Music industry insiders allege that Apple's forthcoming iCloud service will have an initial free period for iTunes Music Store customers, but the company plans to eventually charge a $25 a year subscription fee.
Apple has signed a licensing deal with Universal Music Group, incorporating all four of the major record companies into its iTunes iCloud music plans.
After Apple tipped its hand on Tuesday and revealed it will unveil its new iCloud service next week, Wall Street analysts believe the company has set the stage for a strong software-focused Worldwide Developers Conference keynote.
In addition to agreements with music labels, Apple is also said to be pursuing licensing deals with movie and TV studios that would allow users to remotely store and stream copyrighted video content via the forthcoming iCloud service.
Sources allege that the much-rumored streaming music service from Apple will scan users' iTunes libraries and mirror them in the cloud, but it reportedly won't be free.
Apple is the target of a new patent infringement lawsuit that accuses the iPhone of offering e-commerce services without the proper licensing agreements.
There is little to separate music publishers and Apple from striking a deal to allow music to be streamed through a new iTunes cloud service, a new report claims.
Music industry insiders expect that Apple wants to launch, or at least introduce, its anticipated "iCloud" music streaming service in June, though the company must also reach agreements with music publishers.
Apple has reportedly inked a licensing deal with Sony Corp.'s music division to begin offering the label's catalog in the cloud, leaving Universal Music Group as the last holdout among the major record labels.
Apple's anticipated cloud-based music streaming service could could offer faster playback of Internet-stored content by syncing just small snippets of songs via iTunes.
Music industry sources claim that Apple has signed a cloud-music licensing agreement with music label EMI and is "very near" to completing deals with Universal and Sony, according to a new report.
Apple is said to be quickly building another new data center in Silicon Valley in addition to the massive North Carolina facility set to open any day now, ahead of the anticipated "iCloud" service.
Even as the first magazine publishers have taken to Apple's iTunes subscription terms, an early version of an alternative service put together by the five big publishers is set to launch on the Android Market later this week.
Apple employees are at work on improved media streaming technology at the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, as rumors of a so-called "iCloud" service continue to pick up steam.
Microsoft and several major handset makers, including HTC, Nokia and Sony Ericsson, are now opposing Apple's trademark of the term "App Store" in the European Union for being generic.
The availability of The Beatles' catalog on iTunes, along with the resurgence of vinyl, are credited with a 1.6 percent increase in total music sales so far in the U.S. in 2011.
Though Amazon and Google beat Apple to the punch by launching their own cloud-based music streaming services, record labels are reportedly hopeful that Apple's rumored "iCloud," backed by licensing deals, will be the better product.
A new report claims Google will show off a new music service resembling Amazon's Cloud Drive on Tuesday at the company's I/O conference.
YouTube managers officially announced on Monday a new initiative that will see thousands of major Hollywood studio films available for rent from the site, in an attempt to challenge Apple's share of the Video on Demand market.
Hearst Corp, the publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle and a wide variety of other newspapers and magazines, has agreed to bring its content to the iPad via in app subscriptions.
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Josh Ong
Daniel Eran Dilger
Neil Hughes
AppleInsider Staff
Katie Marsal
Sam Oliver
Slash Lane
