For the most part, I consider myself a well-grounded person, but lately, I’m often finding myself with my head in the clouds.
In this case, these clouds aren’t vaporous blobs but a burgeoning new technological development.
Cloud computing is a system in which your data are stored on servers rather than on a home computer. As a result, your files are accessible anywhere via the Internet and don’t take up space on your hard drive.
So why should cloud computing matter to music lovers? Because, whether you realize it or not, you’ll probably be using it soon through Apple’s upcoming iCloud service.
Like it or not, Apple is a trendsetter when it comes to digital music. With more than 15 billion (with a B) songs downloaded via iTunes in eight years, the company has about a two-thirds majority share of the online music market. Before the iTunes store launched in 2003, that market didn’t exist in any meaningful form, except questionably legal file-sharing services like Napster or Kazaa.
As with removing digital rights management from mp3s, Apple is more of a follower in cloud computing than a leader (Amazon and Google already offer cloud services). But as such a culturally significant company, anything Apple does is pretty much guaranteed to become a social norm.
This is why the June 6 iCloud announcement left my head spinning, as a digital music consumer.
When it’s released at an unspecified date later this fall, iCloud will offer online music customers (remember those billions, with a B?) to carry an essentially limitless music library with them anywhere.
It works as follows: Buy a song on iTunes, the song is stored in the iCloud server and is then accessible on all applicable devices (iPods, iPhone, iPad or home computer). Don’t like what’s on your iPod? Delete them and download the songs you want, all on the go.
The iCloud will be free and retroactive, so files you’ve purchased on iTunes can be re-downloaded, gratis.
I’ve clogged gigabytes of music on my hard drives because, before the iCloud announcement, all digital music files were one-time purchases. If you lost a song by, say, accidentally deleting it without backing it up, you had to buy it again.
Apple is also offering iTunes Match to newcomers to online music.
For $25 a year, Match compares the music on your hard drive – including those that weren’t purchased from Apple – against an 18 million song library. Any matches it finds, up to 25,000 songs, are automatically added to your cloud. Unlike iCloud, it’s not free, but it’s better than starting from scratch.
I held off buying digital music for a long time, in large part because of the impermanence of online purchases. With songs permanently stored off-site via clouds, that’s a nonissue.
Google and Amazon may have led the charge on cloud computing, but I fully expect them to match their services to Apple’s to stay competitive.
I know it sounds like I’m inviting you to drink the company Kool-Aid, but when it tastes this good, why wouldn’t you?