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Friday, June 3, 2011

Music In The Clouds

No big secret that Apple wants to be our connection to music and video. And we now know what Apple is doing with their cash. "Apple will fork over between $100 million and $150 million in advanced payments to the four major music labels in order to get its iCloud off the ground, three separate sources told The Post." That means that Apple will have put together a plan in time for it's big announcement next week. And it adds one more feather to the iPhone, iPod, iPad family; all your music available without needing to fill up your hard drive.

"One executive explained that the cloud service will initially be free to people who bought their music from Apple's iTunes store, but Apple is said to be considering a $25 a year charge in the future." Is Cloud access worth a $25 annual subscription? Or do we feel that purchasing the song or movie should entitle us to availability regardless of where it is stored? If consumers buy in to the iCloud as a subscription service, it means that Apple has uncovered another important revenue stream and has beaten their competition to the punch. Certainly Google must be worried that, despite announcing first, they couldn't get their cloud service out quickly.

Anytime Apple announces, devotees wonder what else will be released. While the early PR has all been on cloud computing, some are hoping for more news on their hardware products. Regardless, Apple continues to capture the public's attention with their eye focused squarely on future opportunities.