i already have slacker plus. don't plan on buying CD's or itunes for a long time to come. too much music out there to buy since i probably won't listen to it more than a few times a year
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Survey Finds Strong Consumer Interest in Cloud-Based iTunes Model
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i already have slacker plus. don't plan on buying CD's or itunes for a long time to come. too much music out there to buy since i probably won't listen to it more than a few times a year
The idea of a "Cloud iTunes" is a bit vague, and could mean many things.
My idea of the Cloud iTunes would be a monthly fee for free unlimited streaming of everything on iTunes ASWELL AS free streaming for anything you've already purchased from iTunes.
That'd be nice.Your not paying for stuff you own either.
If Apple really wanted to dazzle, they could add a storage area too where you can upload music that you didn't purchase from iTunes to stream aswell. I'd expect that to be like 2GB free, then paid for more.
Yes. If they'd allow me to stream ANYTHING IN THE STORE, I would pay 10 bucks a month. Reminds me of Spotify. Which we (technically) cannot get here in the States, and which I really love.
Er... not that I have it or anything.
He had to throw the record industry a bone somewhere. If you notice, those 99 cent songs with DRM (back in the day) that we paid 30 cents to upgrade now cost $1.29.
At least we got it at a higher bit rate for 30 cents.
I think people are reading too far into this. The way I read the article, it seemed more like people would pay $10/mo for subscription access to the entire store, or a free service which allows you to stream songs/content you already purchased. It was pretty vaguely written overall but I did not get the impression that many (or any) users expressed strong interest in paying for streaming access to their personal library only.
Cloud-based iTunes is attractive to Apple for many reasons but I think one big factor is limited storage on laptop HDs.
We on MR know to turn off in iTunes this setting
Preferences : Advanced | Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.
Most people use iTunes as default audio/video player. When the setting is on (which I think is the case for majority), many end up with 2 copies of the same audio/video files. So the HD fills up rather quickly. I'm sure they get many calls at Genius bar with people asking why is 500G HD filling up so fast? etc.
With the so called cloud-based iTunes, Apple can help people not fill up the HDs with duplicates of big video/audio files.
imo
We on MR know to turn off in iTunes this setting
Preferences : Advanced | Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.
Most people use iTunes as default audio/video player. When the setting is on (which I think is the case for majority), many end up with 2 copies of the same audio/video files. So the HD fills up rather quickly. I'm sure they get many calls at Genius bar with people asking why is 500G HD filling up so fast? etc.
With the so called cloud-based iTunes, Apple can help people not fill up the HDs with duplicates of big video/audio files.
imo
No survey here. And yes, I am a U.S. iTunes Store customer too.
p.s. Spotify.com is nice, but I can't purchase anything from here.
p.s. Spotify.com is nice, but I can't purchase anything from here.
Care to elaborate? Are you using Windows boxes? Macs? iPhones? iPod Touches? Streaming only to Apple products or...? ATT? Verizon?
Thanks.
-Eric
But you can turn it off at will if you wish. If you do not use the system...they'll still charge you.
If it happens it happens and if it doesn't it doesn't but there is a alot of red tape with the music companies that need to be cut first. That may take a while.
Although the 10,000 foot view of such a service would be interesting, there are a lot of technical, legal, and copyright questions that I would need answered before even considering such a service...free or paid. Some sample questions:
1)How does my music (such as ripped from my cd) get on the cloud service?
2)Who guarantees nobody will steal my music?
3)Who guarantees that if my account gets messed up all my music is still available to me?
4)Am I allowed (and how and how often) to copy/backup my iTunes cloud purchases to my local machine? Are they standard non-DRM file copies such as MP3 or WAV?
5)How many devices can be connected to my cloud account?
6)Can my family members all share in my "account"?
7)What happens if the service goes out of business? What do I own? Who guarantees I get it (back)?
8)What is the SLA (Service Level Agreement) from the cloud service?...for example, if my music skips a lot...who manages and fixes this problem? ATT? My ISP? My device manufacturer? The cloud service?
These are very common questions to any kind of cloud service. Once the physical world of storage is removed from the consumer (cds or dvds or hard drives for example), consumers must know and understand the consequences of said service. It's very clear that if you own a cd or dvd you can play it back on any equipment you own for the rest of your life...or bring it to a friend's and play it on his equipment...or loan it to a friend for a week...and in many cases of cd, make backups...and even play the backups and originals interchangeably. But again, once the physical media is removed, consumers have to know what they are "licensing" vs. "purchasing" vs. "owning" and many other technicalities.
-Eric
1)How does my music (such as ripped from my cd) get on the cloud service?
2)Who guarantees nobody will steal my music?
3)Who guarantees that if my account gets messed up all my music is still available to me?
4)Am I allowed (and how and how often) to copy/backup my iTunes cloud purchases to my local machine? Are they standard non-DRM file copies such as MP3 or WAV?
5)How many devices can be connected to my cloud account?
6)Can my family members all share in my "account"?
7)What happens if the service goes out of business? What do I own? Who guarantees I get it (back)?
8)What is the SLA (Service Level Agreement) from the cloud service?...for example, if my music skips a lot...who manages and fixes this problem? ATT? My ISP? My device manufacturer? The cloud service?
These are very common questions to any kind of cloud service. Once the physical world of storage is removed from the consumer (cds or dvds or hard drives for example), consumers must know and understand the consequences of said service. It's very clear that if you own a cd or dvd you can play it back on any equipment you own for the rest of your life...or bring it to a friend's and play it on his equipment...or loan it to a friend for a week...and in many cases of cd, make backups...and even play the backups and originals interchangeably. But again, once the physical media is removed, consumers have to know what they are "licensing" vs. "purchasing" vs. "owning" and many other technicalities.
-Eric
Not the poster you asked but here is what I do. I Have a pc desktop loaded with. OrbLive (app store) that points to all my media folders (music video photos etc). The on your iPhone you have the OrbLive App, it syncs with my desktop and now you have access to all your media. And not just Apple formatted files, can play mkv, avi, flac etc it can usually play them all. Even 720p rips although best to be on wifi for those.
Lala had an agent you'd install on your machine that searched through your music folders and matched it with music that was available in their online library. This is rather than having you upload anything. When you went to lala.com, bingo, you had a streaming music library built from music you already owned. A nominal fee later you could play these songs as many times as you liked from wherever you had internet access.
It's probably this exact solution that prompted Apple to buy them out.