Apple iCloud ( ICLOUD| iCloud.com ) review

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Steve Jobs Apple has acquired the iCloud.com domain and on the upcoming international fair Apple will introduce their new music streaming service. While Apple iTunes is still a place to pay for music song tracks and download them, Apple iCloud will be more like Thumbplay Music or Simfy -- a streaming music service (with subscription) mainly for mobile devices. Similar to Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music (Music Beta) users can upload their own music files on large servers ("the cloud") from which they can stream the songs to their mobile devices in online (and semi-offline) mode. In principle there is no huge difference between GOOM (Google Music), AMAZON CLOUD PLAYER, APPLE ICLOUD, RAPIDSHARE or MEGAUPLOAD: what you do is, you login to your online account (login/pass) and upload your music files. Then you can clear the hdd space (or space on your memory card) and use it for something else (games, torrents, kelby videos). Finally, when you're on the road and want to listen to your music, you connect to the inet with your mobile device (blackberry, android, iphone), start the little application and it will stream your songs from the online location ("the cloud") where they are physically stored.

So why pay for it?

Good question. Well the point is, both GOOM and ICLOUD aim at offering, eventually, audio contents directly delivered by the content publishers (labels, record companies). Their service will be in the end something like a mixture between AMAZON CLOUD PLAYER (which is just a storage space like RAPIDSHARE) and RHAPSODY (which is a pure music streaming subscription service (with download purchase option); you cannot upload songs!). Then again i am asking, why pay for it? I guess if you are stupid enough, you will pay. Because you want to support Steve Job's new venture and you buy whatever he releases on the market: iphone, iphone 2, iphone 3G, iPhone 4, iphone 5. You will pay for it simply because it is branded with "Apple" logo and it says "Made by Steve Jobs". Okay so, question answered.

Is ICLOUD or GOOM exciting or interesting?

Well not really. So what about out-of-print music albums (OOP's). It is clear that neither ITUNES nor ICLOUD nor RHAPSODY nor EMUSIC nor AMAZON MP3 sell OOP's. So what's the process? You use GOOGLE to find the rare TORRENT. Then it takes 2-3 days to download the torrent (few seeders, few leechers), it is a lossless album (FLAC/APE), or even better: you download the CD image from RAPIDSHARE. Then you try to upload the FLAC to GOOM and/or ICLOUD. If you're lucky, your material is recognized in the music database prior to the upload: someone else had already uploaded the same OOP. But if you're not so lucky, you would have to upload the FLAC (or convert them to MP3 and then upload) to ICLOUD. Finally.. when you're on the road, say on the public bus riding from A to B, you would stream your OOP. And you know what streaming means? It's a type of downloading.. because data packages (packets) are transferred from the internet to your handheld device.

Download, then upload, then again download? Wow, that sounds like much much fun!!



In any case, this SRF thread will be used to investigate the essential streaming features (properties) of the new Apple service, on PC's, Windows machines, from a stream recorder's point of view (That's why you are reading my crap, arent you?). If ICLOUD allows for streaming music (e.g. new Michael Jackson albums published by UMG Universal Music Group) similar to Spotify, Rhapsody or Deezer, this thread will show how their streams can be recorded/captured/pirated and if it's worth the efforts. Although SRF is not interested in reviewing (and showing how to..) each and every existing music service out there --we do respect some quality music services unmentioned on SRF-- we do show how to.. for such stupid services such as ICLOUD and GOOM. Easy targets.

FREE THE MUSICS!