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iCloud Detailed: Initially Free with iTunes Purchase, $25 a Year Subscription
The Los Angeles Times reports that iCloud will be offered for free with a purchase from the iTunes Store. That means that a digital download may include free online storage or a free subscription. Though many believe that subscription won’t be free, because users will want to form their libraries as quick as possible, and may cost as little as $ 25 per year.
The LA Times says Apple initially plans to allow consumers to store their data on Apple’s servers, and would like to offer much more than music in the realm of movies, television, and other digital content through iCloud’s publishing platform. Whether that storage involves uploading your own media or having iTunes scan your library is currently unknown, but we’re hoping for the latter.
Leave a commentApple Confirms: June 6 Keynote with Steve Jobs To Unveil iOS 5 and iCloud
Yesterday Apple confirmed through the press release that Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs will be on stage at the WWDC keynote on June 6th. While keynote iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud, the upcoming cloud service from Apple, will be officially unveiled. Noteworthy to say that it is not clear yet whether the upcoming iCloud will be focused only on music service, or it will be a part of rebranded MobileMe.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.
iOS 5 To Feature “Completely Revamped” Notifications and Widgets
As far as we know, WWDC, set for the 6th June, will be about software and the future of iOS and Mac OS X. TechCrunch believes that the forthcoming iOS 5 will be unveiled at the WWDC because Apple invited journalists and the iPhone PR team that usually covers major iOS announcements. As expected, Apple will introduce a completely revamped notifications and widgets. Apple’s fans’ videos in the past weeks showed how Apple could change notifications and bring new voice-recognition features and implement Lion-like Dashboard and home screen widgets. Other interesting feature, Nuance’s voice-recognition, which Apple is rumored to implement with some licensing deals on iOS and OS X Lion, will unlikely to be introduced in a new version of Voice Control (functionality that allows users to quickly call a contact or control music playback only using their voice) for iOS 5.
Some iCloud Music Service Details
Apple’s upcoming iCloud service, rumored to include streaming of iTunes collections to a variety of devices and computers, is said to be formally introduced at the WWDC keynote on June 6. Businessweek says “three people briefed on the talks” (between Apple and music labels) have suggested Apple will provide a scanning tool that quickly mirrors songs to iCloud’s servers, also offering a way to replace those songs with better-quality versions if quality is not deemed “good enough.”
Apple Reaches Deal with Sony Over Cloud Music
Bloomberg reported last night Apple has reached a deal with Sony Music Entertainment, following reports that the company managed to sign the Warner Music Group and EMI. This leaves Universal, the biggest label of all four in the United States, out of the equation, but according to the rumors Apple is actively focused on closing all the remaining paperwork with music labels by next week.
Apple has reached licensing accords with Sony Corp. (6758)’s music division, EMI Group and Warner Music Group, the people said. Universal Music Group, the largest recording company, is close to a deal, another person said. The company also would need to reach agreements with music publishers, which control different rights than the labels.
Apple Inks Deal with EMI, Cloud Music Almost Finalized
Cnet reports that Apple has inked a deal with EMI over the upcoming launch of the rumored cloud music service that is expected to be unveiled at the WWDC in June. Cnet also claims the last two remaining deals with Sony and Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group (Warner Music Group reportedly signed a deal last month) could be signed as early as next week.
Apple has signed a cloud-music licensing agreement with EMI Music and is very near to completing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, multiple music industry sources told CNET.
Apple Opening A New Data Center in Silicon Valley
Apple is planning to open a new data center in Silicon Valley in the third quarter of 2011 to provide “additional IT capacity” to Apple’s rumored new cloud services that include music, video, storage, and more. The new space is located in Santa Clara, California, and it’s smaller than the massive data center Apple has been building in Maiden, North Carolina, throughout 2010 and 2011.
Apple is expanding its Internet infrastructure with a new data center in Silicon Valley, as it prepares to bring additional server and storage capacity online later this year. The new server space, housed in a third-party facility, will be smaller than the huge iDataCenter that Apple has built in North Carolina.
Digital Downloads Drive A Music Industry Recovery
According to Nielsen Soundscan report, US music sales have increased by 1.6% over the course of this year. The report gives the credit for the rise, unsurprisingly, to digital music sales, which in terms of albums was up 16.8% and in terms of individual tracks was up 9.6%. As for physical media, CDs were down by 8.8%, but Vinyl increased by 37%, although they only account for 1.2% of sales. Nielsen interestingly suggests the arrival of the Beatles on iTunes as a key reason, pointing to a dramatic increase starting from when it was released on iTunes. As for the most popular genre’s, Rock had the greatest market share in album sales whilst Pop was the most popular for digital tracks.
Labels Hoping Apple’s Music Service Will Launch at WWDC
Four major music labels in the US (Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony, Universal) are hoping Apple’s rumored cloud music service will launch next month during the WWDC. The labels are counting on Apple to provide a full-featured music service with iTunes Store integration that would force competitors like Amazon and Google to start paying licensing fees for their “music locker” services. Amazon and Google services users might be able to upload songs they illegally downloaded from the Internet.
Photo of Clipless Next-Gen iPod Nano with 1.3 MP Camera Surfaces
Taiwanese website Apple.pro posted a photo of what they claim to be a seventh generation iPod nano featuring a 1.3 megapixel rear camera. The photo again clearly shows the camera hole, although there is obviously no camera module included with the case. Interestingly, the new photo shows no clip attached to the rear of the case, with the Apple logo appearing directly on the case itself. Today’s photo seems to confirm previous speculation that, in order to make room for the camera, Apple would have to ditch the clip entirely, although it doesn’t make much sense considering Apple has been heavily touting the iPod nano as a sport accessory that can be worn on the outside of the user's clothing for quick access to device functions.
Apple Reportedly Hires Audio Pioneer Tomlinson Holman
As noted by GigaOM, Apple has hired audio pioneer Tomlinson Holman to head up the company's audio projects.
Apple has reportedly hired Tomlinson Holman as its new audio chief, according to a tweet by Leo Laporte Wednesday morning. Laporte said he had it "on good authority" that Holman "is joining Apple to run audio." Holman is the brain behind Lucasfilm's THX sound, and the world's first 10.2 surround sound system. Apple had yet to respond to a request for confirmation as of this writing.
Apple Will Soon Launch Its Music Streaming Service, Already Negotiates With Labels
Yesterday Reuters reported Apple is ready to launch its long-rumored cloud-based music streaming service. The publication cites three anonymous sources who also have details on how it will work.
"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".
Amazon to beat Google and Apple, announce cloud locker for music, movies and books this week
Amazon has announced its own Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player to store and distribute music, video, photo content via the cloud. These services allow customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac or PC, wherever they are. Customers can easily upload their music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and can save any new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to their Amazon Cloud Drive for free.
In other words now Amazon is offering the following services to its customers:
Cloud-based iOS 5 Coming this Fall
TechCruch’s sources report that the release of iOS 5 was pushed back to fall. But the preview of software is expected to be introduced at the WWDC in June. The rumor is interesting because it breaks Apple’s usual release cycle. In last years Apple previewed a new version of iOS in March or April and released it by the WWDC. But not this time. The iOS 5 launch is also likely to coincide with the release of the iPad 3.
The forthcoming major revamp of iOS may bring the cloud-based operating system with rumored music “locker” service. There is also a fall launch aim for this, during Apple’s annual music-themed event. One of the new cloud service elements is likely a location service that focuses on finding friends and family members. iOS 5 is also rumored to introduce a new UI, a new notification system, direct OS X integration.
New MobileMe Will Include Music Locker
The Apple’s new MobileMe, set for April, will have a new music component, dubbed “locker”. There are not enough details, but the new service is called as your digital life stored in the cloud. The locker service will reportedly costs around $20 per a year.
Apple made a licensing deal with Warner Music Group and uses it to secure agreements with other labels. Moreover, almost everybody knows that Apple is working on a cloud-based iTunes music streaming service to provide permanent backup of downloaded songs.
The service also would allow downloads to iPad, iPod and iPhone devices linked to the same iTunes account. The move would be a step closer to universal access to content centrally stored on the Internet.
That information suggests that Apple will introduce a rumored music streaming service. We’ll see. April is soon!