News

What Happened To Apple's Cloud Based Music Service?

8:58 a.m. · September 2, 2010 · by Nick Neyland

We heard the announcement about a mouthwatering new iPod Touch, shrugged in disappointment at the reconfigured Apple TV, and wondered if we really needed another social networking tool in our lives via the Ping service. But the question remains: after acquiring and mysteriously shuttering the streaming media platform Lala, where is Apple’s cloud based music offering?

Music industry executives have allegedly said that Apple is planning such a service, allowing purchasers of music files from the iTunes store an opportunity to stream songs from just about any device with an Internet connection. But, after yesterday’s event, which was widely publicized as Apple’s “music announcement,” it seems they are still far away from making this a reality.

If Apple is planning a cloud based music service, it’s likely that any delay is likely to be caused by the same problems that Spotify is having launching on these shores—ie. negotiations with major labels are stalling their efforts. So, instead of allowing music fans to take their nervous eyes away from creaky old hard drives packed with MP3 files (back that drive up, people!) we instead got Chris Martin from Coldplay trying to be a standup comedian, and the underwhelming Ping. Disappointing.