Apple's Lala team will soon put iTunes into the Cloud?

[Jagi]

Apple's Lala team will soon put iTunes into the Cloud?

TechCrunch this morning has a guest post by MP3.com founder Michael Robertson on what Apple plans to do with Lala.com. Contrary to some predictions, Apple doesn't plan to have a subscription based service according to Robertson. Instead, he sees Apple using Lala's ability to upload music to the cloud, classify it, and then play music from a browser. Any browser including a smartphone browser....

What is of value is the personal music storage service which was an often overlooked component of Lala’s business. As Apple did with the original iPods, Lala realized that any music solution must include music already possessed by the user. The Lala setup process provides software to store a personal music library online and then play it from any web browser alongside web songs they vend. This technology plus the engineering and management team is the true value of Lala to Apple.

That's a lot of storage space. Consider some colleagues that have 100GB+ music collections. If Apple wants to index everyone's full collection, they'll have to have some ability to cross reference music built in. For instance if two peole both own the Beatles White album, Apple should just point both users to the same music database rather than storing both users' music separately. Or perhaps they'll only offer to "Cloud" music that is purchased from iTunes?

That being said, it might be hard for Apple to differentiate between different CD rips (different encodings, name changes, meta data etc.) so the same song may look similar to any computer algorithm that is trying to group music. Robertson isn't phased by music collection size:

An upcoming major revision of iTunes will copy each user’s catalog to the net making it available from any browser or net connected ipod/touch/tablet. The Lala upload technology will be bundled into a future iTunes upgrade which will automatically be installed for the 100+ million itunes users with a simple “An upgrade is available…” notification dialog box. After installation iTunes will push in the background their entire media library to their personal mobile iTunes area. Once loaded, users will be able to navigate and play their music, videos and playlists from their personal URL using a browser based iTunes experience.

In any case, this type of system is going to require some serious datacenter space. Much more than Apple currently deploys with MobileMe iDisk use. That means we're probably seeing why Apple purchased that North Carolina data facility.

 

[divine]

so you don't own the music?

 

[JD Walker]

so you don't own the music?

They'd be fools if they didn't retain the download option.

 

[Jagi]

Apple talks to recording companies about free streaming music service

According to CNET, Apple is speaking to recording companies on the possibility of a free streaming music service. Apple didn't reveal much, but much like what was reported yesterday, the idea is that people would upload their music to Apple's servers and it would be available to them anywhere in the world on any device.

The service would be framed to the recording industry as a "value add that could help stimulate sales" according to their sources and would be available as early as this Spring.

The issue appears to be whether the licensing for music changes when users are able to store them in the cloud. MP3 founder Michael Richardson says consumers shouldn't have to pay the labels any extra to store their music in the Cloud. But he's currently being sued by EMI for doing just that.

Robertson said he expects to see an "upload" button on iTunes as part of a future update.

Interesting. That would allow you to upload your own music to the iTunes "Cloud". But, that doesn't seem to mesh with what Apple is telling the Recording Industry. Clearly what Apple is after, at least in the first stage, is an upsell feature that gives you an option of making a song purchased available anywhere. Just newly purchased songs. Not songs you've ripped off of CDs years ago.

 

[LennyNero1972]

Man fuck that cloud bullshit, I want some type of physical storage.

 

[Jagi]

Apple-owned LaLa.com to close May 31 - will iTunes get cloudy?

Apple will shutter its LaLa.com service on May 31, the company has confirmed in a brief message on the streaming music service’s website. Existing users will be able to log in until the end of next month.

Speculation exists claiming a Web-based version of iTunes, built using LaLa.com expertise, could be introduced as soon as June, offering music streaming and storage services for iTunes-wielding music fans.

MP3.com founder Michael Robertson earlier this year claimed, “Leveraging its ubiquitous iTunes software Apple plans to upgrade their users almost over night to a cloud music service in an ambitious move to beat Amazon and others to a cloud music service.”

“What is of value is the personal music storage service which was an often overlooked component of Lala’s business.” Spotify introduced such a solution to its users earlier this week.

 

[Heist]

When the Cloud blows up - kiss your data goodbye.

Learn from the Tmobile Sidekick fiasco.

I don't trust "clouds." Give me some firm, dedicated storage.

 

[Flawless]

seems they dont want you to download the content you buy, they want to make it easy for you to stream your music or videos to devices so you never have the actual file on hand. I'mma pass on that.

 

[divine]

Cloud computing does prevent you from backing up your data.

When the Cloud blows up - kiss your data goodbye.

Learn from the Tmobile Sidekick fiasco.

I don't trust "clouds." Give me some firm, dedicated storage.

 

[divine]

What in the article did you read to draw that conclusion?

seems they dont want you to download the content you buy, they want to make it easy for you to stream your music or videos to devices so you never have the actual file on hand. I'mma pass on that.