Universal last of big four music labels to join Apple iCloud

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Universal Music Group joins Apple iCloud

3 June 2011 11:41 GMT / By Rik Henderson

While unconfirmed at present, it is widely believed that Universal Music Group has joined Sony, Warner and EMI in signing a licensing agreement with Apple to use its content on the company's forthcoming iCloud streaming service.

The official announcement is expected to be part of Apple's keynote address at the beginning on its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday 6 June.

It is also believed that the company has signed agreements with many of the other large music publishers around the globe.

That now means that with all of the major labels and plenty of publishers are on board - and others signing up all the time - the service will have plenty of tracks available for launch day.

Cnet, whose sources are the ones who have leaked the Universal news, also states that it understands that iClouds revenue will be split up to favour the record companies: "The labels will get 58 percent and publishers will receive 12 percent. Apple will take 30 percent," it says.

It is still yet to be confirmed as to how iCloud will work, but Pocket-lint is of the understanding that it will scan your iTunes library and stream high quality versions of the tracks that are already stored on Apple's servers. This is different to the system being undertaken by Google and Amazon, who both ask subscribers to upload their own tracks.

Via: news.cnet.com

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