Apple may beat Google to the finish line when it comes to rolling out a cloud-based service for music, according to two sources speaking to Reuters. The service, as the sources described it, is along the same lines as previous rumors: iTunes users would be able to upload their purchased music to a remote server, which would then be streamable to anywhere with a 'Net connection. Still, there's no official date yet for the launch, and Apple has yet to sign any new licenses.
Google's plans, on the other hand, have apparently stalled. According to Reuters' sources, which are allegedly familiar with both companies' plans, Google keeps changing what it wants to offer. First, the company planned to launch a digital locker similar to what Apple is apparently planning, but now, the company is supposedly focusing on a vanilla subscription-based music service. Google's music service was supposed to launch alongside Honeycomb and the Xoom tablet months ago, while Apple's is expected to launch sometime this summer.
Neither company has signed any licenses yet—and why would they? Amazon launched its own digital locker/streaming service nearly a month ago without signing any new licenses with the music labels, beating both Google and Apple to the punch. And now that Amazon insists it doesn't even need new licenses in order for customers to play their own music back from the cloud, Google and Apple "would be fools to get licenses because they'd be at a cost disadvantage," according to MP3tunes CEO Michael Robertson.
It's likely that Apple and Google are waiting to see how Amazon's Cloud Player plays out before launching, but Apple is supposedly a year behind its plans already. The company will need to move soon if it wants to keep in step with Amazon and remain ahead of Google. Maybe we'll hear something about it at WWDC in June?
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