

Apple Has Completed Cloud Music Service (rumored) - kenjackson
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/21/us-apple-google-idUSTRE73K7A720110421

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trotsky
_Two of the sources said Google originally wanted to launch a basic locker
service and an 'iTunes-like' store. In recent weeks it has suggested exploring
licensing for a subscription service, they said._

Weird, I doubt the bit about google in recent weeks is true. Having worked on
a team building an early subscription service, I feel like I can say with some
authority: There are loads of good reasons no one has been launching
subscription services. Not the least of which is that people just don't seem
to be interested in not owning their content, at least at the price points you
need to charge to cover the licenses.

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krosaen
The idea of uploading and storing "my music" seems antiquated; what difference
does it make if my bits are copied over there vs sharing access to the exact
same bits? Given that they acquired lala.com, I hope they go with their model:
you "buy" a streaming album cheaply (was ~$0.10 per song) and get unlimited
streaming for good, except this time they wouldn't get acquired and refund my
money for lousy itunes gift certificates :) And if in addition to the right to
stream unlimited, they let you sync offline to your mobile device ala rdio or
spotify, then they have a winner.

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kenjackson
_The idea of uploading and storing "my music" seems antiquated;_

Except for at least a few issues:

1) Encoding quality. For CDs I ripped from the encoding quality is pretty
high. I'd like the option to playback with my higher encoding quality.

2) Probably 1/5 of my music collection doesn't exist in iTunes.

3) I've never bought anything rom iTunes, so they'd have to determine what
music I had locally. That seems like its fraught with peril.

~~~
krosaen
yeah, good points. I think lala was pretty good about granting access to music
you already owned:

\- they matched your collection and automatically granted you "ownership" to
anything they had license to

\- anything they didn't, the desktop app actually uploaded it to host on their
servers so you could still host it

I can't remember the encoding quality but it was good enough for quality
headphones / programming for my taste.

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yid
They'd win me over if they got at&t to remove the data cap for their service

