iTunes music streaming service already approved by two major music labels?
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s news that Apple was ready to launch its iTunes music streaming service, All Things Digital is now reporting that Apple already has deals in place with two of the major music labels.
The deals are said to be in place with two of four largest labels, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony and EMI. They do not know which of the two the deals are with at this stage. One of its sources also claim that Apple content boss Eddy Cue will be in New York tomorrow to start finalising deals with the remaining two labels.
The industry executives I’ve talked to haven’t seen Apple’s service themselves, but say they’re aware of the broad strokes. The idea is that Apple will let users store songs they’ve purchased from its iTunes store, as well as others songs stored on their hard drives, and listen to them on multiple devices.
Amazon launched its own music streaming and storage service last month without the approval of the major music labels. The way Apple is approaching the idea is totally different. A licence agreement with the music labels would allow Apple to store a single copy of a song on its server’s, then share that to multiple users who own the music. This would massively reduce the storage levels needed by Apple and obviously reduce costs too.
The success of this service will be down to how much it costs the consumer, both in terms of any subscription pricing and more obviously data costs. Cell service providers seem intent on reducing our monthly download limits. For these type of services to succeed we need to see the return of unlimited data plans!
UK editor at iMore, mobile technology lover and air conditioning design engineer.
There are 10 comments. Add yours.
I don't wanna stream music, but I do want to be able to download an already purchased song on a device that I purchased on another device. will I be able to do that ?
I think that's the idea. I don't think it's about streaming at all, which is the real data killer. The benefit will be not having to sync with your computer to manage the music on your devices. You'll be able to do it wirelessly, anywhere you have wifi or 3G.
Would be nice, but not sure this could intice carriers to return to unlimited data, and at a fair price.
I tend to edit the songs in my collection via Audacity or something similar. Since I like shuffling through my music, I sometimes merge album tracks that naturally flow together (so they both play in sequence), or trim silence, adjust levels, loop some bits or cut others.
For example; I re-inserted "Her Majesty" after "Mean Mister Mustard" in Abbey Road to see how the medley was originally going to sound, determined I liked it, and now have both Abbey Road medleys play in their entire when shuffling through my collection.
Will this prohibit me from syncing commercial music that I've purchased (but since -however slightly- modified)?
Chris we don't need unlimited data plans back for these services to succeed! I believe they will succeed regardless and the majority of the consumers will be mostly on wifi. Try to not state an opinion like its a fact.
I think he is right though. Most on AT&T will have only 2GB to play with. There will be many who (like me on Verizon iPhone) hate switching wifi on and off all the time and prefer 3g 99% of the time. If they sync there music via 3G, there data will be racked up fast. in 10 days I have .5 gigs used already and I have been on wifi for a long time aka light 3G use.
I can tell you that this service better push at&T to better data caps (5gb or more?)
I hope Apple launches a solid product, but I also hope Amazon continues to assert they (and I) do not need any license to sync/stream my legally purchased music to myself, and that this is affirmed in court.
Word.
Good posting,, this is post that very wonderfull. I Like this :)
In order to be successful iTunes music steaming will have to offer both music and video opptions.