Apple has managed to do something that Amazon and Google didn’t by getting the major music labels to sign a deal for their own media streaming and digital locker service reportedly called iCloud.
The Cupertino company has already got a deal with Warner Music and has just inked a deal with EMI, with the other two majors thought to be putting pen to paper as early as next week.
CNET are reporting that we could even see a working version and full unveil at the Apple developers conference which will begin June 6th.
Getting all four major labels is a massive scalp for the company as it means they will have access to all of the commercial music available in your average music store both online and in your local town or city.
Amazon and Google felt that the current copyright laws meant they didn’t feel a new deal was necessary – and will no doubt be facing a court battle from the four majors.
Apple has invested millions in this new venture where users will store all of their media in a digital locker online, it is an important step for Apple as it means a future where they do away with storage on their devices meaning that they will become substantially cheaper – the first of these is thought to be a cheap iPhone for the masses.
They have bought and setup a data centre in North Carolina and have also got a reported 12 million gigabytes of storage – which is widely expected to be the home of iCloud.
Apple will more than likely want to link the new system with a revamped MobileMe subsciption service – but are consumers really bothered about cloud storage? How can it work if your out of Wi-Fi coverage or have no 3G signal ?
Apple is thought to have paid $4.5 million for the name iCloud to thin client and online storage outfit Xcerion, which has suddenly renamed its own service ‘CloudMe’.
We fully expect iCloud to be the main talking point at this year’s Apple’s annual back-slapping convention WWDC which kicks of on June 6th.
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