Apple pushed their newest iOS software today with a significant development: iCloud. iCloud syncs photos, applications and other data across your Apple devices. What does this mean for your MP3 collection? According to tech blog All Things D, not much, especially when you compare iCloud to new, similar services from Google and Amazon. With iCloud (as with the other services) you’ll be able to store all your music in the cloud and stream it just about anywhere. Unlike the other services, Apple’s will use a “scan and match” system, which will determine if a song you’re uploading matches one they already have in the iTunes store. If so, it’ll save you a lot of time and bandwidth. That additional service will cost you $24.99 per year, though this also means you’ll score iTunes store-quality tracks to stream if yours were below 256 Kbps. Apple has a comparison chart on their site (which of course shows them besting Amazon and Google), but All Things D points out that Google and Amazon will fight to stay competitive after this announcement. Steve Jobs himself introduced the iCloud/music announcement at today’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Fransisco.
And if you’re wondering, the services don’t check to see if you purchased the music legally.
I just got my Google Music beta account so I haven’t uploaded any songs to it yet, and I haven’t installed the iOS update. Have you? How do you like having all of your music live in the cloud?
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i got my google music beta invite about 2-3 weeks ago, i have an android phone so for me it has been great… uploaded all my music from my itunes folders, legally purchased or not (took a while i will say), i have already had two occasions where i simply plugged my phone into my friends cars to play a new track immediately from my google music library… but i still use my ipod as my main source of music, my ipod classic will never die
overall i like the service, but dont really see myself completely losing the whole add to itunes > add to ipod > listen process, now there will just be more ways to get to my library than just the ipod
I tried using the Google Music and it took almost 3 hours to just upload every album from the National. I only have 1 album up on Amazons Cloud player and that took no time at all to upload. I will have to upload more to Amazon’s to see how long that one actually takes.
I like the sound of the iTunes Match but not sure if I want to pay $25 to use it.
For me, both Amazon’s, Google’s, and Apple’s cloud offerings are completely and utterly useless:
1. I have a gazillion songs, all legal, some bought, but some released through either Bandcamp, or as free promo mp3s (from Stereogum, pitchfork and many other trustworthy places regarding the legality of their mp3s). These songs would never “match” via iTunes Match, because Apple can’t know of their legality (even if I have edited each and every download’s “comments” tag with the download URL). So basically, I’m left with either uploading GBs of music (and Comcast won’t like that with their bandwidth limits), or have these songs “non-matched”.
2. What works for me is an unlimited subscription service, a’la Netflix. For $10 per month, I want to be able to stream (and download offline), every song available via distributors. That’s why I prefer the RDIO and MOG services over these new cloud services. I don’;t want to be able to stream “my” music, I want to be able to stream everything in THEIR library, for a modest fee. As for the rest of my music that doesn’t exist in these RDIO/MOG libraries, I can always sync it via the old fashioned method, USB and internal storage. With the RDIO/MOG method the amount of Bandcamp songs I have to manually sync are much fewer than using iTunes Match (since RDIO/MOG would also include many of my free promo songs).
So option #2 is much better for me.
its going to be a big ole’ mess, i’ll have some stuff in the amazon cloud, other stuff will be in the apple cloud and I’m sure there will be a pile of other cloud services jumping on the bandwagon. which means unless clouds learn to talk to each other, I’ll have to remember which cloud contains what? the only place where all files can live together will probably remain my pc, cloud, shmoud.
I’ve been using google music and it works fairly well. It took way too long to upload everything but streaming to my android phone is solid and pretty seamless.
I like mashable’s take on it: http://mashable.com/2011/06/06/tunecore-itunes-cloud/
I want Lala back. Fuck Apple.
There hasn’t been something as good since. And Apple knew that since that’s why they bought it and shut it down so quickly. Something comparable has to come around.
The streaming point just isn’t right at all, which was the biggest development of this news yesterday. iCloud doesn’t stream any music, it simply re-downloads or shares it across your different apple devices within the cloud. Big, big difference.
I think is is ok up to a point. The price point is VERY much improved over Amazon, but it still only gives approx. 200Gb of storage for $24.95 a year. While this is great for use as a super cloud based iPod storage extension, it doesn’t replace local storage to hold larger libraries of music, movies, photos. These can, surprisingly easily, but 1TB or greater. Also another reviewers point is very relevant, that the cloud doesn’t stream but is just storage to re-download to various local devices. This is a detraction.
If you have 1TB of music, it doesn’t upload 1TB. It recognizes the track in your collection and gives you the right to download Apple’s 256 Kpbs track. Adding the streaming function will happen because it’s easy. The question I have is once I add a track that does not already exist in the Apple reference tracks, like say Moby being electrocuted, does it upload my copy and make that the reference for others?
iTunes 10.3 is great. It automatically downloaded 497 songs that I had purchased over the past several years but lost when I upgraded machines.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
I’m surprised that the cloud players use mp3s. This could have been the new, post-mp3 digital format that gets people buying music again — albeit, much more cheaply like Lala’s old 10-cent-per-song cloud offerings. I don’t think I’ll do a thing until there are cloud players built in automatically in car stereos. Otherwise, the ipod/iphone is portable enough for me.
I’m just curious about security issues. Apparently there’s some requirement to divulge more personal information. Are we closer each day to Big Brother? Sony’s playstation database was hacked and now Nintendo. Call me paranoid.
Apple locked me out of my iTunes account due to a security issue that was never explained to me. It was 2.5 weeks before they gave me back my account. They seem to be really serious about security over convenience.
Just posted a blog about some thoughts on iCloud:
http://ow.ly/5daL4
Irrelevant for music lovers- the best thing out there is still Rhapsody, despite the fact that their apps aren’t ideal. Nothing else has the selection.
It amazes me how misinformed 90% of the people here seem to be.
Firstly, this service contains no streaming. iCloud automatically downloads the files directly to all your devices, iTunes Match does the same, except for files not purchased on iTunes.
Most of the iCloud services are not available yet. The only thing you can do so far is manually download songs to devices which you have already purchased on iTunes using other devices.
I am happy with the latest round of updates from Apple. Specifically making device syncing wireless. I hate have a song or app on my iPad, but not also on my iPhone. Having to use my PC as a middleman is frustrating as hell. Now with iCloud, I can skip the PC for updating, but still have it within the network, and use it to store all my files.