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Music News: iTunes Match ($25/year)
Member Since: 3/7/2011
Posts: 2,187
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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/tech...nes-match.html
Quote:
"Here's how it works," Apple said on its website. "iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 18 million songs in the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud. All you have to upload is what iTunes can't match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch."
Songs with a match in the iTunes catalog are all replicated in a user's iCloud library at 256-kbps quality, which audiophiles should appreciate, even if the user had lower-quality files.
In order to pull all this off, Apple reached large contracts with major record labels, agreeing to give them a share of the revenue from iTunes Match subscriptions.
If iTunes Match users let their subscriptions run out and don't pay to re-up, their iCloud libraries would revert to just the songs they've bought from iTunes.
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Summary:
What? ALL music on your computer - purchased from iTunes or not - will be accessible to download anywhere. iTunes will scan the original file, match it to a store item, and then simply mark the song as "owned" in your account. You can then download it anywhere at iTunes+ quality, even if the original wasn't. Alternatively, if the song is not found in the itunes store by the scan, it will upload the original file - which you can then download anywhere.
When? Fall 2011
How? $25 A Year Subscription Fee
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Worth it?
Basically, it's an "external hard drive" on the cloud where you can download "all the music you have" whereever you have Internet.
The revenue breakdown of that $25 a year subscription
30% - Apple
12% - Publishers/Songwriters
58% - Labels/Artists
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Member Since: 7/12/2009
Posts: 15,281
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Looks good, I hope this will bring a looooot of i+ stuff 
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Member Since: 12/31/2010
Posts: 26,257
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Watch it be some sort of trap and it leads to the largest piracy lawsuit in history. 
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Member Since: 3/7/2011
Posts: 2,187
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Quote:
Originally posted by dvntrcks
Watch it be some sort of trap and it leads to the largest piracy lawsuit in history. |
You forgot the part where:
In order to pull all this off, Apple reached large contracts with major record labels, agreeing to give them a share of the revenue from iTunes Match subscriptions.
The revenue breakdown of that $25 a year subscription
30% - Apple
12% - Publishers/Songwriters
58% - Labels/Artists
For example, assume 50 millions around the world pay $25 a year for Itunes Match.
$25 x 50 mil = $1,250 million. Of that Itunes take $375 mil a year.
The label and their publishers take 70% or $875 million a year.
So basically, the label/publishers get a lot of money for allowing music users to 're-download' songs they bought (or illegal download) on any devices they want. How much they get will depend on the number of subscribers for Itunes Match.
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Member Since: 4/6/2011
Posts: 31,849
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i cant think of a situation when i would actually use this. im not sure for now.
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Member Since: 7/12/2009
Posts: 15,281
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Considering it is actually paying for something you own already, they are quite smart. You already own the cd and ripped it into your iTunes. But buying it again from the iTunes Store for only quality would just be stupid, because it's so expensive. Now you don't have to and you can do it with everything you own for just 25$ a year. So technically it makes you pay for music you already have, you only update quality and you can listen to it on any device.
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Member Since: 12/31/2010
Posts: 26,257
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Quote:
Originally posted by Dust2
You forgot the part where:
In order to pull all this off, Apple reached large contracts with major record labels, agreeing to give them a share of the revenue from iTunes Match subscriptions.
The revenue breakdown of that $25 a year subscription
30% - Apple
12% - Publishers/Songwriters
58% - Labels/Artists
For example, assume 50 million around the world pay $25 for Itunes Match.
$25 x 50 mil = $1,250 million. Of that Itunes take $375 mil.
The label and their publishers take 70% or $875 million.
So basically, the label/publishers get a lot of money for allowing music users to 're-download' songs they bought (or illegal download) on any devices they want. How much they get will depend on the number of subscribers for Itunes Match.
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Hmm, true. I wonder how much of the money the publishers and labels get from singles on iTunes to make it worth their while.
And did anyone else realize that iTunes took the cloud concept from Amazon, after Amazon spent a good couple mill on promoting a similar service?  Apple is playing dirty.
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Member Since: 3/7/2011
Posts: 2,187
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Quote:
Originally posted by Peep
So technically it makes you pay for music you already have, you only update quality and you can listen to it on any device.
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And have a back-up on the cloud in case you 'lose' your digital music (computer crash, device broke, device stolen etc.....)
Basically, it's like AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ON THE CLOUD where all your music will be kept as long as you pay $25 a year ($2.08 a month).
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Member Since: 12/18/2010
Posts: 4,617
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They keep fooling everybody with their services 
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Member Since: 5/22/2010
Posts: 9,633
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That is actually pretty cool, I can't decide if I like the idea or not
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ATRL Administrator
Member Since: 6/29/2002
Posts: 77,601
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I don't really see the point of this. It's a nice way to backup your music I guess. But it sounds cooler and more interesting than it is.
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Member Since: 10/23/2008
Posts: 4,113
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Only in the US right? 
Anyway, it's a smart way for the labels to get your money from pirated music.
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Member Since: 11/7/2009
Posts: 9,863
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They want to get illegal "downloaders" or what? Anyway, $25 a year is still too much 
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Member Since: 6/7/2005
Posts: 20,766
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Member Since: 3/27/2009
Posts: 30,284
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Quote:
Originally posted by Kworb
I don't really see the point of this. It's a nice way to backup your music I guess. But it sounds cooler and more interesting than it is.
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I was just about to say, "it's a nice backup". However, I most likely won't participate, but it sounds interesting, to say the least.
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Member Since: 10/14/2010
Posts: 1,387
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Quote:
Originally posted by dvntrcks
Hmm, true. I wonder how much of the money the publishers and labels get from singles on iTunes to make it worth their while.
And did anyone else realize that iTunes took the cloud concept from Amazon, after Amazon spent a good couple mill on promoting a similar service? Apple is playing dirty. |
Everything is moving to cloud based service. You should keep up with the times. LOL. Anyone with their head not in a hole in the ground knew about Apple building massive server farms for the past few years to revamp MobileMe.
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Member Since: 10/7/2010
Posts: 1,173
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I have my songs on my mac and that syncs with my iPhone. Would I need this?
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Member Since: 3/7/2011
Posts: 2,187
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http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/indus...05219352.story
Apple's iCloud Could Finally Make Music Pirates Pay
Quote:
LOS ANGELES - Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs on Monday introduced more than just a cloud storage system for songs that fans buy legitimately through iTunes. He unveiled a system that might finally get music lovers to pay for the songs they got through less-than-proper means.
Aside from offering to freely distribute new and old iTunes purchases on all of a user's devices, the Apple impresario unveiled "iTunes Match," a $25-a-year service starting this fall that will scan users' devices and hard drives for music acquired in other ways, store it on distant computer servers and allow them to access it anywhere.
The service acknowledges a well-known fact - that most music on iPods, iPhones and iPads was ripped or swapped. Apple reached a deal that gives recording companies more than 70 percent of the new fees, addressing a dark secret that has crippled the music industry, and provides them with some economic payback.
Where Apple is able to identify and match songs from its 18 million-song database, it will transfer them into the user's iCloud, a storage area housed on servers, including those at a massive new data center in North Carolina.
"The chances are awfully good that we've got the songs in our store that you've ripped," Jobs said.
Where songs can't be identified - say of bootlegged concert recordings - users can manually upload them to the cloud and gain the same access.
Jobs called it "an industry-leading offer" compared with similar song-uploading storage services recently introduced by Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. The limit of "iTunes Match" is 25,000 songs, and the service will update lesser-quality song files to iTunes standards. ITunes purchases do not count against the limit.
Industry observers said the new service could translate into big bucks for both Apple and the recording companies.
Apple has about 225 million credit card-backed accounts on iTunes. If only 10 percent signed up for the convenience of accessing music they hadn't bought there, it could turn into more than $500 million a year in new revenue, said Jeff Price, CEO of TuneCore Inc., a company that helps independent artists sell their music on iTunes and other digital music outlets.
The best thing is that consumers get the sense that they're paying for convenience, not for things they already own, he said.
"It allows for revenue to be made off of pirated music in a way that consumers don't feel that's what they're paying for, and that's what I find fascinating about it," Price said.
Both the free and the paid cloud services address a pressing need - to access music, documents and photos that are now stored on various devices - without the need for connecting wires to a computer. Such syncing has been a headache for music fans.
"If you're a music fan, the greater the fan, the greater the frustration," said Eric Garland, the CEO of online media measurement company Big Champagne LLC.
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Member Since: 12/13/2009
Posts: 14,460
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My prayers have been answered.
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Member Since: 3/5/2011
Posts: 15,413
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Amazon and Google already have Cloud based music service. Nothing new under the sun...
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