Apple's iCloud makes web music streaming possible
No more downloading of songs from the web and storing them in your devices. Come fall, you will be able to stream your digital music library over the internet with Apple’s iCloud. Amazon and Google both attempted to provide a web-based streaming music service, but their respective Cloud Player and Google Music Beta were not successful at all.
One major feature of Apple’s iCloud is it was not solely created for music, rather it has an improved MobileMe’s functions that allows it to hold emails, a phonebook of contacts, a calendar , iOS device photos, app data and iWork documents. This piece is available as a beta by downloading iTunes 10.3.
Playing songs from within a web browser was also made possible by icloud. However, you can also do this with Amazon and Google’s deals.
With the two, you have to wait for the actual data to upload from your computer or device. This can take many days if you are dealing with a big music collection. Apple iCloud defies these lengthy upload hours as it has high resolution versions of 18 million tunes available and stored in its servers. These are used as copies for your immediate streaming or uploading in the future. Amazon comes next in this aspect as it holds 16 million songs.
Rumors suggest that Apple got into agreements with Universal Music Group, EMI Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group in order to come up with all these online copies. Consequently, Apple charges $24.99 annually for non-iTunes purchased music to be stored online. This yearly payment gives you unlimited access to all the music you want.