Eight months after its acquisition of Lala.com, Apple is telling executives at the four top labels that if Apple offers any cloud-music features within the next few months, they will likely be “modest in scope” and not include the kind of functionality that Apple outlined in meetings with the labels, such as storing users’ music on its servers, sources told “CNET” (http://macosg.me/2/my).
They added that Apple still hasn’t negotiated the kind of licensing deals it would need to distribute music from the cloud, the article adds. Not surprisingly, an Apple spokesman declined to comment.
Apple bought Lala last September. Lala offered “the first and only free fully licensed service to instantly provide anywhere web access to an existing music library such as iTunes.” Apple’s goal is probably to allow Apple to implement a new iTunes feature that would allow users to stream their purchased media content remotely. In fact, rumors of such a service surfaced earlier this year.
Purportedly, the service would allow iTunes shoppers to build up a digital video collection (music, movies, TV shows, etc.) without having to worry about the intensive storage space involved. iTunes Replay would, per the rumors, stream music, TV shows and movies purchased on iTunes, so you wouldn’t have to download them after purchasing, freeing up hard drive space.