work a little bit harder.
Classical music might be a problem, or music ripped from LPs, or different recordings of the same song by the same artist.
Actually, if you and I (or two random users) have two 100% identical files that were not downloaded from iTunes or some other service, that would be a good indication that one might be an illegal copy.
As long as I have the option to not have my music in the cloud it won't matter to me. I already have the ability to listen to my entire library anywhere in the world; it's called carrying my iPod with me. I don't have to pay data transfer charges or subscription fees, or worry about network outages.
this would be nice, however i use Pulptunes to do the same thing.
FREE - though it pulls songs from my home computer when someone streams music.
And they could DL a track if they wanted.
www.pulptunes.com
FREE - though it pulls songs from my home computer when someone streams music.
And they could DL a track if they wanted.
www.pulptunes.com
Thanks but no thanks to any of these cloudy computing proposals. I'd rather not have a dumb terminal: first, I would much rather have control over my own files and second, network connectivity is nowhere near as reliable as companies pushing 'cloud'-based services think it is. If one's connection falters, then it's lights out for the cloud.