According to a new rumour surfacing about the next iteration of Apple’s MobileMe service, we may soon see a music locker service for $20 a year. The Music Void is reporting that Apple is pushing for agreements with major labels to secure a locker service in time for the anticipated April unveiling of the new MobileMe.
Wayne Rosso writes, “Informed sources say that Apple has sealed its deal with Warner and has been using that agreement to leverage the other labels to get the deals done in time for the April launch. The locker service will reportedly have somewhere around a $20 annual price tag.”
The music locker would potentially bring two features that are missing from the current iTunes music experience. The first is a backup of all purchases, allowing you to download the songs that you’ve paid for as many times as you like. Currently you can only download a purchased track once.
The second is the ability to stream on demand the songs you’ve purchased from any mobile device, giving you access to your tunes wherever you are, even if you don’t have them synced to the device you have with you.
It’s not clear whether the music locker will be rolled into the entire MobileMe service, or whether it will be a separate paid add on. Or perhaps the $20 rumour will in fact be the new price for MobileMe? Would you pay $20 for a music locker? If it gives me the ability to freely download my purchases, and access my library from anywhere through the cloud, I would definitely consider it.
What would really make it killer is if, like the now Apple-acquired (and shuttered) Lala service, you could have songs in the locker that were not iTunes purchases, but whatever music you had in your library. Given the legal stickiness of that kind of arrangement however, I’m not holding my breath for that one.
Article Via AppleBitch
