Skip to main content

Apple paying labels $25-$50 million each for iCloud music streaming rights?

This tidbit from New York Post:

Apple will fork over between $100 million and $150 million in advanced payments to the four major music labels in order to get its iCloud off the ground, three separate sources told The Post. The Cupertino, Calif., tech giant has agreed to pay the labels between $25 million to $50 million each, as an incentive to get on board, depending on how many tracks consumers are storing. The size of the advance payments have been a major hold-up for Google, which had been negotiating with the music companies and now will likely have to pony up higher fees to get a rival cloud service into action, said music industry sources.

So money after all was that major roadblock Eric Schmidt hinted at during his D9 chat with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher…

//

Asked to explain what happened with the Google Music service which does not scan-and-match users music library and prevents people from downloading files once they’re up in the cloud, Schmidt wouldn’t elaborate beyond saying that Google and labels “couldn’t come to terms”. All is not lost for the search firm, however. Sources tell New York Post that “a Google cloud service could now be in the offing as soon as September”. Nice how record labels leverage their love-and-hate relationship with Apple to have their way. Yesterday LA Times reported that iCloud music streaming would be initially free, with an eventual $25 a year fee following an unspecified trial period.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel