What The Hell Is Cloud Music Technology?

Yesterday Apple unveiled for the first time its new iCloud service. It was an aching wait as some app developers were shoved into the shadows; but what is its purpose?

“On the surface, iCloud is simply a consumer solution for syncing personal data: music, app and ebook purchases; personal photos and videos; personal information such as contacts, calendars; and it offers a free email account. Those aren’t likely to affect the workplace much.
But the document sync and device backup features are bigger issues in the enterprise for a simple reason: They allow information about your company to be stored outside of your infrastructure and place control of that information under a user’s personal Apple ID.

Granted, some of that risk already exists. A user can theoretically backup a device (personally or company owned) to an outside computer or use any number of cloud storage solutions — Dropbox, Box.net, Apple’s existing iDisk, Google Docs and others — to transfer business information away from the workplace. The difference is that a user has to make an effort to do so, while iCloud will do this all automatically. A user might not even be aware it’s happening; background operation and ease-of-use is, after all, what Apple is aiming for,”
Ryan Faas, ComputerWorld

The iCloud And Music

‘iTunes in the Cloud’ shares the music you’ve purchased in iTunes with all of your iTunes enabled Apple Devices. It lets you store your music in the cloud so you can access it from anywhere, on anything (anything being any apple device you own).

If you have music you didn’t buy through iTunes then you can use “iTunes Match” which, for $24.99 a year (No UK price as of yet), matches music ripped from CDs in your music catalogue and makes it available online.

“‘Chances are awfully good that we’ve got the songs in the store that you’ve ripped…The other guys, you’ve got to upload your whole music library,’ he added in a jab at rival cloud music services introduced by Amazon and Google. ‘That’s gonna take weeks.’”
Steve Jobs

What Does The iCloud Mean For The Music Industry?

Lefsetz suggests the entire future of music has been spun on its head.

Feasible, profitable and legal solutions lie in streaming services like Spotify, Mog and Rdio, which have a long way to go in popularity (and in artist profitability), but provide a potential solution for artists of the future who need feasible money from the sale of their music.

Only time will tell though, right?