Apple Might Announce Cloud-Based iTunes Service At WWDC

It is now over five months since Apple acquired the online music streaming service, Lala.

While there has been no official communication from Apple so far about how the company plans to integrate Lala with the company's own product offerings, it is being speculated that Apple may use Lala's technology to build a cloud-based iTunes service.

According to Macsimum News, Steve Jobs might make an announcement during the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2010 next month. The new service will make storage space on the users' device irrelevant by moving all the purchased content to the cloud. Macsimum reports:

"Purportedly, the service would allow iTunes shoppers to build up a digital video collection (music, movies, TV shows, etc.) without having to worry about the intensive storage space involved. iTunes Replay would, per the rumors, stream music, TV shows and movies purchased on iTunes, so you wouldn’t have to download them after purchasing, freeing up hard drive space."

If you consider Lala's announcement last month that the online streaming service shall shutdown operations on May 31st, the rumored announcement of the cloud-based iTunes service around June 7 could be a possibility.

But it contradicts a report published two weeks back, which claimed that the cloud-based iTunes service might not be coming anytime soon as Apple had not reached an agreement with record labels as yet. According to the report, the primary reason for the delay was pricing issues. Apple is learnt to be working on a cloud based "locker" service from where users can stream the content that they own on to multiple devices. Record labels are apparently demanding a higher price for content since they argue that streaming songs across multiple devices should constitute multiple use.

However, Apple is already under some pressure as it is facing competition from popular music streaming services such as Spotify in Europe, which is expected to launch its service in the US in the third quarter.

We hope Apple can bring affordable streaming music in the $3 (like Grooveshark) to $5 range per month.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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