According to reports by Bloomberg, Apple has reached a licensing agreement with Sony Corp’s music division. Apple will begin offering the label’s music in the cloud.
There is now one holdout left among the major record labels and that is Universal Music Group.
This latest deal means that Apple finally has licensing with three of the four major record groups, including Warner Music Group and EMI Group.
Apple will allow users to access their song collections from mobile devices. While Universal Music Group hasn’t signed the proverbial dotted line just yet, they do appear to be close to reaching an agreement with Apple.
Once Apple has signed licensing agreements with the labels, they will have to renegotiate terms with music publishers, as they have different rights than the labels have.
The Worldwide Developer Conference could be where Apple debuts the plans for their cloud music service. According to a report from last month, Apple has the service ready, but it is on hold until the music labels and publishers have finished with negotiations and signed the deals.
The rumors about Apple’s cloud music service lean towards users not having to upload their online collections. This will give Apple a considerable advantage over Amazon and Google. Amazon launched its Cloud Player and Cloud Drive in March. Google introduced a beta music cloud service just last week.
Most industry sources believe that Apple’s cloud music service will be superior to both Amazon’s and Google’s. Neither company secured the blessings of the music labels before they launched their services.
According to AppleInsider, there is more to Apple’s iCloud service than just streaming music. Some sources have hinted that iCloud will be main component of MobileMe, which has been extensively revamped to possibly bring a variety of personal media and data into the cloud.
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