Apple’s remote iTunes streaming is waiting on music licensing deals. It has talked with the top four labels but supposedly doesn’t have the deals it would need. Apple currently has licensing deals, which allow customers to stream music from their own computers to their devices, but streaming music directly from Apple’s servers, would require a new deal.
Executives at the studios may not have even seen all the details yet, making it difficult for them to gauge the viability of the deal. Apple couldn’t simply transfer Lala’s old licenses for remote streaming as those terms specifically ruled out a license transfer in the event of an acquisition.
Apple is thought to be pressing hard for streaming rights as it would give parity or an edge against Google’s new Android streaming features. It would equally reduce the amount of storage space needed for music and videos on handhelds, taking care of some of the effect of limited flash memory on the iPad and iPhone.
Although Apple would like to get the deal finalized as soon as possible, allegations that many record label executives have not had the service detailed to them indicates the service is a ways away from coming to fruition.
Published on July 10,2010
