Warner Music Group on board with cloud-based iTunes service

Cloud-based storage is slowly gaining traction with companies even though enthusiasm for the service among tech enthusiasts and internet aficionados has been tempered by privacy concerns: if your purchased content or information is stored server-side rather than inside your own hard drive, the criticism contends, is it safe from deletion or perusal by a third party?

Apple is moving iTunes to the cloud regardless, and Warner Music Group wants in.

A report at Peter Kafka’s MediaMemo says the hardware manufacturer has inked a deal with Warner Music Group to provide its product to the pending upgrade. Apple has also signed at least one other major music label according to the site’s insider source.

Prior to the WMG announcement, Reuters declared that Apple had “completed work” on its online locker service and would launch it before Google released its own Google Music application.

Google and Apple are both seeking label approval for their respective services — a fact that likely played a part in neither having a service up and running yet. Amazon, however, launched sans record label blessing allowing the company first dibs on the burgeoning concept.

Rumors surrounding the yet-to-be-released update to the popular iTunes store have existed since last year, shortly after Apple bought up – and then promptly shut down – streaming-only service Lala.

A survey conducted by The NPD Group also provided Apple good reason to turn iTunes into a music locker: it turned up millions of dedicated users who admitted they would be interested in a subscription-based service that allowed easy access to streaming music via multiple devices.

Apple’s push into cloud-based streaming music is, however, a step into an uncertain future.

Amazon launched two distinct cloud services in March: Cloud Drive hosts myriad file types for free, and Cloud Player is the online seller’s music-centric streaming counterpart.

Concern over some cryptic Terms of Service warnings killed some enthusiasm for the latter; despite the information we share about ourselves online each day (both knowingly and unknowingly), some understandably fear Amazon’s purported “right to access your files” clause.

It’s unclear if (or when) Apple will reach an agreement with the remaining major record labels and just how soon iTunes users will be able to try out the novel streaming service for themselves. (Via All Things Digital)

Looking forward to a cloud-based future, or just fine with how things are? Let us know in the comment section.