Cloud wars
The cloud music locker looks like joining the tablet as the main tech sector battleground this year, with Apple reportedly set to launch its own service, which includes full licensing agreements with the major labels.
The Cnet report cites multiple music industry sources for the confirmation that Apple has signed a deal with EMI, having already got Warner on-board. That just leaves Universal and Sony, and Cnet's sources reckon those negotiations could be wrapped up as early as next week.
If Apple pulls this off, and launches a cloud music service that not only allows you to access your music from multiple devices, but purchase new music too, that will give it a major competitive advantage over Amazon and Google, which have already launched cloud music lockers, but without the cooperation of the labels.
It was clear from the selective briefings offered up by Google that it was frustrated by its inability to come to an agreement with the labels, and it even attempted a spot of ‘divide-and-conquer' by isolating Universal and Sony as the most difficult.
But maybe one of the reasons they drove such a hard bargain is that they already knew Apple - which is a far bigger company with much more heritage in the digital music business - was readying a deal. This obviously strengthened their bargaining position and, as shown by the pricing of the iPad, Apple is increasingly using its brand and financial muscle to legitimately price competitors out of the market.
Another advantage of having licensing agreements, according to the report, is the removal of the need to upload hours of music onto remote servers. Having an agreement means that Apple could, in principle, just scan your hard drive and replicate your collection on its own servers, without the need to upload.
These kinds of features could make Apple's cloud music service far more attractive than Amazon's or Google's. The question for them will be, given the further weakened negotiating position they'll find themselves in, is do they continue to try to cut a deal with the labels, or resign themselves to a de-featured cloud music offering.
