“First Amazon and now Google have launched services that enable users to store music libraries on the companies’ servers and access them from a variety of devices,” Greg Sandoval reports for CNET. “Google unveiled the beta version of its music storage service yesterday at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. Amazon unveiled its Cloud Player and Cloud Drive offerings in late March.”
“But the services offered by Amazon and Google are not all that they can be because those companies had to tippy-toe around copyright issues,” Sandoval reports. “Since neither company was either able or willing to obtain licenses from the four major labels, neither of them could deliver the same range of options that Apple will be able to offer with its upcoming cloud service, according to multiple music industry sources.”
Sandoval reports, “Exactly what those options are, the sources wouldn’t say. Nonetheless, the hope in the music industry is that Apple’s music service will make the competing offerings look shabby by comparison and force Amazon and Google to pay the licensing rates the labels are asking… Lots of people at the four major labels… hope [Apple’s] service [will] launch at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference on June 7.”
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