Los Angeles – Apple (NASD: AAPL) has signed a deal with Sony Music for a forthcoming cloud-based music service, making Universal Music the lone holdout among the major record labels at this point, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the deal.
Yesterday, CNET reported that EMI had signed a deal with Apple for the cloud music service, and was close to deals with Sony and Universal; Warner Music was reportedly the first label to sign on.
The deals Apple is now signing with the labels mean the company will be offer advanced features not included on Amazon.com’s or Google’s newly launched cloud music services.
Namely, users of Apple’s service will not have to manually upload each track or CD to the cloud; rather, Apple will be able to “scan and match” the songs on a user’s computer to its own database of songs.
Bloomberg notes that Apple would likely need to reach separate new agreements with music publishers to offer such advanced features.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/5u2p7r6 (Bloomberg)
