Apple’s iCloud may be free for users when the service launches says a report from the Los Angeles Times. After this introductory period is over, the cloud-based offering could cost a mere $US25 per year.
Apple supposedly has the support of all the four major record labels, including Universal which signed on the dotted line this week. Deals with the music publishers should be in place by the end of the week. Apple’s deal favours the record labels with 70 per cent of the revenue landing in the pockets of Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony Music Group. Apple will walk away with 18 per cent and the publishers will grab the remaining 12 per cent.
We still don’t know what you will get for this $US25. Rumours point to a revamp of MobileMe which could include calendar, contact and file syncing. Most everyone expects Apple to finally put its Lala acquisition to good use and launch an online music streaming service to compete with Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music.