Comments on: Who Will Create iTunes for the Cloud?

By: Apple’s Cloud Music Plans Don’t Involve Unlimited Subscription: Apple News, Tips and Reviews «

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:57:46 +0000

[...] cloud-based music solutions, and Sony continues to expand the reach of its Music Unlimited service. Mike Wolf paints a good picture of the overall landscape, detailing those and other [...]

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:54:50 +0000

What about services like Spotify and rdio? They offer an über-affordable cloud music approach. Spotify also offers a lot of social and can manage your own library. If they developed a greater social platform (they must have the infrastructure to!) they could take the lead!

By: Big Rumors About Little iPhone, MobileMe Revamp: Apple News, Tips and Reviews «

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:07:18 +0000

[...] Even if this summer’s iPad refresh is only a modest upgrade, and the iPhone Nano doesn’t materialize at all, this new MobileMe could still be huge news. After all — who else could possibly compete with such a service? [...]

By: Amazon Could Be the Next Big iTunes Competitor: Tech News and Analysis «

Amazon Could Be the Next Big iTunes Competitor: Tech News and Analysis « — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:45:50 +0000

[...] exactly does this mean? As I stated a few weeks ago, the next-generation iTunes will no doubt be in the cloud, and will be equal parts content/rights locker, storefront and recommendation [...]

By: Sony’s Streaming iTunes Rival Now Plays to a Larger Audience: Apple News, Tips and Reviews «

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:47:44 +0000

[...] Wolf recently asked who might be best positioned to create an iTunes in the cloud, and while Sony appears to be taking things slowly, it also seems to be making more headway when [...]

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:09:26 +0000

Grooveshark really does rock with its intuitive design and its simplicity as well as the music loads so fast. Go Grooveshark they are the future of music. Let the industry wake up now and jump on the grooveshark bandwagon before its too late!

By: USC Trojan

USC Trojan — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 17:51:57 +0000

Michael, I appreciate the clarification re- the joking part. Now I feel a little better :-)

However, the topic of your post does not talk about the agility of getting an iTunes in the cloud, is it? It is about who can get there. I believe Zune *is* there. The last time I played a song from my library? More than a few months ago, before I signed up for Zune Pass, before I got my Windows Phone 7. With Zune Pass, XBOX, WP7 and my computer (Mac and Windows), I am able to stream any of their songs for free, unlimited and on-demand. I can also make “Smart DJ” based on albums, artists and songs and I have eliminted the need for a Spotify or a Pandora. In fact, Zune is smart enough to actually create the Smart DJ playlist based on local, network AND internet music, thereby reducing data charges.

I was joking about honorable mention. I am actually saying it should be at the top of the list. Forget waiting for Spotify in the US, you don’t need it if you have a Zune Pass and Zune Pass-compatible devices like an XBOX or a Windows Phone 7/Zune HD.

Talking about agility – how long has amazonmp3 been around? And what have they done with their stuff? You can’t be serious about your argument why Microsoft was not mentioned (ability to put it together).

By: USC Trojan

USC Trojan — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 17:45:30 +0000

HA, *exactly* my point, John. And the “honorable mention” Michael said he will make, was actually in the comments section. Unbelievable how these guys can pass off as journalists.

By: Cabbo

Cabbo — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:45:16 +0000

Grooveshark is what most people who tried it use and it’s spreading like wildfire due to it’s intuitive design, on demand anywhere availability via mobile/desktop with “Pandora like” intelligent radio and premium feel…it’s what the experience will be a few years from now that we take for granted…kind of like how the iPod/iPhone made how we interact on the go with our music so easily become the norm.

The Future is Now and those that have tried already know this…

By: Michael Robertson

Michael Robertson — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:22:07 +0000

Lala was innovative however they were also crippled by music industry restrictions and cost structure.

You couldn’t really “listen anywhere” because Lala for forbidden from offering mobile players. They had the technology but no licenses because big music companies look at web music and mobile music as 2 separate things and charge considerably more for mobile. There were plenty of other restrictions too like no downloads, no caching, and US only.

I expect Apple to be a laggard of moving to the cloud for a few reasons.

1) They’re the leader. Leaders don’t have to take risks and blaze new trail cause they’re already in 1st place.

2) Apple is PC centered. Everything revolves around their PC software iTunes. Buy an iPad and you can’t even use it without bolting it to a PC running iTunes. It’s a completely new model to be cloud centric instead of PC centric.

3) Apple’s massive installed based make any migration an extra challenge. Moving the 150 million iTunes users to the cloud is a massive job. It will take years.

Apple will move to the cloud when other companies start taking away their customers with their cloud offerings. Right now my company MP3tunes has 700,000 users which is tiny. But if we grow that number, if HP gets into the game, if Real and Google get into the personal cloud game then Apple might be compelled to move.

– MR