Monday, June 6th 2011

News:  iDomination

Apple Announces iCloud, Singularity Closes In

By Johnny Firecloud

Early Monday at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple introduced iCloud. This new free service replaces the Mobile Me subscription service, and aims to keep all of your applications, documents, contacts and settings synchronized across all of your Apple devices. Most interesting to us is the fact that it synchs your music library along with everything else, through a new iTunes feature called iTunes In The Cloud.

Thus iCloud joins Google Music, Amazon Cloud Drive, and services such as Rdio and Spotify in taking a stab at the inevitable future of music consumption. Apple’s approach is unique in several ways, mostly stemming from the fact that Apple has secured deals with all of the major music labels, unlike Google and Amazon.

One key detail is that you’ll have to download your music from iCloud before listening to it on a secondary device. iTunes In The Cloud is only a synchronization service, not a streaming service. You’re still limited by the size of your hard drive. If you’ve got a terabyte of music and a 32GB iPhone, you’re going to have to make some tough choices.

With that caveat, iCloud gives users a way to listen to their music from virtually any internet-connected device. And unlike Google and Amazon’s offerings, uploading your music files to the cloud won’t be necessary, thanks to the label deals and a feature called iTunes Match: If a song you previously bought from iTunes or ripped from CD is already available in the iTunes store, you’ll simply be granted access to Apple’s copy. With that comes one other compromise, a big one for control freaks and audiophiles: All music that comes out of iCloud will reportedly be 256kbps AAC audio. In other words, it sounds like iCloud will actually convert your entire music library to an arguably odd format.

While the basic version of iCloud will come at no charge, to take true advantage of iTunes In The Cloud, users will need to upgrade their accounts for an annual cost of $24.99. What, you thought progress was free?

A portion of the money subscribers pay to Apple will be funneled to labels, musicians and publishers based on the frequency of play. It sounds rosy, but it’s not exactly the solution to the music industry’s woes. No specific details were made available regarding the compensation breakdown between labels and artists, however – which nearly every time means those creating the material get crumbs at best.

iCloud doesn’t fully launch until iOS 5 arrives this fall, but you can check out some features right now. Apple has pushed out updates to the iOS 4.3 App Store, iBooks and iTunes apps that let you check out your purchase history, and setup Automatic Downloads.

Many are likely to feel a bit of hesitation at the idea of synchronizing and effectively replacing a potential majority of their music libraries with “the system,” given that iTunes Match plans to scan the data and match it with the copy available on iTunes, and “upgrade” the quality to 256 kps AAC for listening on devices. As the future roars ever louder while rising around us and Kurzweil’s Singularity draws closer yet, we’re being increasingly faced with tiny decisions and upgrades in our existing tech that seem fantastically futuristic and convenient. They’re exciting, new developments that push us closer to the Jetsons future, but will leave us as helpless as naked babies in the jungle if there’s ever a massive power failure. If the sun decides to blast a massive solar burp and wipe out this dirt road of a global electronic grid we’ve laid down, then what?

Judgement Day is here, bitches. Evolution is bionic and carnivorous, and it is upon us.