Bad News For Our UK Readers: No iTunes Match Until ‘12
June 10, 2011
Our UK readers will find this one difficult to swallow. Apple’s new iCloud service, first unveiled at this week’s WWDC, won’t launch there until 2012, at least not the service's iTunes Match component. This news comes from The Telegraph, who heard the news first hand from a Performing Right Society (PRS) spokesman.
While Apple was securing music deals with U.S. labels and publishers ahead of this week’s WWDC, it had yet to seek similar deals with those in the UK. As such, the most far-reaching (and significant) feature of iCloud, music storage, will not debut until at least the first quarter of 2012.
Thankfully, those talks have now begun.
According to the PRS spokesman, the organization that represents UK composers, songwriters and music publishers, Apple is now in a “very early stage” of talks with major UK record labels.
They state:
"Tentative talks have begun between the major labels and Apple in the UK. However, all talks are at the really early stages and no one expects to see the cloud music service live on this side of the pond until 2012."Talks have also begun with UK labels, including Warner Music, Universal, EMI and Sony. Although Apple hasn't officially announced this delay, a cryptic message is on their UK iTunes Match page. It reads:
"Coming This Autumn - Starting in the US."All is not lost, however. UK customers will still be able to use the free aspects of iCloud including the ability to re-download music purchased through iTunes to their iDevices. The iTunes Match component, which will arrive this fall in the U.S., will cost consumers $24.99 per year. It allows iTunes customers to store all of their music, including songs purchased elsewhere, onto Apple’s cloud. In addition, whenever Apple detects a song is of a lesser quality than what the company itself owns, it will replace it for the customer at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality. What do you think? Leave your comments below.
