Cloud-based "Mobile iTunes" in 2010?

[Paul Daniel Ash]

TechCrunch put up a guest post today by Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com, on Apple's acquisition on Lala.com and what it means for the future of iTunes. Robertson's take is that Apple plans to move iTunes to an online service model: putting it "into the cloud," as Lala was. Instead of a standalone program, you would use cloud-based iTunes via the browser on your computer, iPhone, or tablet device to play your music, anywhere you are.

Though many speculated that Apple bought Lala as part of its push to make iTunes a subscription service, like Rhapsody or Napster. But the "song-rental" part of Lala never really caught on. And since the licensing deals with Lala did not transfer in the acquisition, Apple would have to negotiate a bunch of new deals on its own, which it naturally wants to avoid. According to Robertson's contacts, what Apple really wanted out of Lala is a way for users to put all of their music online.

Lala's system let users upload their legally acquired music and also sold music via the web, storing all of a user's tracks in an online "locker." That technology now belongs to Apple. Robertson speculates that Lala's locker functionality will be bundled into a future iTunes upgrade. After users' tracks are uploaded to their cloud-based library, they'll have a personal URL that points to that library from any browser: at home, at work, or on the move. New iTunes purchases would be added to the user's locker, but possibly only as links to a single copy of the media file, saving cloud storage space.

Eyebrows were raised when Apple built a massive, $1 billion US data center in rural North Carolina. If Robertson is correct, those servers are about to get extremely busy. He says "iTunes users can expect mobile iTunes in 2010."

image via MTD

[Melech518]

That would be amazing!

[southfrisco]

This is something I would love to see. Streamlined data.

[alirz]

seems like there are two opposite things going on in the world as technology is progressing. In North America at least, more and more ISPs are putting bandwidth caps to control the consumptions of data. On the other companies like google, apple, micrsoft, etc are moving to cloud computing...shame

[DarkDragonAn]

I like the ideal, but i like to have control of my own music collection on my personal computer. I carry my mac almost everywhere, and if my mac is not with me i have my iphone. Cloud networking is good for me to sync up my calendar, contacts and personal info that go's traight to my mac. If my way is old school i stay old school.

[rhekt]

i dont mind the idea if its an option you can click on in itunes. but if its the way itunes will be. im giving it a big fat thumbs down.

[iLaw-One]

So they can monitor who's jailbroken or not?
I'll stick to the itunes on my mac, thanks!

[feidhlim1986]

If it means lets say my mac dies, and all my music with it, but I have a backup of my entire Library "in the cloud" that I can simply re-download then that could be good

[SquareWheel]

It's an interesting direction. I think there is a lot of potential for cloud-based media, the technology hasn't been perfected yet though.

So they can monitor who's jailbroken or not?

What? What does that have to do with anything?

[ewokcwalk]

im glad to see that Apple is "Going Green" against hard drive landfills.

[StealthBravo]

Syncing your music library would be awesome

[thevmax]

So they can monitor who's jailbroken or not?
I'll stick to the itunes on my mac, thanks!

EXACTLY!

Be careful what you ask for...you might get it!

[rwin84]

could be cool...

[reanimationxp]

So they can monitor who's jailbroken or not?
I'll stick to the itunes on my mac, thanks!

EXACTLY!
Be careful what you ask for...you might get it! :

What the hell does cloud music storage have to do with jailbreak detection? Quit derailing the discussion.

You think Crapple doesn't have ways of detecting this already? Hell if you walk into an Apple Store the first thing their computerized diag program does is look for "Cydia.app". Besides the fact that they already know - which they do - would you do something to cripple 10% of your users that are your main source of inspiration for a platform? Think.