Apple's cloud-based iTunes music streaming service is 'completed' - report

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Apple is said to have "completed work" on its long-rumored cloud-based iTunes music streaming service, which will allow users to access their entire collection of music from any Internet-connected device.



Citing anonymous sources, Reuters reported Thursday that Apple is "set to launch" its streaming service. Apple has allegedly achieved the milestone ahead of rival Google, which has seen its own efforts for a streaming music service stall.



"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," the report said.



It also said that Apple does not yet have any new licensing agreements with the recording industry. It's possible that Apple could proceed without those licenses, as Amazon did, when it launched its own cloud service.



But music labels reportedly still hope to secure new deals with Apple before it launches its own streaming service. Those in the record industry have not been given an indication when Apple plans to debut the new product.



While Apple is forging ahead, Google is allegedly stuck in negotiations with record labels. One source said that the search giant has changed its proposals numerous times at the bargaining table, switching from an iTunes-like storefront with a digital locker service to a music subscription service with a recurring fee.



Music executives reportedly feel that Google's shifting stances may be a result of regime change at the company. Company co-founder Larry Page recently took over for former CEO Eric Schmidt, signaling a shift in direction for the company.



Rumors of an iTunes cloud service have persisted for some time, but it was said that Apple found itself in a stalemate in negotiations with record labels.



As those negotiations have continued, Apple has pushed forward in other areas behind the scenes, hiring key personnel and working on its anticipated "digital locker" service. Just last week, AppleInsider was first to report that Apple is assembling a small team to build "the future of cloud services."



In February, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple will unveil an enhanced version of its existing $99-per-year MobileMe cloud service. The new MobileMe is expected to include a digital "locker" that wills tore personal files such as photos, music and videos.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 67
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Maybe I am in the dark here... But I can care less about this proposed service.



    Enough music resides on my iDevices at all times for my listening pleasure. Why should consumers care about this product?
  • Reply 2 of 67
    applestudapplestud Posts: 367member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post


    Maybe I am in the dark here... But I can care less about this proposed service.



    Enough music resides on my iDevices at all times for my listening pleasure. Why should consumers care about this product?



    personally I would love for my 20GB music library to be stored in the cloud, which would free up space on my 16GB iPhone for large apps (navigation, for example) or more video recording on-the-go without maxing out the memory. Plus all of my photos available, at all times, wherever i am, is a good thing.
  • Reply 3 of 67
    neiltc13neiltc13 Posts: 182member
    But can it compete with Spotify, which offers a MUCH more lightweight client than iTunes and a great library as well as a free service?
  • Reply 4 of 67
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by neiltc13 View Post


    But can it compete with Spotify, which offers a MUCH more lightweight client than iTunes and a great library as well as a free service?



    The iPod app will probably play stuff.
  • Reply 5 of 67
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleStud View Post


    personally I would love for my 20GB music library to be stored in the cloud, which would free up space on my 16GB iPhone for large apps (navigation, for example) or more video recording on-the-go without maxing out the memory. Plus all of my photos available, at all times, wherever i am, is a good thing.



    20 GB of music + x GB of photos? At what price point? $100.00 a year for 50 GB like DropBox... I use to love Mozy. But their price points now are cost prohibitive for me.



    Noting Apple does is cheap from a consumer point of view....
  • Reply 6 of 67
    reganregan Posts: 474member
    I have a question...



    I have about 30 gigs of music on my ipod touch. About 90% of it i ripped from CDs i bought back in the day, so i own that music. Only 10% of my music i purchased from apples itunes store...if that.



    So will i be able to load ALL my music onto this cloud? Or only the songs i bought from apples itunes store?



    Id love to be able to put my ENTIRE music library in the cloud, so that i could listen to it from my ipad.
  • Reply 7 of 67
    djintxdjintx Posts: 454member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post


    Maybe I am in the dark here... But I can care less about this proposed service.



    Enough music resides on my iDevices at all times for my listening pleasure. Why should consumers care about this product?



    I agree with you as this relates to mobile iOS devices. I personally just don't see the need, although maybe some people have much bigger libraries than I do. For me there isn;t much point.



    However, this is completely different when discussing my AppleTV 2. I hate having to walk back to my office to wake my MacBook and launch iTunes in order to stream something to the living room. But with cloud streaming, I can just stream it all directly from Apple's cloud servers. Yeah, I like this idea alot.
  • Reply 8 of 67
    Here's to hoping this service w/ a new mobile me comes out very soon. My mobile me account expires today and I have been stalling on renewing for this very reason.



    I really need this to come out before all my data goes away. (I think I have 15 days).
  • Reply 9 of 67
    djintxdjintx Posts: 454member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by regan View Post


    I have a question...



    I have about 30 gigs of music on my ipod touch. About 90% of it i ripped from CDs i bought back in the day, so i own that music. Only 10% of my music i purchased from apples itunes store...if that.



    So will i be able to load ALL my music onto this cloud? Or only the songs i bought from apples itunes store?



    Id love to be able to put my ENTIRE music library in the cloud, so that i could listen to it from my ipad.



    This is a very good question. I think my library is about 50/50, so I am in a similar boat. Unfortunately my guess is that it will only work with purchased content. The way I envision it, is that we won't actually upload anything to the servers really. Apple will just do a scan of our libraries, and see what all we have purchased. We will then have access to stream this from Apple, like an unlimited rental model. But only for music they know we purchased.



    Again, this is just my guess.
  • Reply 10 of 67
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DJinTX View Post


    This is a very good question. I think my library is about 50/50, so I am in a similar boat. Unfortunately my guess is that it will only work with purchased content. The way I envision it, is that we won't actually upload anything to the servers really. Apple will just do a scan of our libraries, and see what all we have purchased. We will then have access to stream this from Apple, like an unlimited rental model. But only for music they know we purchased.



    Again, this is just my guess.



    I think you're correct.
  • Reply 11 of 67
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post


    Maybe I am in the dark here... But I can care less about this proposed service.



    Enough music resides on my iDevices at all times for my listening pleasure. Why should consumers care about this product?



    I don't care about this either. Seems like the same as the Verizon situation... Lots of people bitching about it, then a small number of actual users after the fact. Apple needs to stop listening to the Interwebz.
  • Reply 12 of 67
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by regan View Post


    I have a question...



    I have about 30 gigs of music on my ipod touch. About 90% of it i ripped from CDs i bought back in the day, so i own that music. Only 10% of my music i purchased from apples itunes store...if that.



    So will i be able to load ALL my music onto this cloud? Or only the songs i bought from apples itunes store?



    Id love to be able to put my ENTIRE music library in the cloud, so that i could listen to it from my ipad.



    I don?t think Apple loading everyone?s entire iTunes library files is likely. I?d think it works like Time Machine and Dropbox where it reads your database and then gives you links to the files you have without inefficiently uploading duplicates.



    The question about music not purchased on iTS be accessible from this service is a good one. I don?t see any financial gain for allowing that, as well as some extra legal issues by allowing it.
  • Reply 13 of 67
    rot'napplerot'napple Posts: 1,839member
    Is this why iTunes is acting funny? I didn't need to log in but when I view the app store and selections it is definitely out of whack. Anyone else having issues with aoo store in iTunes?
  • Reply 14 of 67
    dishdish Posts: 64member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post


    Maybe I am in the dark here... But I can care less about this proposed service.



    Enough music resides on my iDevices at all times for my listening pleasure. Why should consumers care about this product?



    The correct saying is "I couldn't care less". Unless you meant it as you said it which case you are actually interested in the service.



    My imagination suggests to me that it wouldn't be for just music (that seems very short sighted). Also, what you may be missing is the potential for apple to make devices that have very little flash memory. which means they can make them less expensive....no need for 16,32,64 gb of flash memory in your iphone since all of your media will be in the cloud and streamed/cached to you, your phone might only have 4 or 8 gb in that case.



    another scenario is syncing. Your phone might sync via the cloud instead of your computer, it may no longer be necessary to have a computer to sync your ipad for example.



    this service might also be used in desktop and laptops allowing a persons entire suit of software and profile settings to follow them no matter what computer they log onto.



    The reason why this seems plausible is due to the fact that the entire industry is moving in this direction. Google and Microsoft are known to be working on cloudy computing for the OS.
  • Reply 15 of 67
    shompashompa Posts: 343member
    I have about 6 terra byte in my Itunes.

    Would be fun to have that on the cloud. But I think this service is only for stuff you bought from Apple. I think I have about 400 meg of stuff (excluding apps) that I have bought from them.
  • Reply 16 of 67
    Spotify is not available in the US.
  • Reply 17 of 67
    dishdish Posts: 64member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I don?t think Apple loading everyone?s entire iTunes library files is likely. I?d think it works like Time Machine and Dropbox where it reads your database and then gives you links to the files you have without inefficiently uploading duplicates.



    The question about music not purchased on iTS be accessible from this service is a good one. I don?t see any financial gain for allowing that, as well as some extra legal issues by allowing it.



    I think it will allow media that hasnt been purchased via itunes. If they try to exclude it I think they will find that the user will become frustrated with remembering which files are in the cloud and which are on the hdd. It's not very elegant and would likely result in a poor adoption rate. With every passing month you can see more and more that the next big battle will be fought in the Clouds, fought over by the tech companies for the rights store your data and charge you for it....(see all the numerous cloud services that have popped up thus far). Apple has to know that should Google with their chrome OS and all the rest of competitors get hold of your data it will be hard for them to win you back.



    As for legal issues. I would say this is actually better for the industry as a tool for fighting piracy than the alternative. If for example Apple says that you may upload the file that you haven't purchased via iTunes I have to imagine that you will not be inclined to constantly download and re-share the files as much as if they existed souly on your hdd. (admittedly this feels like a weak argument but I think there is value in it when you consider that Apple may have some scheme that is in the same vain but more refined).
  • Reply 18 of 67
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I don?t think Apple loading everyone?s entire iTunes library files is likely. I?d think it works like Time Machine and Dropbox where it reads your database and then gives you links to the files you have without inefficiently uploading duplicates.



    The question about music not purchased on iTS be accessible from this service is a good one. I don?t see any financial gain for allowing that, as well as some extra legal issues by allowing it.



    From the labels' perspective, there would be no way to tell if a ripped CD file was from a purchased copy or a borrowed copy or a repurchased used copy or a shared file. Streaming rights to such tracks would amount to the labels declaring that once a CD copy of music is sold those tracks become available for streaming to as many people who have access to the ripped files, by whatever mechanism.



    Needless to say, pretty much the definition of the industry's nightmare, so I doubt they would ever grant any such right (at least without charging onerous fees).
  • Reply 19 of 67
    dishdish Posts: 64member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bcahill009 View Post


    Here's to hoping this service w/ a new mobile me comes out very soon. My mobile me account expires today and I have been stalling on renewing for this very reason.



    I really need this to come out before all my data goes away. (I think I have 15 days).



    mobileme is nolonger for sale...will you still have to pay for the renewal? It might be free for you now until they release the new mobileme service.
  • Reply 20 of 67
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dish View Post


    I think it will allow media that hasnt been purchased via itunes. If they try to exclude it I think they will find that the user will become frustrated with remembering which files are in the cloud and which are on the hdd. It's not very elegant and would likely result in a poor adoption rate.



    iTunes has been adopted and I have to remember what files I have added to the app and which I access from either QuickTime or Movist(VLC) because iTunes won?t upload it. It?s not the most convenient thing but I still use iTunes for video storage, rentals and purchases, and Apple has seemingly disallowed other containers/codecs for legal reasons.
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