With rumors flying and rivals launching semi-crappy products, most people expect Apple to launch some type of “music in the cloud” service this year, possible at WWDC in just a few weeks.
While I’m not sold on any cloud music service at this point, I do see how some people would love such a Apple-backed solution. Let’s look at my hazy crystal ball at what the company may be planning:
The Worst-Case Scenario
Let’s be honest — Apple’s track record with cloud services isn’t great. .Mac was under-powered and parts of MobileMe — mainly iDisk — suck balls. Here are some things that would really bum me out:
- Only allowing iTunes-purchased songs to be stored on the cloud
- No 3G streaming (a la FaceTime)
- No local caching on iOS devices
- A crappy uploader and/or lack of library sync
The Best-Case Scenario
If Apple called me up, and asked me what I would want out of a cloud music server, these would be the major points:
- Purchased music automatically being pushed to the cloud and my local library.
- Let me sync/cache songs from the cloud to my iOS devices on the go. Kill the USB cable, Apple.
- All music, regardless of origin, can be uploaded.
- 3G streaming on the go. Pandora, Rdio and others have this working. Hell, it even works via the Dropbox app.
A real pipe dream would be for this cloud service to sync selected media across my Macs, the web and my iOS devices. What a crazy world it would be if I could rip a CD on my iMac, let the sync app do its thing and then download those files on my MacBook Pro or iPad later.
The word magical comes to mind.
What about MobileMe?
I have no idea what Apple is going to do with MobileMe. I’m a fan of the service, and really hope Apple leaves the syncing and email alone.
However, like Shawn, I think Apple could do a lot more. Why not let app developers sync app data across Apple’s cloud?
Whatever Apple released on June 6 — if anything — is almost guaranteed to work better and have more polish than Amazon’s and Google’s current offerings. And that can only be a good thing.