Amazon stole a march on Google by launching its cloud locker music service licence-free, but now it seems Apple could also beat the company to market with its own offering. On Thursday night, Reuters reported that Apple has “completed work on an online music storage service and is set to launch it ahead of Google”, although it also claimed that no licences had yet been signed. The same day, though, All Things Digital pushed the story on, with its sources suggesting that Apple already has deals with “at least two of the big four labels”, quoting an industry executive as saying “They’ve been very aggressive and thoughtful about it. It feels like they want to go pretty soon”. Meanwhile, on Friday CNET claimed that Apple has one confirmed deal in the bag with Warner Music Group, which may or may not be one of the two deals referred to by All Things Digital. All agree on the main features of Apple’s service: online storage and multi-device access for songs bought on iTunes, but also other tracks in users’ collections.
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