Apple’s reportedly on the cusp of getting all the major music labels signed for their upcoming cloud-based music locker service… but don’t expect it to be free. According to rumblings from industry sources, Apple is planning on charging for their cloud-streaming service.
Says CNet:
Don’t expect Apple’s cloud-music service to come free of charge, at least not forever.
Apple plans to eventually charge for its cloud music service, sources told CNET. Users would be able to store their digital media on the company’s servers.
Music industry insiders told me that Apple has indicated it could offer the service free of charge initially but that company will eventually require a fee. Google is also expected to charge for a similar service
Amazon’s Cloud Drive gives all users 5GB of cloud storage space for free, which upgrades automatically to 20GB of space with any MP3 album purchase. From there, it’s a buck per gig per year for larger storage plans.
I imagine that Apple will stick to similar fees. Previous rumors pegged Apple’s cloud storage fee at $20 per year, and that seems reasonable: it’s what Amazon would charge for 20GB of Cloud Drive space if not for the current “free album” promotion. I just wonder if Apple will roll out a free version of its cloud-storage plan, a la Amazon’s 5GB option, or if it’ll all be baked into a revamped MobileMe trial.
