Apple's Cloud-Based Music Service Ready to Go?

[MacRumors]

Reuters reports that Apple has "completed work" on its rumored cloud-based music service and will beat Google to the punch as the search and advertising giant continues to work on a similar project.

Apple Inc has completed work on an online music storage service and is set to launch it ahead of Google Inc, whose own music efforts have stalled, according to several people familiar with both companies' plans.

Apple's plans will allow iTunes customers to store their songs on a remote server, and then access them from wherever they have an Internet connection, said two of these people who asked not to be named as the talks are still confidential.

Interestingly, the sources indicate that Apple still has yet to sign any of the major labels to new agreements covering the forthcoming cloud-based capabilities, making it unclear how the sources can be so confident that Apple will beat Google to a launch. Apple has reportedly not yet informed music industry insiders of when it intends to launch the new cloud-based service.

Article Link: Apple's Cloud-Based Music Service Ready to Go?

 

[GeekLawyer]

This is getting exciting.

The billion dollar question: just content purchased from iTunes or all compatible (audio) files in one's iTunes library?

 

[rhett7660]

This is getting exciting.

The billion dollar question: just content purchased from iTunes or all compatible (audio) files in one's iTunes library?

And that is the biggest question of them all. If I can't put the music I bought and ripped up in the cloud, what is the point? I am curious to see if this is going to be a paid service, part of Mobile Me or? Can't wait to see how this plays out.

 

[scottdot]

Very exciting, especially since the music announcements typically happen in conjunction with new iPods/iTunes. I hope this is around this summer to play with.

 

[Jonasgold]

I just hope this is the explenation for iTunes store buggy situation this day.
I only have 2 GB a month with my phone company and I'm not going to waste that listening to music, while I still have a iPod Classic.
But it is nice for the future.

 

[nefan65]

In the immortal words of "Tim the Enchanter"...GET ON WITH IT!!!!

 

[citi]

And that is the biggest question of them all. If I can't put the music I bought and ripped up in the cloud, what is the point? I am curious to see if this is going to be a paid service, part of Mobile Me or? Can't wait to see how this plays out.

It will probably work the way Amazon's new service does. Only the music you purchase moving forward can be synced in the cloud.

 

[scottdot]

The billion dollar question: just content purchased from iTunes or all compatible (audio) files in one's iTunes library?

I would love for it to encompass all iTunes media purchases, including movies and TV shows as well. I'm feeling a crunch with the drives in my Macs filling up with content very quickly. I wish Apple just kept track of what I "own" and let me play it based on a license that floats in the cloud. Should be doable right?

 

[callmemike20]

Internet data usage is increasing and internet data caps are decreasing. This doesn't seem good...

 

[ChazUK]

A centralized service with all my media? Make it so Apple!

Worldwide launch too plzkthxbai.

 

[TennisandMusic]

It will probably work the way Amazon's new service does. Only the music you purchase moving forward can be synced in the cloud.

Uhh...that is not how Amazon's service works at all. Amazon syncs your entire library. It's only that new Amazon purchases don't count towards used space. Only syncing new purchases would be worthless.

 

[rhett7660]

It will probably work the way Amazon's new service does. Only the music you purchase moving forward can be synced in the cloud.

That is what I am afraid of. I hope this isn't the case, but I have a feeling you are spot on about this.

 

[dampfnudel]

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

Internet data usage is increasing and internet data caps are decreasing. This doesn't seem good...

That's the problem.

 

[blow45]

one vote and that negative for something so many people are so eagerly waiting about, apple's proper forray into the cloud.

Gotta love people's negativity in these forums for it's humour quality, unbelievable as it might be.

But it's high time that people here took that ridiculous voting system out too. It was misguided to begin with, it still is. But because people have been calling you out to change it you are becoming more stubborn and keeping it. Not a good a thing to do.

Anyway on to the topic, it sounds very exciting and I can't wait to see what apple come up with.

 

[Number 41]

Everyone understand now why the iPhone 5 is a gigantic failure if LTE isn't included?

Data transfer rates = Whole Ballgame when it comes to cloud-based storage and access.

 

[polaris20]

It will probably work the way Amazon's new service does. Only the music you purchase moving forward can be synced in the cloud.

That's not how Amazon's service works. I uploaded 12GB of music I own (ripped CD's) from iTunes, and can now stream it from their Cloud Player. Works great. I just wish Amazon would make an iOS version of the Cloud Player. Then I couldn't care less what Apple does with their cloud service. Unless it's cheaper.

 

[Full of Win]

Can't get too excited without knowing the answer to these questions...

1. iTunes acquired music, music acquired from reputable sources (e.g. Amazon) or all music no matter the pedigree ?
2. Can it be accessed over 3G?
3. Is there any forced transcoding to reduce data amounts?

 

[dethmaShine]

Well not too excited if it is like what it is described. Nothing sensational.

On the other hand, this could be achieved through MobileMe, easily. Just created apple script to copy data whenever new data is added. :|

OR Dropbox OR amazon disk. :|

I hope Apple does something different.

 

[bkj216]

It will probably work the way Amazon's new service does. Only the music you purchase moving forward can be synced in the cloud.

Umm that's not how Amazon's service works.

Amazon lets you sync up your own stuff (with certain gigabyte limits) and you get unlimited sync of anything purchased from their store.

 

[Lennholm]

This is getting exciting.

The billion dollar question: just content purchased from iTunes or all compatible (audio) files in one's iTunes library?

It wouldn't make sense to only allow purchased content. Why would Apple build that huge data center just to have their customers create copies of content that is already on the iTS servers? If it was only purchased content, it would only be a simple policy change to "Unlimited downloads of purchased iTS content"

 

[Hardtimes]

I am honestly not fussed about this.

I would much rather have a physical apple branded itunes server for my house to fit in with my personal eco-system. I just cannot see myself using this - especially with the inevitable restrictions that will come with music I have ripped from my purchased CD's.

 

[Dooger]

This probably explains Spotify's recent neutering

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Just got this in my inbox:

Comcast just decided that internet usage really shouldn't comprise of anything more than 2,3 emails a day MAX. I mean, come on people. There isn't that much legitimate content on the net, so if you're consuming any more than 2-3 mb per data a day with your fat 100/100 Mbps DOCSIS 3 pipe then you're probably a pirate. Infact, you are a pirate. No debate.

Effective immediately all data transfer is limited to 5 Mb daily with a $50 per kb overage, no cap. These caps do not count against content retrieved from comcast.net . We're just sayin!

-CC

 

[kavika411]

In the immortal words of "Tim the Enchanter"...GET ON WITH IT!!!!

In the immortal words of Charlie Sheen: "Bring it!"

 

[AlligatorBloodz]

And that is the biggest question of them all. If I can't put the music I bought and ripped up in the cloud, what is the point? I am curious to see if this is going to be a paid service, part of Mobile Me or? Can't wait to see how this plays out.

You really think apple is going to let you store music that you didn't buy from them for free? My guess is all music purchased from iTunes can be streamed, and mobile me users can upload theirs.

I hope this isn't just for music though. In mobile me you can upload photos which is nice. I would love to see this done for movies. I buy a movie from apple and can forever stream through my apple tv or iDevice. Or a monthly renting plan.

I want my media to take up less space, be easily accessible, and priced fairly.